Authoritarianism, Cultural History, and Political Resistance in Latin America: Exposing Paraguay (Memory Politics and Transitional Justice)

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]. Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 Editors and Contributors 11 List of Figures 16 Chapter 1 Introduction: Exposing Paraguay 17 Interruptions: Realidad que delira 22 Part I Writing the Limits of Authoritarian Paraguay 32 Chapter 2 Disintegrating Bodies: The Undoing of the Discourse of War in Palleja’s Diario (1865–66) 33 Problematizing Representation: Diary, Witnessing, and Death 36 Detours, Obstacles, Absences: The War Before the War 39 Forms of no Return 42 “Disolución Continua de Los Cuerpos:” War as Disintegration 45 Chapter 3 Poetry and Revisionism: Notes on Authority and Restoration in Postwar Paraguay 53 Chapter 4 Writing the State: The Redistribution of Sovereignty and the Figure of the “Legislator” in I the Supreme by Augusto Roa Bastos 71 Introduction: “Is There a Story?” 71 Sovereign Redistribution 73 The Lawgiver 76 To Read, To Write, To Represent 78 The Supreme Dictator 82 Part II Preaching Popular Art in Paraguay 94 Chapter 5 Indigenous Art: The Challenge of the Universal 95 Introduction 95 In Regard to Indigenous Art 96 The Western Canon 96 Two Claims 99 Indigenous Art Insofar as It Is Popular Art 102 Negation 103 Affirmation 104 Difference 104 Popular Art Insofar as It Is Latin American 105 On the Periphery 105 In Praise of the Dis-encounter 106 Indigenous Art in Modernity 108 The Privileges of Change 109 Other Modernities 110 Other Postmodernities 111 Chapter 6 Inheritances of Carlos Colombino: Painting and the Making of a Democratic Paraguay 118 Institutional Key 120 In a Personal Key 127 Chapter 7 Interrupted Visions of History: Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspapers and the History of (Popular) Art in Contemporary Paraguay 135 Chapter 8 The Wings of Carlos Colombino: Architect, Artist, Writer (an Interview) 159 Asunción 159 The Museo del Barro 161 A Tale of Two Brothers 163 The Country of All Ills 165 Part III Flashes of Memory in Paraguay: The Legacies of Stronism 170 Chapter 9 Beyond Coercion: Social Legitimation and Conservative Modernization in the Stroessner Regime (1954–1989) 171 The Formation of the Stroessner Regime 175 Chapter 10 108/Cuchillo de Palo (2010): Limits and Political Potentialities of Queer Countermemory 188 Cuchillo’s Chiaroscuro 191 Pedro Costa 194 Macho Militarism Seasoned with Pious Catholicism 198 Transgender Women, Gay Men, and Feminism 200 Conclusions 202 Chapter 11 De-Parting Paraguay: The Interruption of the Aesthetic Gaze in Siete Cajas (2012) 206 The Partition in Mercado 4: The Cadaver and the Money 210 Reconfiguring the Struggle: The Driving Force of Women 214 De-Parting Paraguay: The Partition of the Aesthetic Gaze 217 A Final Smile 222 Part IV Tracing la realidad que delira 227 Chapter 12 Paraguayan Counterlives 228 Paz Encina 228 Augusto Roa Bastos 231 Rafael Barrett 239 Coda: Solitude 245 Chapter 13 Paraguayan Realism as Cruelty in Gabriel Casaccia’s El Guajhú 251 Defining a Latin American Reality: Science Versus Magic 254 Cruelty and Latin American Reality 260 Chapter 14 Rafael Barrett’s Haunted Letter 273 A Spectral Reality 276 Swerving Toward Each Other: A Community of Creators 280 A (Im)Possible Community 282 Barrett’s Letter: A Dually Acting Force in the Path to Human Transformation 286 An Anarchy: Barrett’s Specter Haunting His Reader 289 Index 298 Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Introduction: Exposing Paraguay (Federico Pous, Alejandro Quin, Marcelino Viera)....Pages 1-15 Front Matter ....Pages 17-17 Disintegrating Bodies: The Undoing of the Discourse of War in Palleja’s Diario (1865–66) (Javier Uriarte)....Pages 19-38 Poetry and Revisionism: Notes on Authority and Restoration in Postwar Paraguay (Alejandro Quin)....Pages 39-56 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 Front Matter ....Pages 81-81 Indigenous Art: The Challenge of the Universal (Ticio Escobar)....Pages 83-105 Inheritances of Carlos Colombino: Painting and the Making of a Democratic Paraguay (Horacio Legrás)....Pages 107-123 Interrupted Visions of History: Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspapers and the History of (Popular) Art in Contemporary Paraguay (Sebastián J. Díaz-Duhalde)....Pages 125-148 The Wings of Carlos Colombino: Architect, Artist, Writer (an Interview) (Adriana Johnson, Horacio Legrás)....Pages 149-159 Front Matter ....Pages 161-161 Beyond Coercion: Social Legitimation and Conservative Modernization in the Stroessner Regime (1954–1989) (Lorena Soler)....Pages 163-179 108/Cuchillo de Palo (2010): Limits and Political Potentialities of Queer Countermemory (Eva Karene Romero)....Pages 181-198 De-Parting Paraguay: The Interruption of the Aesthetic Gaze in Siete Cajas (2012) (Federico Pous)....Pages 199-219 Front Matter ....Pages 221-221 Paraguayan Counterlives (Adriana Johnson)....Pages 223-245 Paraguayan Realism as Cruelty in Gabriel Casaccia’s El Guajhú (Gabriel Horowitz)....Pages 247-268 Rafael Barrett’s Haunted Letter (Marcelino Viera)....Pages 269-293 Back Matter ....Pages 295-301 "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 froma 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]"--Page 4 of cover This text 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