Abstract
Helio Vera, a prominent Paraguayan sociologist, once remarked that “the past does not exist as history but as legend … we do not have historians but emotional troubadours, singers of tearful guitaraccompanied epic poems of the past.”1 The rewriting of history by such “troubadours” and the confusion between myth and reality has over the twentieth century led to the emergence of a passionate version of national identity, firmly rooted in past injustice and violence. This in turn has been developed and manipulated for political advantage and power.
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Notes
H. Vera, En Busca del Hueso Perdido (Asunción: RP Ediciones, 1990), p. 131.
B. Arditi and J.C. Rodríguez, La Sociedad a Pesar del Estado (Asunción: El Lector, 1987), p. 59.
M.A. Centeno, “The Centre Did Not Hold,” in Dunkerley, J. (ed.), Studies in the Formation of the Nation State in Latin America (London: ILAS, 2002), p. 58.
R.A. Nickson, Historical Dictionary of Paraguay (London: Scarecrow Press, 1993), p. 598.
R. Medina, Apuntes sobre la Historia del Paraguay Colonial (Buenos Aires: Editorial Adelante, 1996).
T.L. Whigham, “The Paraguayan War: A Catalyst for Nationalism in South America,” in Kraay, H. and Whigham, T.L (eds.), I Die with my Country: Perspectives on the Paraguayan War, 1964–1970 (London: University of Nebraska Press, 2005), p. 180.
P.H. Lewis, Paraguay Under Stroessner (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980), p. 5.
G. Rodríguez Alcalá, Ideología Autoritaria (Asunción: RP Ediciones, 1987).
See, e.g., J. Prieto, Paraguay, La Provincia Gigante de Las Indias (Asunción: Archivo del Liberalismo, 1988).
J.N. González, El Paraguay Eterno, 4th ed. (Asunción: Cuadernos Republicanos, 1987; first edition: Guaranda, 1935), p. 11.
J.N. González, El Paraguay y la Lucha por su Expresión (Asunción: Ediciones Guarania, 1946), p. 27.
J.N. González, Solano López y Otros Ensayos (Paris: Editorial de Indias, 1926), p. 148.
J.E. O’Leary, Prosa Polémica (Asunción: Napa, 1982), p. 152.
A.D. Smith, “Ethno-Symbolism and the Study of Nationalism,” in Smith, A.D. (ed.), Myths and Memories of the Nation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 181.
A. Kapcia, “Ideology and the Cuban Revolution: Myth Icon and Identity,” in Fowler, W. (ed.), Ideologues and Ideologies in Latin America (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997), p. 89.
R.A. Meza, El Triángulo de la Opresión (Asunción: Imprenta Salesiana, 1990), p. 137.
B. Arditi, Adiós a Stroessner (Asunción: CDE/RP Ediciones, 1992).
A. Irala Burgos, “La Epistemología de la Historia en el Paraguay,” Estudios Paraguayos 3: 2 (1975), p. 141.
R. Roett, “Paraguay After Stroessner,” Foreign Affairs 68: 2 (1989), p. 129.
C.R. Miranda, Paraguay y la Era de Stroessner (Asunción: RP Ediciones, 1990), p. 166.
K. Koonings and D. Kruijt (eds.), Societies of Fear: The Legacy of Civil War, Violence and Terror in Latin America (London: Zed Press, 1999), p. 15.
For an in-depth analysis of the material benefits of U.S. aid to the Stroessner regime, see D. Laíno, Paraguay: Represión, Estafa y Anti-comuni$mo (Asunción: Ediciones Cerro Corá, 1979).
D. Rivarola, Una Sociedad Conservadora ante los Desafíos de la Modernidad (Asunción: Ediciones y Arte Editores, Centro Paraguayo de Estudios Sociológicos, 1994), p. 61.
E. Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1983), p. 124.
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© 2006 Will Fowler and Peter Lambert
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Lambert, P. (2006). “Muero con mi patria!” Myth, Political Violence, and the Construction of National Identity in Paraguay. In: Fowler, W., Lambert, P. (eds) Political Violence and the Construction of National Identity in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601727_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230601727_11
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