Toba (tribe)

The Toba are an ethnic group in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. They are part of a larger group of indigenous inhabitants of the Gran Chaco region, called the Guaycurúes. As of 2005, there are 47,951 Toba in Argentina, living in the provinces of Chaco, Formosa and Santa Fe.

History

The Chaco region in the north of Argentina and part of Paraguay was formerly covered with forests. The Toba were originally nomadic hunter-gatherers who had adopted some technological advances (such as ceramics) from the Andean cultures.

Related Topics:
Hunter-gatherer - Andean

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In 1880 the Argentine government began a campaign to occupy new territories, pushing back and often killing the indigenous inhabitants. After 1919 the Argentine Chaco was divided up in large portions and exploited, especially for the valuable quebracho tree, used for its tannin and its extremely durable timber. This devastated the ecosystem in a relatively short time. The private owners of the Chaco then turned to cotton production, employing the Toba as a cheap seasonal workforce; the conditions did not change substantially for decades.

Related Topics:
1880 - 1919 - Quebracho - Tannin - Cotton

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Beginning in 1982, the region suffered unprecedented floods, which caused the crops to be ruined; and in the 1990s, mechanical harvesters imported from Brazil (at very low prices due to Argentina's low fixed exchange rate) left the Toba without jobs. The provincial government of Chaco resorted to pay a one-way ticket to the Toba willing to migrate south, into Santa Fe.

Related Topics:
1982 - 1990s - Brazil - Fixed exchange rate - Migrate

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The majority of the Toba migrants settled in Rosario, which is a large city in the south of Santa Fe and had seen a previous wave of Toba in the 1950s and 1960s. Communication and family ties were kept in time, so the newcomers found a place; job opportunities and government assistance, even if scarce and of poor quality, were considerably more available in an urban setting than in Chaco. An estimated 10,000 Toba came to Rosario in the 1990s, and settled mostly in slums (villas miseria).

Related Topics:
Rosario - 1950s - 1960s - Villas miseria

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