What if the child Jesus chose to be born again among us, to feel in his own skin the effects of his sacred teachings? If he chose to be born to a humble family, as that of Nazareth, that today was traveling, together with their people, on a long journey? In this case, these days He would choose to be born Guarani-Kaiowá!

 

He would be born as part of a people on a path, a people in search of justice and peace. He would be part of a collectivity that struggles to live, not in a “promised land”, and yes, in a traditional territory, a place where the ancestral spirits live, where the bodies of unending generations are buried; A collectivity that, in its way of thinking, ironically maintains the living belief in the Land Without Evil.

 

He would be, then, part of a people who understands their territory as an ample space of social relations and of coexistence with different cultures, but that see, today, expulsion from this same territory by intolerance of those who believe they can decree any space as private property, by means of violence, by brute force and by cowardice.

 

If the child Jesus were to be seen, on this Christmas, embraced in the affectionate arms of a Guarani mother, he would be sheltered as someone deeply desired. Even before his body would be formed in the maternal womb, He would be announced as good news, in the dreams of his parents, as occurs when a new life is generated among the Guarani. And he would be born surrounded by persons who, in daily life, established the family ties and kinship with this new being, this word made flesh, with this word-soul!

 

His name might possibly be announced by a Shaman, an elder who, among the Guarani, know the secrets of life and of death and known to pronounce the “beautiful words”, those that  we would call the “language of the angels” in Judeo-Christian culture. His name would be a sign that, in this world, he would be able to realize, by the virtues and gifts that he brings with him and that, in living, would need to be fed and nurtured, as with the exuberant rows of corn.

 

If the child Jesus decided to remain among us to see if his story would be different in the 21^st century, perhaps he would encounter challenges quite similar to those confronted for seeding their word of love, more than two thousand years ago. He would live in an encampment at the side of the road, like hundreds of Guarani-Kaiowá who still await the regularization of their lands. They would be increasingly fed by traditions that prepare the person to live in collectivity and not in individuality. He would be a child among the many who grow encircled by cares and by attention, as when food is scarce. But with two years of life, perhaps He would die prematurely, a victim of lack of assistance and of negligence by the public powers, as did the tiny Tatirrara, in Kurusu Ambá, who died on December 18 from lack of assistance. In spite of continuous appeals from the community to obtain medications, the National Foundation for Indigenous Health denied provision of assistance because the land was “in litigation”.

 

If Jesus were to survive, at 15years of age perhaps he would decide to participate, together with his community, in a retaking of the traditional land – the tekohá, the “promised land” to fully live Nandê Recó, “the Guarani way of being”. In this case, perhaps He would be one more youth brutally assassinated, as was Osmair Fernandes, found dead in a school, with signs of beating and torture.

 

We imagine that, with luck, the young Jesus escapes these forms of violence and has the chance to study. After all, He was born to be a Master! Who knows, today he could choose to be a teacher! Knowing a little about the history of Jesus, living more than two thousand years ago, we can imagine that he would also not be silenced before the injustices and, in this way, would utilize the “gift of the word” to teach, to open eyes, to counsel, to demand that justice be the measure of all of our life. In this case, perhaps his destiny would be the same as that of Genivaldo and Rolindo Verá, the two Guarani Kaiowá teachers abducted by hooded men and dragged by the hair from within their community by hooded men.

 

And if this were not to be, still, at the hour of delivering the body for sacrifice, the Son of God would remain a little while longer, with his people, cultivating hope, in daily life, weaving life like those who weave taquara bamboo fibers, that become baskets to transport the fruits of life and work. He would live transiting from one place to another, in provisional encampments and, together with them, suffering the precarious conditions for survival, such as any people that live in exile, prevented from definitively occupying their proper place.

 

He would be, as two thousand years ago, a man of peace, of those who seek to build harmony, who seek to speak their truth calmly, manifesting, through argumentation, the reasons for his hope, for his struggles, for his concerns. He would learn this way of being from the Guarani themselves, as going, for example, for revindications at a public agency or when going to converse with any visitor, in their village.

 

For the Guarani, this form of struggle is only ruptured when hope is extended in excess, and they can no longer survive if not retaking a portion of land. On these occasions they go in a group, with their families, their valued animals, and the few objects they possess. They set up their encampments and there they remain, peacefully, to hope for legal provisions. Nearly all are received with violence, are threatened with a hail of bullets, attacked, beaten, and impeded from getting water, food and medicines. So, being born again today, I think that Jesus would be among them and, possibly, would become a Shaman, a religious leader dedicated to curing diseases, to speak “the beautiful words”, to counsel those who live around them.

 

Growing old among the Guarani-Kaiowá, He would be respected for acquiring the wisdom of the years – age is, for these people “time that acts on the person” and that brings the soul nearer to the divinity. As Shaman, perhaps he would lead a retaking when life in an encampment is shown to be impossible. He then would conduct a group of families to a traditional land, where he could better hear the counsels of the ancestral spirits. And, in this place, perhaps his group would fall victim to criminal action of some ruffians of landowners, armed and hooded. In the sudden onset, perhaps he would be murdered by gunfire, as was the elder and holy woman Xuretê Lopes, in an expulsion commanded by hired gunmen in 2007.

 

If Jesus Christ decided to be born again among us, and if this were among the Guarani-Kaiowá, He would run the risk of being, again, humiliated, tortured, murdered, with the same cruelty of those times in which they crucified the men who defied the laws, and also those challenged the government and economic powers to comply with the laws.

 

So, this Christmas, it is best we pray to Jesus who remains right there on the right of His Father, at least for now, because the majority of men and women who live in contemporary Brazil still do not understand the significance of his lessons in love and in solidarity. But we believe that one day all of us will form a multitude that no longer cries “release Barrabas”, but who exclaim “Demarcation now”! Justice for the Indigenous Peoples!

 

Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 21 December of 2009.

 

Iara Tatiana Bonin

Doctor in Education at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Professor of PPG at the Lutheran University of Brazil