Correspondence

March 24 , 2004
Dear Editor:

I must admit to feeling a little puzzled when I read Charles J. Esdaile's review of my book, The Paraguayan War, vol. 1 , Causes and Early Conduct (HAHR 84 , no. 2 , pp. 374-75). Simply put, the study he describes is not the one I wrote. First, as the subtitle indicates, my work covers the causes of the Paraguayan conflict and the first 12 months of actual combat. It does not address the great battles of Tuyutí and Curupayty, the long siege at Humaitá, the death of Francisco Solano López, and the demographic disaster that overwhelmed his country. The proper place for these topics will be in volume 2 , which I am now writing. Knowing this, Esdaile still focuses on the number of Allied casualties at Curupayty and the stubborn defense of Humaitá by a shrinking garrison of starving men in 1867. He thus appears to be addressing the future volume, which seems particularly odd, given that he specifically eschews a discussion of the battles (Coimbra, Riachuelo, Yataí, Mbutuí) that are covered in the present publication.

When Esdaile does direct his attention to Causes and Early Conduct, he attributes some odd ideas to it. Where on earth does he get the impression that the armies of Marshal López were composed of "Guaraní tribesmen"? As I reiterated ad infinitum in the text, the Paraguayans were fully hispanized by the 1860 s, and the use of the word "tribesmen" conjures up a totally mistaken image of long-haired savages living in grass huts.

The same isolation that preserved the Guaraní language also gave birth to a strong sense of separateness among the Paraguayans that was evident even in colonial times. Esdaile objects to me calling this feeling nationalism, suggesting that "modern nationalism is closely linked to literacy and urbanization." I maintain that there is such a thing as a premodern nationalism that found its inspiration in something other than revolutionary France. How else should we describe the patriotism that motivated the foot soldiers of López (or, for that matter, of San Martín and Bolívar) without reference to an illiterate, rural nationalism?

Two other minor points: (a) the story of Dr. Francia's ghost walking the earth and protecting his people smacks more of Augusto Roa Bastos and late twentieth-century travel writers than it does of 1860 s Paraguay; and (b) the first battle of Tuyutí was fought on May 24 , 1866 , not 1867.

Sincerely,
Thomas Whigham