Filadelfia () is the capital of

Boquerón Department Boquerón may refer to: * Boquerón, Cuba * Boquerón, Las Piedras, Puerto Rico *Boquerón, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico * Boquerón Bay, Puerto Rico * Boquerón, Chiriquí, Panama * Boquerón Department, Paraguay * Boquerón (island), an island in the Ar ...

in the

Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gro ...

of western

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

. It is the centre of the

Fernheim Colony The Fernheim Colony is a Plautdietsch-speaking settlement of Russian Mennonite, Mennonites originally from Russia of about 5000 in the Gran Chaco, Chaco of Paraguay. Mennonites from the Soviet Union founded it between 1930 and 1932. Filadelfia i ...

. It is about a 5-hour drive from the capital of

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of ...

. With a population of about 20,000, it is the largest town for .Pearce 2012, p. 133.

History

Filadelfia was founded in 1930 by

Russian Mennonite The Russian Mennonites (german: Russlandmennoniten it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire occasionally Ukrainian Mennonites) are a group of Mennonites who are descendants of Dutch Anabaptists who settled for abo ...

s who fled from the Soviet Union. Filadelfia lay near the front of the

Chaco War The Chaco War ( es, link=no, Guerra del Chaco, gn, Cháko ÑorairõGermany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and later being expelled. Filadelfia has developed into an important cattle herding settlement.

Infrastructure

Today the town is home to a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

and a hospital. The museum displays objects from the town's Mennonite past, such as Russian overcoats, as well as the local wildlife, such as stuffed armadillos, anteaters, and toads. The colony's villages lie around Filadelfia, as do several native reserves, home to much of the area's native population, from the Chulupí, Lengua, Toba-Pilaga,

Sanapaná The Sanapana are one of many nomadic tribes inhabiting the lower Gran Chaco of western Paraguay. With the introduction of Mennonite settlements in the central Chaco in the 1930s, many nomadic tribes semi-settled near the Mennonites. The Mennonite ...

and

Ayoreo The Ayoreo (Ayoreode, Ayoréo, Ayoréode) are an indigenous people of the Gran Chaco. They live in an area surrounded by the Paraguay, Pilcomayo, Parapetí, and Grande Rivers, spanning both Bolivia and Paraguay. There are approximately 5,600 ...

groups. A modern supermarket is located in the centre of the town, which is the last place to get groceries before heading farther out into the Chaco. Most of the town's potable water supply is drawn from underground cisterns, being replenished by intermittent rainfall; the underground water is too salty to drink. A small commemorative park known as Parque Trebol lies about to the east of town. It now serves as a place for visitors to camp for the night.

Transportation

The newly asphalted highway, PY09, from Asunción continues past Filadelfia for another and runs out at the military checkpoint

Mariscal Estigarribia Mariscal Estigarribia () is a town in the Boquerón Department, Paraguay. Strategic importance Mariscal Estigarribia is home to Dr. Luis Maria Argaña International Airport (IATA code: ESG), which some media reports claim is a US military ba ...

. From this point onwards, the road to the border town fort

General Eugenio A. Garay General Eugenio Alejandrino Garay, colloquially known as Garay, is a district in the Guairá Department of Paraguay. It is located approximately from Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. It originally belonged to the Caazapá Department but was t ...

with

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

is almost impassable.

Notable residents

*A distinguished

writer and historian living in Filadelfia was

Peter P. Klassen Peter P. Klassen (1926 – 29 July 2018) was a Russian Mennonite author who wrote in the German language. He fled with his parents from Soviet Russia to Paraguay, arriving there in 1931. He has had a distinguished career as the premier historian of ...

. *Former Canadian Minister of Public Safety

Vic Toews Victor Toews (; born September 10, 1952) is a Paraguayan-Canadian politician and jurist. Toews is a judge of the Court of King's Bench of Manitoba. He represented Provencher in the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 until his resignation on Ju ...

was born in Filadelfia in 1952.

Notes

References

World Gazeteer: Paraguay

External links

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to Mennonites and Anabaptism. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on Anabaptist-related top ...

The 'Green Hell' Becomes Home: Mennonites in Paraguay as Described in the Writings of Peter P. Klassen
A review essay by Gerhard Reimer, Mennonite Quarterly Review 76, no. 4 (October 2002): 460–480. Populated places in the Boquerón Department Populated places established in 1930 Mennonitism in Paraguay Russian Mennonite diaspora in South America {{Paraguay-geo-stub