© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

A journey that the German author has made in the wake of his family roots. His grandmother was born here in this Germanic outpost.
We are in Paraguay, where there is still a community born from German immigrants' stubbornness who initially came from the former German East Africa. Their destination, hope, lay at the foot of the Ybytyruzú mountains, and for it, they were ready to challenge fate. Several million Europeans between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries fled hunger, misery, doom with the promise of a piece of land in their pockets, of an opportunity to grow. It's was a widespread phenomenon that has affected several countries in South America. From Chile to Argentina, from Brazil to Venezuela to the town of Independencia in Paraguay.

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

Here the gaze of Max Arens stopped. The photographs are meaningful and of gentle beauty. The well-posed, calibrated portraits show a curiosity but also empathy towards the people and the place. What is the sense of place in this type of community that arose from the firm will of migrants? What remains of the original dream? A dream of emancipation, of redemption, of determination, of courage, of recklessness. Ships that sailed from ports towards the unknown, towards unknown languages ​​and landscapes. Villages built where there was no one, or perhaps they were lands sometimes stolen from the natives, from others invisible. But with them, memories, traditions, songs, feasts, poems, cooking reached these places. The natural home was still somewhere else, in the "old" continent. Especially for the first settlers, there will be no room for compromise. Perhaps for the new generations who slowly see their memory diluted? Or the new recent immigrants from Germany bringing other ideologies, concerns, conspiracies stuffed with an already more globalized vision.

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

Max Arens writes about the intragenerational contrast he feels in the place. The settlers of 1919 retain a robust and cohesive community spirit, tempered in difficulties. The new arrivals, albeit Germans, come from another radically different era. Will a dialogue ever be possible? And how the identity of the place will change.

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

These are intriguing questions that do not necessarily find an answer in photographs. There are many of these European islands that are self-preserved in South America. On the one hand, I feel with tenderness the desire of the elderly not to give up their memories, their past. I try to put myself in their shoes and understand what it means to feel adrift, to let go of all certainty. Now, in a time of instant communication and liquid geography, it's hard even to imagine what those people might have experienced. And this is why it is interesting to read the migrants' diaries. They are extraordinary testimonies. And then there are the children of the settlers. And their grandchildren. More and more distant also from colonial memories. What is their sense of belonging?

© Max Arens from the series 'Independencia'

Max Arens, with his project, tries to create a dialogue, a perspective between different generations. After all, everyone has always tried to feel good. We face again our history, which has long been nomadic rather than permanent—a perennial conquest of places suitable for planting roots for survival. And we know history often repeats itself.

LINK
Max Arens (website)