Deportivo Guaraní make football history as first Indigenous women’s team in a major final

Club Deportivo Guaraní’a women’s team, which is based in the Indigenous Ava Guaraní community, Misión San Francisco, in the province of Salta, northern Argentina. Photograph: Johana Palacio/Handout

Rosa Carema, 20, spends her days harvesting squashes on farms in the province of Salta in northern Argentina. But when the blazing sun sets over the Gran Chaco plains, she dons a tracksuit and heads down to the football pitch in her Ava Guaraní community, on the outskirts of the town of Pichanal.

Carema plays for the women’s football team at Club Deportivo Guaraní, a club based in the community of Misión San Francisco. On Saturday, she and her teammates will make history when they step on to the pitch for the final of the Copa Salta. They will be the first team from an Indigenous community to reach the final of a major tournament in the province.