Abstract:
Throughout Paraguay, indigenous communities are facing increased and unnecessary
hardship as their lands are sold to private agriculture business. They are often subject to
arrest, intimidation and torture. As a result of losing their lands, they no longer have
access to food security, potable water or shelter. Accordingly, they are increasingly
organizing resistance to neoliberal policies, specifically land privatization. The stunning
fall of Gen. Stroessner opened unprecedented social and political space for such
mobilization. The new sociopolitical space enabled indigenous leaders to form critical (if
complex) partnerships with NGOs, accessing social and financial resources. Movements
nearly always coalesce around an organizing frame. The prominence of dignity in the
framing of this movement is clear. This dissertation will support my claim that once
Stroessner’s regime had collapsed, previous narratives around dignity could crystallize
into active social mobilization around the Dignity Frame.
