Mbocayaty facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mbocayaty
Church in Mbocayaty
Mbocayaty Location in Paraguay
Country	Paraguay
Department	Guairá Department
Founded by	Jose Mariano Duarte
Population  (2022)
• Total	8,003

Mbocayaty (Guaraní: Mbokajaty) is a town in the Guairá Department of Paraguay. Its located 7km to the north of Villarrica and 166km to the east of Asuncion.

Originally known as Capilla Duarte (spanish Duarte Chapel) due to the Catholic chapel built in the 1800s by a family named Duarte. Its current name comes from the Guarani language expression Mbokaja + ty which means ¨land with many macaw palms"

History and geography

It was founded due to a land donation by a Catholic priest named Jose Mariano Duarte. Jose Mariano, the first priest and possibly the first school teacher in the area, had inherited the lands from his father, General Carlos Duarte. The Duarte family was from Villarrica.

In 1903 it was upgraded to municipality disengaged from Villarrica. The first president of its gubernatorial board was Juan de la Cruz Talavera.

During the Paraguayan War it was registered that many female residents of what is now Mbocayaty donated their jewelry to the help with the war efforts and that several local families donated part of their livestock to feed the soldiers. Since the XX century, the original territory of Mbocayaty started to be divided to lay the foundations of new towns like Natalicio in 1931, Independencia in 1955 and Bottrell in 1983.

Its irrigated by the Tebicuarymi River and its tributary streams such as Ita, Yaguarete and Gervasia. It borders Bottrell to the North, separated by the Tebicuarymi River. Villarrica to the South, through a stream named Bobo; the towns of Natalicio and Independencia to the east and the town of Yataity to the west.