The Trans-Chaco Highway: How It Came to Be

What is so special about the construction of a road somewhere in South America in the middle of the last century?

In fact, the construction of the Paraguayan Trans-Chaco highway is an exciting story, which Gerhard Ratzlaff has skilfully reconstructed. The story is about a highway about 500 kilometers long. Through a sparsely inhabited, marginal area in a country whose infrastructure is still underdeveloped today.

The planning and implementation of this construction project was largely in the hands of the Mennonite communities: the approximately 8.000 Mennonite settlers in the Chaco, who need this highway simply to survive, and the Mennonites in North America, who came to the aid of their brothers and sisters in the faith with money, machinery, and know-how. The Ruta Trans-Chaco was indeed instrumental in bringing about the hoped-for economic development, for the Mennonite colonies in the first place, and through them for the entire country.

Ratzlaffs book, and the extraordinary story it tells, will inspire all readers to contribute their money, time, and talent to development aid, motivated by Christian faith.

Camilla Tabert
Michael Rudolph