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Textual Revisions of Identity: Nostalgia and Modernity in Asunci
- University of Pittsburgh Press
- Chapter
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105 L a ciudad en que vivimos (2004) by Juan Manuel Prieto and Postales de Asunci ón de antaño (1999–2002) by Jorge Rubiani are illustrated collections of articles published recently to celebrate the often neglected capital of Paraguay. Promoting local interest in Asunción, above all, these works seek to reevaluate the image of the contemporary capital and recognize its distinctiveness. Both representations fluctuate between a nostalgic perspective of the city and the expression of a desire for its modernization , a dualistic approach that parallels, more generally, a series of juxtapositions inherent in urban Latin American lifestyles and attitudes—the modern and the traditional, the rural and the urban, the local and the global—as well as contrasts in economic conditions. Although, as Vivian Schelling has shown, urban cultural projects in Latin America often confront the challenges of resolving such complex dichotomies (26),1 the means pursued by the two Paraguayan chroniclers analyzed in this chapter derive from a narrow perspective on the city. The authors’ emphasis on nostalgia and modernity, described in the first half of this chapter, reveals their aim to develop a meaningful position from which to construct a positive identity for the city; however, the remoteness of their work from contemporary Latin American thought and writing on the city, discussed in the second half, confirms that, by disregarding critical realities, Prieto and Rubiani fail to participate in essential debates that are leading toward a more comprehensive representation of urban experience. Nostalgia for the Asunción of a former time is common enough, and the two eras that, in hindsight, paint the capital most successfully are often evoked in representations of the contemporary city. As a new Spanish colony, founded textualrevisionsofidentity NostalgiaandModernityinAsunción aManda holMes L young and holmes text-5.indd 105 11/1/10 10:08 AM 106 — amanda holmes in 1536 or 1537, Asunción replaced the abandoned River Plate settlement in the area of modern Buenos Aires and enjoyed its status as a principal trading center until Buenos Aires was firmly established as a port. Similarly, the postindependence rule by the “Supreme Dictator of the Republic,” José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (1814–1840), stands out in the history of Paraguay and Asunción. Although, during this era, the country was isolated, its borders closed both to Paraguayans and foreigners, this policy allowed it to develop independently without the incursion of outside interests; even though Paraguayans remained largely uneducated and secluded from external influences, the fact that under Francia the country prospered economically, and was known for its peace and order, still resonates positively for some. Coupled with a yearning for the past is Asunción’s ambiguous entry into modernity. Its reputation as an economic backwater and center for smuggling and drug trafficking developed in part from its historical position in relation to Europe and the rest of the Americas, but Alfredo Stroessner’s regime (1954–1989) also sanctioned smuggling and other illegal activities to maintain favor among military officers (Miranda 114). Although infrastructures improved during Stroessner’s thirty-five-year rule,2 the distribution of land and wealth remained the most uneven in Latin America, and violence and intimidation eliminated political dissent, leading many Paraguayans into exile. As in other Latin American urban centers, infrastructural and technological changes have been implemented in Asunción in a simultaneous rather than sequential manner, leading to a situation in which traditional and modern lifestyles coexist.3 A typical Asunción neighborhood such as Villa Aurelia, Villa Morra, or Sajonia includes a combination of ostentatious houses of the very rich, surrounded by six- or seven-foot walls topped with barbed wire or broken glass (along with a nighttime security guard and guard dog), next to squalid one- or two-room shacks housing large families. Some of the city’s roads are paved, but a large number are rough cobblestone and even more are dirt. Asunción’s sewers, mostly open, overflow and flood the streets during the annual rainfalls, although this infrastructural problem has been largely repaired in the downtown center. Donkeys pull wagons from the country with wares to sell in the central asunceno market , even while SUVs with tinted windows skirt around them. In the mid-1990s, four U.S.-style shopping malls with boutiques and food courts selling imported goods were built to cater to the upper and middle classes, in dramatic contrast with the outdoor markets serving the lower classes. This eclectic and conflictive urban environment that highlights economic...