Guarayo

The Guarayo are a Guaraní-speaking people of the eastern Bolivian lowlands. Their ancestors came from the Itatín region near the confluence of the Apa and Paraguay rivers, moving westward into a country of forests and savannas. Franciscan missions later sought to gather Guarayo communities into settlements; in the nineteenth century these included Ascensión, Urubichá, Yaguarú and Yotaú. Their language preserves a connection with other peoples of the Tupí-Guaraní family.