"Guaranis, Brazil's Original Owners"

When Brazil was discovered by Europeans in 1500, there were an estimated one million Guarani Indians living on millions of square kilometers in what is now southern Brazil, parts of Argentina and Bolivia, and most of Paraguay.

In modern Paraguay, Guarani remains an official language, and is spoken by more people, especially in rural areas, than Spanish.

Along with the Guarani, another large Indian group lived in Brazil. They were the Tupi, who formed what we would call a nation-state, inhabiting an area that ran from modern São Paulo north to Maranhão.

Although the Guarani Indians shared a common cultural heritage, they never formed a single socio-political unit like the Tupi. Rather they lived in different areas sharing only their language, a lingua franca which permitted easy communication throughout their vast lands.

Full Article : brazzil.com