Music in Paraguay

Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America. With a majority of Roman Catholics among a population of 7.45 million in 2022, Paraguayans speak a blend of Spanish and Guaraní known as jopará. This is a distinctive marker throughout the country, which has succeeded in integrating the Guaraní language in practically all its manifestations of expressive culture, however ambivalent Paraguayans might feel toward the nation’s indigenous legacy, which, since the nineteenth century, has wavered between denial and enshrinement. The legacy of African descendants, on the other hand, has been largely overlooked until recently. The practice of traditional music, subsumed in the expression ñande purahéi (or “our song”) takes pride of place in the lives of Paraguayan peoples and has acquired nationalist connotations in the twentieth century. The southeast border Paraguay shares with Argentina has encouraged the dissemination of genres such as the guarania, polka, and chamamé, all of which have transcended their national boundaries in ways that challenge definitions of identity. In general, Paraguay’s historiography has been focused on landmarks and the narratives constructed around them. Special historiographical attention is paid to the prominent role played by the Jesuit reducciones during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; the bloody military conflicts such as the 19th-century War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) fought between Paraguay and a coalition of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and the 20th-century Chaco War (1932–1935) between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the north-central Chaco region; the development of the polka and the creation of the guarania, as well as perfecting a local version of the harp dubbed “Paraguayan”; and to the birth of Agustín Barrios (b. 1885–d. 1944), the guitar virtuoso known as “Mangoré.” The available information on music, written mostly in Spanish by composers, performers, journalists, and orchestra leaders who figure prominently in the musical life of urban centers, has appeared in discontinued editions of difficult access. With the exception of research into the cultural practices and organology of indigenous groups, musicological inquiry is practically non-existent, and, consequently, a wealth of Paraguayan musical traditions has yet to be scientifically studied. This article was translated by Malena Kuss.