My name is Margarita Mbywangi. The Paraguayans called me Margarita but Mbywangi is my real name – it means a kind of rodent in my native language, Aché. I'm 47 and I was born in the jungle in the department of Canindeyú in eastern Paraguay, the seventh of eight children. My parents were hunters. People went around naked and we only slept in a hut if it rained. When I was three my father was bitten by a snake and died. My mother was pregnant at the time, and it was hard because if you're a widow there's no one to get meat for you.
When I was five, I was captured by some Paraguayans and they sold me to the family where I grew up. I had been playing and I was hiding but they found me, and I remember crying a lot. The Paraguayans used to come with guns on horses and we knew we had to be careful, but that day they caught us by surprise.
I lived with the people who captured me for a while before they sold me for 5,000 guaraníes ($1 in today's money), which was a lot then. I called the lady who bought me “Mum”, but I cleaned the house and looked after the grandchildren. They were ranchers and had 10 children – I called them my brothers and sisters. None of them worked, they studied. I wore their hand-me-downs but I never had any presents and no one ever showed me love. I was a servant.