The guaraní language in Paraguay: an analysis from the perspectives of coloniality and decoloniality

Abstract

This study analyzes the historical discrimination of the Guaraní language in Paraguay from the theoretical perspectives of coloniality and decoloniality. Using a qualitative documentary-historical approach based on content analysis of primary and secondary sources on language policies, legal frameworks, and official statistical data, it examines the evolution of the institutional and social treatment of Guaraní from the first Hispanic-Guaraní contacts in 1524 to 2025. The results show that linguistic discrimination against Guaraní has not been uniform, but has taken different forms across four historical periods: the colonial period, the republican period, the contemporary period of officialization and revitalization (1992–2019), and a recent period of sociolinguistic reconfiguration (2019–2025). The analysis shows that, despite the historical persecution suffered by its speakers, Guaraní has maintained remarkable resilience and continues to occupy a central place in Paraguayan social life; however, between 2019 and 2025 significant transformations can be observed in language-use patterns, including a decline in Guaraní monolingualism, an increase in bilingualism, and growth in Spanish monolingualism. It is concluded that the Paraguayan case constitutes a unique example of linguistic resistance and cultural revitalization in Latin America, although the normative advances achieved since 1992 have not eliminated the functional and symbolic inequalities that still condition the consolidation of full linguistic decoloniality.