I grew up under a military dictatorship.
I didn’t realize that coming of age under one of thelongest dictatorships in Latin America was a strange way to grow up because I’d never experienced anything else. Training to march in parades in honor of state officials was a routine class requirement, like reading or math.
During my childhood, it was also commonplace to hear about uniformed officials using violence to quiet anyone who spoke out against the regime. My uncle, Chester Swann, was one such dissenter: a folk singer who used his art as a form of peaceful protest. He was picked up by the ubiquitous “patrol van” many times, and on one occasion, he barely survived a severe beating with an industrial water hose. My aunt, Sharon Kaye Weaver, told of another close call he had, when his music may have saved his life. After he was arrested, she says, a policeman who had “previously hired him to serenade a girlfriend” secured his release. “He could have died in jail. Others did die.”
The only Paraguayan author to win the Cervantes Prize, Augusto Roa Bastos (a friend of Uncle Chester’s), was eventually exiled from the country. I remember him referring to Paraguay as “an island surrounded by land.” News from the outside world was heavily censored by the government, and what was considered news within Paraguay was tightly controlled.
This being considered normal, I didn’t know to question it until one pivotal day. I remember exactly that day when my worldview changed. A U.S. Peace Corps volunteer was a guest in my family’s home, and he happened to hand me a few copies of a magazine called National Geographic.
Frank Weaver revisits the story about Paraguay in the August 1982 issue of National Geographic that opened his eyes to the reality of life in his home country.
Joe Weaver
I leafed through the pages, and my mind was blown. There were beautiful photos of strange and faraway places, places that I hadn’t known existed—such as the continent of Africa. I was a young boy who spoke very little English and had never left my homeland, but now I could travel to places of great wonder and mystery within the pages of those magazines.
One day, to my surprise, as I read, I stumbled upon an article about Paraguay. Paraguay! And it was being referred to as…a dictatorship.
“Paraguay, Paradox of South America,” by Gordon Young, with photographs by O. Louis Mazzatenta, was the story in the August 1982 issue that reported on “Latin America’s longest lived dictatorship.” Reading this, I suddenly understood how my home place was viewed by people on the outside. I also realized, as I turned the pages, my excitement tinged with fear, the incredible power of storytelling.
Storytelling of all kinds—words and photographs—changes our perspectives about the world, but even more importantly, it can change how we see ourselves and the place we call home. Reading the article, I realized how then President Alfredo Stroessner used images and information to manipulate the population.
I was inspired by the flip side of the coin—the power of photo and video stories to further a worthy cause—and I decided to make a film about the indigenous people of Paraguay and their culture, which is in development today. After taking that first leap, I found other opportunities to use storytelling to effect positive change, one of which was the "Planet Inspired Film Contest," held by National Geographic and the North Face, Inc., in 2010, for which my short film about water won first prize.
In 2014 I joined the Out of Eden Walk team as a volunteer. Since then I’ve guided the nonprofit through four successful crowdfunding campaigns, produced storytelling content such as the first Out of Eden Walk Instagram stories, and helped the team in other ways as needed.
From working with the Out of Eden Walk, and with Paul, I’ve learned the importance of slowing down and paying attention to the world around me.
The dictatorship in Paraguay fell in 1989. Today in Paraguay, the press is uncensored, and as in other free societies, there are multiple channels of access to information about the world outside: There’s good news, bad news, even fake news—depending on whom you’re talking to.
And then there’s slow journalism.
Today when I hear echoes of the political rhetoric of my childhood in Paraguay, I take comfort in knowing I’m working with a project that, in Paul’s words, “is a storytelling walk across the planet to bridge continents, languages, nationalities, and creeds.”
I think too of the words in the pages of the magazine with the golden border that I read years ago. They changed my life by inspiring me to seek endeavors like the Out of Eden Walk, in the hope that I might be able to help the world in the small way one person can—and witness the ripple effects. To me, Paul’s walk perfectly embodies this ripple-effect philosophy.
Frank Weaver is a documentary filmmaker and storyteller whose work has been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine. He is the founder of Solar Map Project, an initiative to preserve and share the history of native Paraguayans. The Solar Map Project’s feature-length documentary is forthcoming. Frank has been the Out of Eden Walk nonprofit’s crowdfunding strategist since 2014. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @solarmapproject.
Frank Weaver revisits the story about Paraguay in the August 1982 issue of National Geographic that opened his eyes to the reality of life in his home country.
Joe Weaver
I leafed through the pages, and my mind was blown. There were beautiful photos of strange and faraway places, places that I hadn’t known existed—such as the continent of Africa. I was a young boy who spoke very little English and had never left my homeland, but now I could travel to places of great wonder and mystery within the pages of those magazines.
One day, to my surprise, as I read, I stumbled upon an article about Paraguay. Paraguay! And it was being referred to as…a dictatorship.
“Paraguay, Paradox of South America,” by Gordon Young, with photographs by O. Louis Mazzatenta, was the story in the August 1982 issue that reported on “Latin America’s longest lived dictatorship.” Reading this, I suddenly understood how my home place was viewed by people on the outside. I also realized, as I turned the pages, my excitement tinged with fear, the incredible power of storytelling.
Storytelling of all kinds—words and photographs—changes our perspectives about the world, but even more importantly, it can change how we see ourselves and the place we call home. Reading the article, I realized how then President Alfredo Stroessner used images and information to manipulate the population.
I was inspired by the flip side of the coin—the power of photo and video stories to further a worthy cause—and I decided to make a film about the indigenous people of Paraguay and their culture, which is in development today. After taking that first leap, I found other opportunities to use storytelling to effect positive change, one of which was the "Planet Inspired Film Contest," held by National Geographic and the North Face, Inc., in 2010, for which my short film about water won first prize.
In 2014 I joined the Out of Eden Walk team as a volunteer. Since then I’ve guided the nonprofit through four successful crowdfunding campaigns, produced storytelling content such as the first Out of Eden Walk Instagram stories, and helped the team in other ways as needed.
From working with the Out of Eden Walk, and with Paul, I’ve learned the importance of slowing down and paying attention to the world around me.
The dictatorship in Paraguay fell in 1989. Today in Paraguay, the press is uncensored, and as in other free societies, there are multiple channels of access to information about the world outside: There’s good news, bad news, even fake news—depending on whom you’re talking to.
And then there’s slow journalism.
Today when I hear echoes of the political rhetoric of my childhood in Paraguay, I take comfort in knowing I’m working with a project that, in Paul’s words, “is a storytelling walk across the planet to bridge continents, languages, nationalities, and creeds.”
I think too of the words in the pages of the magazine with the golden border that I read years ago. They changed my life by inspiring me to seek endeavors like the Out of Eden Walk, in the hope that I might be able to help the world in the small way one person can—and witness the ripple effects. To me, Paul’s walk perfectly embodies this ripple-effect philosophy.
Frank Weaver is a documentary filmmaker and storyteller whose work has been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine. He is the founder of Solar Map Project, an initiative to preserve and share the history of native Paraguayans. The Solar Map Project’s feature-length documentary is forthcoming. Frank has been the Out of Eden Walk nonprofit’s crowdfunding strategist since 2014. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram @solarmapproject.
