Disrupting the Patron: Indigenous Land Rights and the Fight for Environmental Justice in Paraguay's Chaco

In Paraguay's Chaco region, cattle ranching leads to deforestation and extreme inequality in land tenure, affecting Indigenous well-being. Disrupting the Patrón follows Enxet and Sanapaná communities' resistance to reclaim ancestral lands from cattle ranches, leading to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and ongoing struggles. By employing a dialectics of disruption, they seek environmental justice and rebuild territorial relations, challenging prevailing racial geographies and advocating for Indigenous resurgence on Latin America's settler frontiers.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 236 pages
Publication date: 12 May 2023
Publisher: University of California Press

In the Chaco region of Paraguay, cattle ranching has become a driving force behind rapid deforestation and extreme inequality in land tenure, resulting in significant harm to Indigenous well-being. The documentary film Disrupting the Patrón delves into the struggles of Enxet and Sanapaná communities to reclaim their ancestral lands from the cattle ranches where they were forced to work as peons. This decades-long resistance led to legal battles at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and back to the frontlines of Paraguay's ranching frontier.

The Indigenous communities at the center of this story employ a dialectics of disruption by working with and against the law to challenge enduring racial geographies and rebuild territorial relations. While the outcomes of their efforts are uncertain, they demonstrate a commitment to environmental justice by maintaining collective lifeways and resistance amidst radical social-ecological change.

Joel E. Correia's ethnography in Disrupting the Patrón offers valuable insights into the ways in which Enxet and Sanapaná peoples enact environmental justice. By moving beyond juridical solutions to harm, they prioritize the preservation of collective lifeways and resistance in the face of drastic social-ecological transformations. Correia's research contributes to ongoing debates about environmental racism, ethics of engaged research, and Indigenous resurgence on Latin America's settler frontiers.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 227 x 153 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520393103