“I am looking for a stable technician. At the moment we have the basics for practice. The entire community contributes, as well as some businesses and the Municipality (town hall) of Roque AlonsoMontero specified.
The indigenous women’s team joined the Roquealonseña (regional) League, which is part of the country’s interior league and is affiliated with the Paraguayan Football Association (APF).
The Maká community, with more than 2,000 members, has been settled for 36 years on 14 hectares in the vicinity of the Paraguay River, 20 km from Asuncion.
Yellow and white
Montero explained that the players of Atletico Maká, who wear yellow and white outfits, with vertical stripes are already registered in the league after completing their documentation, 35 in total.
Andrés Chemei, the natural head of the community, died three years ago at the age of 81 and his wife, Tsiweyenki, succeeded him in leadership until Mateo Martínez, Andrés’s former secretary, took over.
From then on, women were allowed to practice sports. Until then they were dedicated exclusively to the craft factory, the modus vivendi of the natives.
The men, who have already participated in the league for several years, encouraged the formation of the women’s team after their success in winning the II Traditional Indigenous Games of Paraguay in 2017.
Several of its players were part of the Paraguayan indigenous team that became champion of the Copa América in Chile in 2015 and ranked third in the World Cup for native peoples in Brazil, recalled the club president.