The Ava Guaranì live in Paraguay, northern Argentina, the south-west of Brazil (in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul) and south-eastern Bolivia (in the departments of Tarija, Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca).

The Ava Guaraní belong to the great Tupi Guaraní people who, in the 13th century, began a migration from the Amazon region towards the south-east, in search of the mythical Land without Evil "Iivy Imaraa". When the Europeans arrived, they were the largest indigenous population on the continent.

The 2004-2005 Indigenous Peoples Survey of Argentina (ECPI) found 22,000 people belonging to the Ava Guaranì group. In Bolivia, the population was 60,000 in the 2012 census.

Paraguayan Guaraní is, together with Spanish, the official language of the Republic of Paraguay and Corrientes Guaraní is co-official with Spanish in the province of Corrientes, Argentina.
A peculiarity of this language is that, after Latin, it is the one most widely used in the cataloguing of flora and fauna. In fact, the number of ‘guaranisms’ is such that the writer Benjamín Solari said that we also speak Guaraní without knowing it. Another noteworthy feature is that it has 6 oral vowels: a, e, i, o, u plus a sixth guttural vowel, which is represented in the official grammar of Paraguay by the letter Y.

Before the arrival of the conquistadores, three to ten Ava Guaraní families lived in the tevy (small settlements,) where society was matriarchal. The grouping of several tevys was the village, or tekoa. The one who commanded the whole village was the tuvichá. In many places the tuvichá was also a payé, a shaman who possessed great knowledge and mastery of natural medicine. The Guaraní were true healing masters, using plants and herbs to increase fertility.

Another important activity of the payé was related to warfare and communicating with the spirits of the ancestors for guidance. The centre of strength for preserving and transmitting the memory of the past is the jeroky ñembo'e (sacred dance), which is used by the shaman to transmit cultural values through mythical stories. The whole community participates, with a chorus of women setting the rhythm while everyone dances and shares the chicha, a drink made from fermented maize. The jeroky ñembo'e strengthens bonds with divine beings but also between community members. Among the most important rituals are agrarian rites, the avatikyry (blessing of maize), ñemongarai (new plants) and others like jeroky, intended to maintain the balance between the different elements of the cosmos.

The Earth, or Yvy, needs to be continually cared for by keeping one’s behaviour in line with the Teko Porã, which translates as “the right way of being”. The care of the earth was entrusted to the Ava Guaraní by their creator Ñande Ru Guasú (Our Great Father), a superior entity who withdrew to humanly inaccessible places after creation.

When a Guaraní couple wants to marry, they use the language of flowers, placing them on their hair and behind their ears. They do not have an indissoluble conjugal union, as both women and men can leave their partners. However, a man cannot take a new woman without the consent and approval of his first wife.

The Ava Guaraní subsist on hunting, gathering, farming and as labourers on neighbouring estates. They use traditional farming systems that produce sweet cassava, many varieties of maize, sweet potatoes, beans, peanuts, and they raise chickens, guinea pigs and pigs. Hunting, fishing and collecting honey are exclusively male tasks, while the collection of fruit and vegetables and the rearing of small animals is entrusted to women.

The Guaraní have a refined botanical taxonomy, which allows them to obtain excellent results in the agricultural field, both in soil management and in polycultures. They hunt with rifle, bow and sling over long distances or using traps, and fishing techniques include the use of a root, timbóu, which has the property of stunning fish.

Those left behind are the survivors of a decimated population. At the onset of the European invasion, estimates put the number of Ava Guaraní at 200,000. Some 60,000 men and women were kidnapped and reduced to servitude. From the beginning of the 17th century, for more than 150 years, Jesuit missionaries founded dozens of Reduciones where they employed them as labourers. From the end of the 18th century, the Ava Guaraní were then forced to work in the yerbatales, mate plantations, in conditions of slavery.

With the migration of settlers from the states of São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, the territories available to them were further reduced during the 20th century. The natural resources of the region have been devastated: deforestation and pesticide contamination have considerably reduced the resources of the communities and the possibilities of continuing to live in them, an ecocide that still continues today, with several communities forced to rent out their land.

Currently, Guaraní communities in the province of Misiones are experiencing serious problems that could lead to their disappearance. Along with forest exploitation, demographic pressure has caused communities to see their living space further reduced. On top of this, the Guarani people suffer from a food and health emergency, with malnutrition, associated diseases and epidemics such as tuberculosis affecting many communities.

In Brazil's Mato Grosso do Sul region, the Guaraní have suffered the usurpation of their ancestral territories for the production of soya and sugar cane monocultures. The Guaraní are huddled in small plots of land surrounded by huge plantations or cattle ranches, or camp on the sides of roads and paths. In 2003, the Guaraní leader Marcos Verón was assassinated, while the perpetrators remain unpunished to this very day. The climate of impunity and permanent siege, allegedly at the hands of 'gunmen' hired by landowners, exacerbates the current panorama of human rights violations.

Territorial disputes, in a context of violence exercised asymmetrically by landowners, disfigure their forms of organisation, production and cultural identity with devastating consequences on their physical integrity and mental health. According to a 2014 study, this tribe in Brazil has the highest suicide rate in the world, which has tripled in the last two decades, with the highest incidence age being between 15 and 30.

Across Paraguay, 900,000 people have been displaced by the advancing agricultural border. This recently happened to 100 Ava Guaraní families from the indigenous Y'apo community: 300 riot police invaded the community, destroying and burning their homes, their jerokyhá (temple), sacred objects, personal and community belongings. The damage is irreparable and the pain of the people in the community is profound. They were forced to take refuge in their forest.
"The intention is to drive the indigenous people out of their territory to make room for cattle breeding and soya, where in fact there is already room," denounces Raquel Peralta, of the National Coordination of Indigenous Pastoral Workers (Conapi).

In 1920, the Brazilian government created a federal body for the "protection" of the indigenous peoples, the Serviço de Proteção aos Índios (SPI). Not only this is organization fail to stop the expropriation process but facilitated it through forced displacements at the request of the colonists. The evicted indigenous people were confined to small reserve areas.

Starting in the 1980s onwards, the Ava Guaraní organised themselves to claim their territories in national political spaces, giving rise to territorial claim movements. In 2004, 38 of the existing villages in the province marched to the city of Posadas to make their voices heard.

Guaraní were the first producers of yerba mate (Ilex paraguariensis) and perfected their production processes as Barbacuá Mbyky and Barbacuá Yvaté.