[2] The first pioneer to settle in Paraguay was Elizabeth Cheney early in 1940[3] and the first Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly of Asunción was elected in 1944.
The sixth of the tablets was the first to mention Latin American regions and was written on April 8, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 — after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu.
Root's travels, perhaps the first Baháʼí to the region, began in the summer of 1919 - stopping first in Brazil then other countries before setting out to cross the Andes mountains into Chile in winter.
[9] The sixth tablet was translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.
[10] "His Holiness Christ says: Travel ye to the East and to the West of the world and summon the people to the Kingdom of God.
… Attach great importance to the indigenous population of America ... the republics of the continent of South America—Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, the Guianas, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela; also the islands to the north, east and west of South America, such as Falkland Islands, the Galapagòs, Juan Fernandez, Tobago and Trinidad...."[1]Following the release of these tablets and then ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death in 1921, a few Baháʼís began moving to or at least visiting Latin America.
[3] The Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada appointed the Inter-America Committee to take charge of the preparations.
Leonar de Morínigo with whom she had shared Baháʼí principles to know what kind of meetings would take place - who in turn defended the religion from accusations by September from a local catholic priest.
[15] One member of the group attended an International Conference of Progressive Education by October in the States and through contact with the Cheney was invited to Louhelen Baháʼí School.
[17] On returning to the States she took up work in Race Amity meetings with Louis G. Gregory and Dorothy Beecher Baker[18] and publishing.
[21][22] The next pioneer to come was Virginia Orbison in September 1943 after helping to found an Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly in Chile.
[29] The first South American Baháʼí Congress was celebrated in Buenos Aires in November, 1946 with representatives R. Centurion Miranda and Josephine Pla from Paraguay.
[5] However, by November 1950 Sheila Rice-Wray transferred her pioneering effort to Paraguay in 1950 where an emergency election was held for vacancies to assure representation to the first South American Baháʼí Convention.
[35] When the regional National Assembly of South America was elected in 1951 the members included Paraguayan Esteban Canales.
At the convention Dr. Muhajir and the delegates drew up plans for reaching the Indian populations as well as ways to reinforce the communities that already existed.
[46] By 1963 there were Local Spiritual Assemblies in Asunción, Concepción, and Encarnación as well as a smaller group in Pedro Juan Caballero and members of the community also included some of the Caygüa (Kadiweu?)
[58] The religion entered a new phase of activity when a message of the Universal House of Justice dated 20 October 1983 was released.
Some more recent events Baháʼís in Paraguay have undertaken include participating in international surveys from 1983 inquiring about activities organized during the United Nations Decade for Women to achieve equality of rights, privileges, and responsibilities for both sexes, as well as to report on obstacles that these communities had faced[61] - responses from Paraguay noted women participated "without restriction in consultation and decision-making" in the local and national administrative functions of the Baháʼí community where "women both vote and are elected."
Torres[67] were among those attending the regional conference called for by the Universal House of Justice in 2008 held in São Paulo.