Mbocayaty Neighborhood: The neighbors union gives way to progress

A neighborhood characterized by the hard work of its inhabitants, who work together to improve their community, benefits even more with the opening of a new highway.

Surrounded by several freeways, including the new Ñu Guazú Freeway that unites Asunción with Luque, the neighborhood of Mbocayaty is no longer the same as it was decades ago. Eumelia Aquino, who has been living there for the past 40 years, explains how different it was before: "I used to wear boots when I left my house to go and wait for the bus, because the mud was impressive," she says.

Being one of the first inhabitants of the area, she has been a witness to the gradual change that Mbocayaty was experiencing, starting with the old train tracks and dirt road, to the new Ñu Guazú freeway, which connects them more quickly to Luque. "Our homes are valued more now, our land is worth much more, and people even want to come to know how the neighborhood is now with the freeway," she says with laughter.

Ángela Caballero also remembers the before and after of her neighborhood, since she lived there more than 30 years ago. “When it rained, we had to throw straw in the mud to get out of our houses, everything was submerged in deep mud” ”, she remembers. She also says that before, Mbocayaty not only did not have the basic services of water and light, but it also was a bit isolated from the cities because they had no direct connection to the microcenter of Asunción or Luque. Besides being both a witness and protagonist of the gradual change of her neighborhood, Ángela is part of the commission of neighbors that worked side by side to cobble its streets, install a sewage system and build a new park. "Now we are enjoying all the improvements, but our grandchildren and those who are yet to come will enjoy them even more," she says.

Both of them and the other neighbors consider that all the transformation that they have witnessed and produced themselves constitute economic and social progress, which motivates them to continue to work to improve the beauty of their neighborhood and their own quality of life.