Authoritarianism, Cultural History, and Political Resistance in Latin America

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xix

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2. Introduction: Exposing Paraguay

   • Federico Pous, Alejandro Quin, Marcelino Viera

   Pages 1-15

3. Writing the Limits of Authoritarian Paraguay

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 17-17

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   2. Disintegrating Bodies: The Undoing of the Discourse of War in Palleja’s Diario (1865–66)

      • Javier Uriarte

      Pages 19-38

   3. Poetry and Revisionism: Notes on Authority and Restoration in Postwar Paraguay

      • Alejandro Quin

      Pages 39-56

   4. Writing the State: The Redistribution of Sovereignty and the Figure of the “Legislator” in I the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos

      • John Kraniauskas

      Pages 57-79

4. Preaching Popular Art in Paraguay

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 81-81

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   2. Indigenous Art: The Challenge of the Universal

      • Ticio Escobar

      Pages 83-105

   3. Inheritances of Carlos Colombino: Painting and the Making of a Democratic Paraguay

      • Horacio Legrás

      Pages 107-123

   4. Interrupted Visions of History: Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspapers and the History of (Popular) Art in Contemporary Paraguay

      • Sebastián J. Díaz-Duhalde

      Pages 125-148

   5. The Wings of Carlos Colombino: Architect, Artist, Writer (an Interview)

      • Adriana Johnson, Horacio Legrás

      Pages 149-159

5. Flashes of Memory in Paraguay: The Legacies of Stronism

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 161-161

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   2. Beyond Coercion: Social Legitimation and Conservative Modernization in the Stroessner Regime (1954–1989)

      • Lorena Soler

      Pages 163-179

   3. 108/Cuchillo de Palo (2010): Limits and Political Potentialities of Queer Countermemory

      • Eva Karene Romero

      Pages 181-198

   4. De-Parting Paraguay: The Interruption of the Aesthetic Gaze in Siete Cajas (2012)

      • Federico Pous

      Pages 199-219

6. Tracing la realidad que delira

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 221-221

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   2. Paraguayan Counterlives

      • Adriana Johnson

      Pages 223-245

   3. Paraguayan Realism as Cruelty in Gabriel Casaccia’s El Guajhú

      • Gabriel Horowitz

      Pages 247-268

   4. Rafael Barrett’s Haunted Letter

      • Marcelino Viera

      Pages 269-293

7. Back Matter

   Pages 295-301

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This book takes on the challenge of conceptually thinking Paraguayan cultural history within the broader field of Latin American studies. It presents original contributions to the study of Paraguayan culture from a variety of perspectives that include visual, literary, and cultural studies; gender studies, sociology, and political theory. The essays compiled here focus on the different narratives and political processes that shaped a country decentered from, but also deeply connected to, the rest of Latin America. Structured in four thematic sections, the book reflects upon authoritarianism; the tensions between modern, indigenous, and popular artistic expressions; the legacies of the Stroessner Regime, political resistance, and the struggle for collective memory; as well as the literary framing of historical trauma, particularly in connection with the Roabastian notion of la realidad que delira [delirious reality].

• Latin American Studies
• Paraguay
• Authoritarianism
• Stronism
• National exceptionalism
• Indigenous culture
• Popular culture
• latin american politics

“This volume fills a significant and longstanding gap in English-language scholarship on the cultural and political history of Paraguay. Comprising fourteen innovative scholarly contributions that offer insightful examinations of the historical relation between sovereignty, war and modernity in Paraguay, the book provides us with superb close readings of some of the most important innovations and historical tensions of the Paraguayan past and present. This is a major contribution to an understudied field in the area of Latin American studies, and will be a fundamental resource for scholars of the region for years to come.” (Gareth Williams, Professor of Spanish, University of Michigan, USA)

“This volume provides an exploration of the complex interrelation between history, culture and politics in modern Paraguay, the roots of its insularity, uniqueness and authoritarian governments. It does so through different angles and lenses, through the analysis of Paraguayan literature (major and minor writers); through a study of cultural institutions such as El museo del Barro; through the interpretation of Paraguayan filmic and other cultural productions. It is an ambitious and well-thought project that encompasses different disciplines and approaches to provide a profound as well as a global understanding of Paraguayan culture and society today. This book is an outstanding contribution to the field of Latin American Studies.” (Leila Gómez, Associate Professor in Spanish and Comparative Literature, University of Colorado Boulder, USA)

• Department of World Languages and Cultures, Elon University, Elon, USA

  Federico Pous

• Department of World Languages and Cultures, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

  Alejandro Quin

• Department of Humanities, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA

  Marcelino Viera

Federico Pous is Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Elon University, USA.



Alejandro Quin teaches modern and contemporary Latin American literature and culture at the University of Utah, USA.


Marcelino Viera is Assistant Professor of Spanish & Latin American Studies in the Department of Humanities at Michigan Technological University, USA.

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