Mateo the memory keeper
Mateo Sobode Chiqueno is from Paraguay's indigenous Ayoreo people. For decades, as their way of life has come under increasing threat, he's been recording them on a tape recorder.
Mateo Sobode Chiqueno is from Paraguay's indigenous Ayoreo people. Hunter-gatherers who have roamed the forests of Paraguay for many centuries, the Ayoreo were first targeted by Catholic, and then Evangelical missionaries who forced them to move into settlements. Mateo himself was orphaned at just 13, shortly after his family were taken out of the forest. Life in the missionary settlements was hard, but Mateo never gave up on his Ayoreo connections, for which he was eventually cast out by the priests. But he'd already seen how the missionaries used tape recorders to document their work, and realised he could do the same: for 40 years he's been recording Ayoreo songs, language, stories and rituals on cassettes. βIn the forest there was everything,β he remembers sadly: the Ayoreo now face an onslaught of deforestation, but Mateo's cassettes are seen as a vital link to a threatened culture.
Presenter: Laurence Blair
Producer: Santi Carneri, Laura Thomas & Gaia Caramazza
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com
(Photo: Mateo Sobode Chiqueno. Credit: Santi Carneri)
Last on
More episodes
Broadcasts
- Sat 4 Jun 2022 08:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sat 4 Jun 2022 23:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Sun 5 Jun 2022 08:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Sun 5 Jun 2022 22:32GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
Contact Outlook
Info on how we might use your contribution on air
Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary
Step into someone elseβs life and expect the unexpected