Filadelfia

Filadelfia was founded by Mennonites fleeing the Soviet Union. Some were allowed to leave for Germany, where they were taken in because of their German descent, and most came on to Paraguay by way of that temporary stop. In 1930 about 1,572 people arrived and founded the Fernheim Colony, beside the Menno Colony settled by Mennonites from Canada a few years earlier. The journey was hard: from Puerto Casado on the Paraguay river by narrow-gauge railway west into the Chaco, and then by wagons pulled by donkeys and mules.

The settlers organised themselves into villages of 20 to 25 farms, founded the Fernheim Cooperative in May 1931 and, in August 1931, laid out an administrative centre at a spot with enough fresh groundwater, equally placed between the villages. Named Philadelphia, "brotherly love", it was renamed Filadelfia in 1955 so that Spanish speakers could pronounce it. The Chaco War was fought close by, but the town was little affected. The Second World War divided the colony, as some settlers supported Nazi Germany and dreamed of returning; some were later expelled.

Isolation ended slowly. The Transchaco highway reached Filadelfia in 1961 and was paved all the way to Asunción by 1989. Cattle, dairy and peanut processing made the colony prosperous, the town became the capital of Boquerón department, and in 2006 it became a district of its own.

Filadelfia is the most mixed town of the Chaco. Mennonites, about a third of the population, run most businesses and institutions; Indigenous peoples — among them the Nivaclé, Enxet, Ayoreo and Guaraní — make up around half or more; and the rest are Latin Paraguayans, Brazilians and others drawn by work. The communities live largely apart, in their own neighbourhoods, and their relationship is a long-running subject of debate.

Mennonite culture shapes the town's rhythm. Plautdietsch is spoken at home and Standard German in church and school, signs in German are common, and education is highly valued, with three private schools as well as state ones. Cultural life happens mainly through the schools, with concerts and plays. Church services, usually with unaccompanied congregational singing, are open to visitors, and the colony's history is kept in a cluster of small museums and monuments.

Other traditions run alongside. The Guaraní community celebrates Areté Guazú at carnival, with masks of jaguars, pigs and ancestors, flutes and drums, and chicha made from algarrobo fruit; Ayoreo women weave fibre bags in earthy reds and browns; and Paraguayan residents bring tereré and polca music. Each year the Transchaco Rally fills the town.

About 20,600 people lived in Filadelfia district at the 2022 census, making it the largest town in a radius of hundreds of kilometres. Around 3,500 are Mennonites; Indigenous residents number about half the urban population, and around 2,500 Paraguayans and German-Brazilians live mainly in Barrio Amistad.

The economy rests on cattle, beef processing and dairy, with peanuts, sesame, cotton and other crops, and it is organised through the Fernheim Cooperative, the first cooperative in Paraguay. Members pay it 10 per cent of their earnings, and the cooperative runs the main supermarket, the hospital, schools, a savings bank and old-age care, services the state does not provide here. The cost of living is high by Paraguayan standards, and the town has attracted workers from across the country and from Brazil.

The day starts early, shops close at midday, and the Mennonite streets are quiet after dark. Water is the constant concern: groundwater is too salty to drink, households collect and store rainwater in cisterns, and desalination has been tried. Deforestation in the surrounding Chaco, among the fastest anywhere, is the wider issue.

The colony eats a Russian-Mennonite and German kitchen. Vereniki are dumplings filled with cottage cheese; Rollkuchen, a sweet fried pastry, is eaten with watermelon; Zwieback are two-layered white buns, once the main food of Mennonite migrations; and Borscht is a cabbage soup. Faspa, a light late-afternoon meal of Zwieback, cold meats, pickles and cheese, is a Russian-Mennonite custom, and the Mennonite colonies contribute heavily to Paraguay's dairy output.

Beef dominates as everywhere in the Chaco. Asado is the social meal of the week, and the town's churrasquerías serve grilled meat and lunch buffets sold by weight. Paraguayan staples — sopa paraguaya, a cornbread with cheese and onion; chipa, cheese bread made with cassava starch; and mandioca, boiled cassava — are found everywhere, and tereré, cold yerba mate and the national drink of Paraguay, is drunk through the hot days.

Indigenous communities ferment the fruit of the algarrobo, a tree of the Chaco, into chicha for the carnival celebration, when visitors are invited to join them.