Yerba Mate and the Paraguayan-Argentine Historical Picture
Through its consumption as a leaf-based beverage, yerba mate has become an important commodity in several South American countries and gained various ethnic and national meanings throughout its history, especially in the postcolonial era. In Paraguay and Argentina, specifically, yerba mate became a cultural symbol for both nations through the end of the 19th and into the first half of the 20th century. This commodity, which has historically linked and continues to link these nations, is important and useful for understanding the history of Paraguayan and Argentine ethnic nation-building. The history of yerba mate is intimately linked to and illustrative of Paraguayan-Argentine relations, which have often been quite strained and ripe with conflict
The documented history of yerba mate in the region began in the 16th century when Spaniards and criollos encountered the drink through conflict with the Guaraní people (Folch, 7). Soon after their first encounters with yerba mate, Spaniards that had settled in the region began drinking yerba mate regularly, rapidly increasing its popularity in Spanish colonies across South America (Folch 7-8).
According to scholar of Paraguayan history Richard White, the consistently growing demand for yerba mate increased the importance of yerba mate as a commodity, especially in Paraguay where yerba mate was the foundation of the colonial province’s economy, being “by far the most important and profitable cash crop” by the 18th century (White 1975, 417). Even during this colonial period, Argentina emerged as a large importer of Paraguayan yerba mate, with the product being “first sent to Santa Fe and then reshipped to Buenos Aires, which served as the distribution center for Tucumán, Potosí, Chile, Lima, and Quito” in the 1770s (White 1975, 419). Yet, White contends that many Paraguayans did not truly benefit from the commerce, with Argentine taxes cutting into potential Paraguayan profits (White 1975, 418).
Yerba maintained its economic importance into the 19th century, following the independence of Paraguay in 1811 and then that of Argentina in 1816. Yerba mate remained Paraguay’s most important and widely cultivated cash crop, while much Paraguayan yerba continued to flow across the border into Argentina (White 1979, 16). The economic inequality between the two persisted past Paraguay’s independence as illustrated by the government of Buenos Aires blockading the “Río de la Plata, Paraguay’s only commercial water route” in 1817 (White 1979, 6). The divide between the two nations would become even more apparent through their divergent postcolonial economic and social structures.
In Paraguay, the economic disaster caused by the 1817 blockade ultimately resulted in the 1820 Great Conspiracy and the ousting of “Paraguayan elites, whose privileged position had rested upon the traditional monocrop export economy,” according to Richard White (1979, 6). With this accomplished, the “creole oligarchy” was stripped completely of its power, with power instead being distributed among the masses (White 1979, 6-7). Through what White describes as “denying the entire upper class – both Spanish and creole -- their social, political, and economic positions of dominance,” Paraguay established itself with a unique social structure and “a strong central government that represented the interests of the vast majority of its citizens” (White 1979, 7).
Included within the majority of Paraguayan citizens were the Guaraní, the indigenous people of Paraguay and the first people to cultivate and consume yerba mate. For much of the 19th century, the Guaraní people and language were tolerated and even promoted at times, especially as a way to distinguish the Paraguayan nation from Argentina and its other neighbors. For example, as Latin American development expert Robert Andrew Nickson stated, “during the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-1870), fought against the combined forces of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, the state published Cacique Lambaré, a broadsheet entirely in Guaraní” (Nickson, 4). In this instance, the Guaraní language was a national unifier contrasted against Paraguay’s Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking enemies (Nickson, 5). Though anti-Guaraní racism would grow more prevalent at the end of the 19th century, a push for the Guaraní language to return as a prideful national symbol and identifier gained significant traction in the first half of the 20th century (Nickson, 7).
In contrast to postcolonial Paraguay, Argentina retained much of its colonial social and economic hierarchy following its own independence. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Argentine leaders like Domingo Sarmiento sought to define the Argentine nation as civilized and separate from indigenous and backwards cultures (Nickson, 5). This resulted in policies that caused the deaths of many Afro-Argentines and in wars specifically aimed at the eradication of indigenous populations (Kaminsky, 107-108). Ultimately, the people of Argentina began to view itself as a “nation of immigrants,” whitening its people, culture, and history, effectively erasing indigenous people from Argentine national identity and self-image (Kaminsky, 104).
By the 1930s, Argentine elites thought of their nation as independent of indigenous cultures, in direct contrast to its neighbor Paraguay that continued to be tainted by its indigenous Guaraní culture. Yet, a common theme between them was yerba mate, grown in both Paraguay and Argentina, though Paraguayan yerba was generally regarded as being of higher quality. During this period, Paraguayan and Argentine yerba mate brands and companies marketed themselves differently to Argentine consumers. Paraguayan brands marketed their mate as Paraguayan as a means of quality assurance while Argentine yerba was marketed as being both of the upper class as well as “criollo” or local to Argentina.