Bilingual Folk Festival Brings Guaraní Songs to the Riverbanks

At dawn, the banks of the Río Esperanto filled with the scent of freshly roasted yerba mate and the soft echo of drums, as families from the valley converged for the Festival of Two Tongues.

Bilingual banners fluttered above the makeshift stage, displaying the day's program in both Spanish and Guaraní, while a choir of students from the Escuela Bilingüe Río Verde rehearsed a centuries‑old ballad about the river's gifts.

The festival, organized by the Cooperative Council and the regional Assembly's culture committee, also featured a market where organic coffee growers displayed their beans beside artisans selling woven Guaraní textiles, illustrating the region's intertwined heritage of agriculture and language.

Later in the afternoon, the mayor of a nearby town, Jorge Salazar, took the podium to thank the cooperative for funding the sound system, and to announce a new scholarship for Guaraní‑language teachers, a promise that will be explored further in the article.