Government/Military and Colorado Party victory
135-606: Augusto Roa Bastos (13 June 1917 – 26 April 2005) was a Paraguayan novelist and short story writer. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia , and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor. He is best known for his complex novel Yo el Supremo ( I the Supreme ) and for winning the Premio Miguel de Cervantes in 1989, Spanish literature's most prestigious prize. Yo el Supremo explores
270-507: A Bolivian Osprey was shot down over the Paraguay River, and on 27 April, a strike force of six Ospreys launched a successful mission from the base at Muñoz against the logistic riverine base and town of Puerto Casado, but the strong diplomatic reaction of Argentina prevented any further strategic attacks on targets along the Paraguay River. On 26 November 1934, the Brazilian steamer Paraguay
405-498: A Bolivian withdrawal. Salamanca instead demanded that they were included in a "zone of dispute." On a memorandum directed to Salamanca on 30 August, Bolivian General Filiberto Osorio expressed his concerns over the lack of a plan of operations and attached one that focused on an offensive from the north. Quintanilla also asked for permission to capture two additional Paraguayan garrisons: Nanawa and Rojas Silva. In August, Bolivia slowly reinforced its 4,000-men First Bolivian Army, which
540-644: A British Council fellowship for journalism that enabled him to travel to Europe during World War II. In 1959 Roa Bastos won the Losada prize for his first published novel Hijo de hombre . The adaptation of this novel, for which he wrote the screenplay, won best film in the Spanish language and first prize of the Argentine Instituto de Cinematografia the following year. His most prestigious awards include two John Guggenheim Foundation Fellowships, awarded in 1970 and 1979, and
675-471: A French military mission, together with the tough nature of their Quechua and Aymara Indian conscripts and the country's will to win and determination, would give them the edge in the war. Both armies deployed a significant number of cavalry regiments, but they actually served as infantry since it was soon learned that the dry Chaco could not provide enough water and forage for horses. Only a relatively few mounted squadrons carried out reconnaissance missions at
810-664: A Paraguayan Army foot patrol and its native guides were taken prisoners near the Pilcomayo River and held in the Bolivian outpost of Fortin Sorpresa, where the commander of the Paraguayan platoon, Lieutenant Adolfo Rojas Silva, was shot and killed in suspicious circumstances. Fortín (Spanish for "little fort") was the name used for the small pillbox and trench-like garrisons in the Chaco, although
945-460: A large offensive before the Bolivians had mobilized their whole army. Fortín Boquerón was the first target of the Paraguayan offensive. The Boquerón compound was guarded by 619 Bolivian troops and resisted a 22-day siege by a 5,000-man Paraguayan force. An additional 2,500 Bolivians attempted to relieve the siege from the southwest but were beaten back by 2,200 Paraguayans, who defended the accesses to
1080-714: A large-scale pincer movement against Fortín Alihuatá and repeated the previous success of those operations; 7000 Bolivian troops had to evacuate Fortín Alihuatá. On 10 December 1933, the Paraguayans finished their encirclement of the 9th and 4th divisions of the Bolivian Army. After attempts had been made to break through Paraguayan lines and 2,600 of their men had been killed, 7,500 Bolivian soldiers surrendered. Only 900 Bolivian troops, led by Major Germán Busch , managed to slip away. The Paraguayans obtained 8,000 rifles, 536 machine guns, 25 mortars, two tanks, and 20 artillery pieces from
1215-412: A larger and better-equipped army, a series of factors turned the tide against it, and Paraguay controlled most of the disputed zone when the war had ended. The peace treaties ultimately granted two-thirds of the disputed territories to Paraguay. The origins of the war are commonly attributed to a long-standing territorial dispute and to the discovery of oil deposits on the eastern Andes range; in 1929,
1350-407: A larger force than the one involved in its first offensive. By early 1934, Estigarribia was planning an offensive against the Bolivian garrison at Puerto Suárez, 145 km upriver from Bahía Negra. The Pantanal marshes and the lack of canoes to navigate through them convinced the Paraguayan commander to abandon the idea and to turn his attention to the main front. After the armistice had ended,
1485-473: A long battle of attrition. On 15 April, the Paraguayans punched through the Bolivian lines on the Parapetí River and took over the city of Charagua . The Bolivian command launched a counteroffensive, which forced the Paraguayans back. Although the Bolivians' plan fell short of its target of encircling an entire enemy division, they managed to take 475 prisoners on 25 April. On 4 June 1935, a Bolivian regiment
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#17328945134811620-483: A new generation of Paraguayan authors. Roa Bastos's relationship with his country, unbroken by over 40 years of exile, was considered so important that in 1989 he was invited back by Paraguay's new president, Andrés Rodríguez , following the collapse of the Stroessner regime. Even before Yo, el Supremo , Roa Bastos was considered part of "the pantheon of great writers" by some critics, due to Hijo de hombre . However, it
1755-525: A new offensive in the form of three separate encirclement movements in the Alihuatá area, which was chosen since its Bolivian forces had been weakened by the transfer of soldiers to attack Fortín Gondra. As a result of the encirclement campaign, the Bolivian regiments Loa and Ballivián, totaling 509 men, surrendered. The Junín regiment suffered the same fate, but the Chacaltaya regiment escaped encirclement because of
1890-502: A new route in the forests to make the attack possible. When Bolivian reconnaissance aircraft noticed the new path being opened in the forest, a plan was made to let the Paraguayans enter halfway up the path and then to attack them from the rear. The Bolivian operation resulted in the Battle of Cañada Strongest between 18 and 25 May. The Bolivians managed to capture 67 Paraguayan officials and 1,389 soldiers. After their defeat at Cañada Strongest,
2025-401: A poet of the Paraguayan avant garde . In 1942 he published a book of poems in the classic Spanish style, which he titled El Ruiseñor De La Aurora ( The Dawn Nightingale ), a work he later renounced. He also had plays successfully performed during the 1940s, though they were never published. Of his prolific poetry of the late 1940s only "El naranjal ardiente" (1960; "The Burning Orange Grove")
2160-462: A port on the Upper Paraguay River, south of Bahía Negra . He assumed that the new settlement was well inside Bolivian territory, though Bolivia had implicitly recognized Bahía Negra as Paraguayan. The Paraguayan government sent in a naval detachment aboard the gunboat Pirapó , which forcibly evicted the Bolivians from the area in 1888. Two agreements followed, in 1894 and 1907, which neither
2295-493: A prime example of Roa Bastos's idea of the engaged writer . It offered an unflattering, fictionalized account of the final thoughts and ramblings of Paraguay's first dictator, at a time when Paraguay was under the stranglehold of a regime that adopted many of the same policies of oppression and isolationism. Roa Bastos was not alone in using literature to engage in contemporary events during the Latin American Boom period. In
2430-594: A quantity of Stokes-Brandt Model 1931 mortars . Highly portable (each of three parts could be carried by a soldier) and accurate, with a range of 3,000 yards, the angu'as ("corn-mashers" or "mortar" in Guarani) caused many casualties among Bolivian troops. In the course of the conflict, Paraguayan factories developed their own type of pyrotechnic-ignater hand grenade , the pineapple shaped carumbe'i (Guaraní for "little turtle") and produced trailers, mortar tubes, artillery grenades, and aerial bombs. The Paraguayan war effort
2565-521: A reputation as one of Latin American's finest writers. Hijo de hombre (1960; Son of Man ), Roa Bastos's first published and award-winning novel, represents his definitive break with poetry. It is seen as a refined "outgrowth" of his earlier works of short fiction such as El trueno entre las hojas (1953), which also dealt with themes of political oppression and social struggle in Paraguay. This novel portrays
2700-399: Is "an exceptional cultural phenomenon." It has been suggested that it "[is] more immediately and unanimously acclaimed than any novel since One Hundred Years of Solitude , [and the] strictly historical importance [may] be even greater than that of García Márquez's fabulously successful creation." Yo, el supremo has contributed widely to a number of different genres and styles. It belongs to
2835-421: Is an attempt to "capture the tragic essence, the 'inner weakness' as well as the inner strength of his country's people." His work reveals an intense preoccupation not only with contemporary Paraguay but with its history, looking back to the beginning of the 19th century and the rule of Dr. Gaspar de Francia (whose life is the focus of Yo, el Supremo ). While key historical figures and events interest Roa Bastos, it
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#17328945134812970-439: Is an uneducated "son of man" who becomes a Christ-like leader for Paraguayan people through action and strength of character. Although it was a massive critical success, Roa Bastos remained dissatisfied with the work for a number reasons. It was fourteen years before he published another novel. Yo el Supremo ( I the Supreme ) is a fictionalized account of the 19th-century Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia , who
3105-562: Is considered one of the most important antecedents to Roa Bastos's writings. Guzmán, a Paraguayan explorer of Guaraní and Spanish heritage, wrote extensively about the geography of Paraguay using mythical descriptions of the landscape and the Guaraní language. The most important precursor to Roa Bastos, however, is Rafael Barrett (1876–1910), whose writings incorporated many of the important themes and writings styles that Roa Bastos would later master including: Spanish-Guaraní bilingualism, magic realism,
3240-529: Is however, little evidence that he participated in sectarian politics of any kind. In France, Roa Bastos faced the second forced relocation of his life, but he also won a new readership for his work during this time. Helen Lane's English translation of Yo el Supremo ( I the Supreme ), published in 1986, was greeted with widespread acclaim in the English-speaking world. However, in France, Roa Bastos's writing focus
3375-448: Is particularly representative of this technique, both in its construction and narrative. In El Fiscal (1993), a third novel about the abuses of political power—this time focusing on Stroessner's régime—Roa Bastos again offers an alternative to the accepted versions of events in Paraguay and challenges "the intelligibility of history". To this end he weaves elements of fantasy and metafiction into his narratives. Roa Bastos believed that it
3510-418: Is the impact of these "socio-historical roots" on "the nature of the masses" that forms the central theme of his literary work. His writing deploys symbols and multiple narratives that build on the collective memory of the Paraguayan people. Hijo de hombre , for example, constructs an "alternative history of popular movements" out of the people's recollections and symbols. The intertextual novel Yo, el Supremo
3645-590: The status quo ante was eventually agreed on 12 September 1929 in Washington, DC, under pressure from the Pan American League , but an arms race had already begun, and both countries were on a collision course. The regular border clashes might have led to war in the 1920s if either side had been capable of waging war against one another. As it was, neither Paraguay or Bolivia had an arms industry, and both sides had to import vast quantities of arms from Europe and
3780-696: The Barefoot Revolution and the Third Paraguayan Civil War ) was a civil war in Paraguay that lasted from 7 March to 20 August 1947. In 1940 President Higinio Morínigo suspended the constitution and banned political parties . Resistance to his rule took the form of general strikes and student riots. In 1946 Morínigo legalized political activity and formed a cabinet with the Febrerista Revolutionary Concentration and
3915-629: The Battle of Campo Jordán , which concluded in the retreat of the Paraguayan First Division to Gondra. In July 1933, Kundt, still focusing on capturing Nanawa, launched a massive frontal attack on the fortín in what came to be known as the Second Battle of Nanawa . Kundt had prepared for the second attack in detail by using artillery, airplanes, tanks, and flamethrowers to overcome Paraguayan fortifications. The Paraguayans, however, had improved existing fortifications and built new ones since
4050-940: The Colorado Party . The Febreristas resigned from the coalition on January 11, 1947, angry that Morínigo seemed to be favoring the Colorados. The Febreristas made common cause with the Liberal Party and the Paraguayan Communist Party . Former Paraguayan president and founder of the Febrerista Party Rafael Franco led a rebellion that mushroomed into a civil war as the Paraguayan armed forces , which had previously remained loyal, split. The Communist Party became increasingly active, organizing rural peasants and workers and pushing for agrarian reform. Meanwhile,
4185-589: The Spanish Royal Academy in partnership with the Spanish government, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Spanish-language literature. It was at this time that Roa Bastos began to travel frequently between Paraguay and France. In 1991, representing Paraguay, Roa Bastos signed The Morelia Declaration "demanding the reversal of the ecological destruction of the planet." It was at this time that Roa Bastos again became an active novelist and screenwriter. In 1991 Roa Bastos adapted Yo, el Supremo for
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4320-690: The Treaty of Lima ended the hopes of the Bolivian government of recovering a land corridor to the Pacific Ocean, which was thought imperative to further development and trade. Both Bolivia and Paraguay were landlocked. The 600,000 km Chaco was sparsely populated, but control of the Paraguay River running through it would provide access to the Atlantic Ocean. That became especially important to Bolivia, which had lost its Pacific coast to Chile during
4455-581: The occupation of the land . Indeed, both Paraguayan and Argentine planters were already breeding cattle and exploiting quebracho woods in the area, and the small nomadic indigenous population of Guaraní -speaking tribes was related to Paraguay's own Guaraní heritage. As of 1919, Argentine banks owned 400,000 hectares of land in the eastern Chaco, and the Casado family, a powerful part of the Argentine oligarchy , held 141,000. The presence of Mennonite colonies in
4590-531: The "popular" language spoken at home and on the "street", Spanish is the language of official business and of power. The preservation and widespread use of an indigenous language after centuries of European immigration is unique in Latin America, and Guarani remains a symbol of Paraguayan nationalism and an "important vehicle for interpreting the country's reality". This is the legacy of the Jesuits who ruled Paraguay in
4725-522: The 1879 War of the Pacific . Paraguay had lost almost half of its territory to Brazil and Argentina in the Paraguayan War of 1864 to 1870 and was not prepared to surrender its economic viability. In international arbitration, Bolivia argued that the region had been part of the original Spanish colonial province of Moxos and Chiquitos to which Bolivia was heir . Meanwhile, Paraguay based its case on
4860-458: The 18th century and used Guarani (instead of Spanish or Latin) to spread Christianity throughout Paraguay. While Roa Bastos wrote primarily in Spanish, the interplay between these two languages is an essential part of his style. His bilingualism gives Roa Bastos a much greater range of language to work with, but also creates tension between an internationally recognized language and one that is obscure and fiercely Paraguayan. Roa Bastos has described
4995-460: The 1960s and 1970s, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and others adopted the same approach. Together, these writers created the Dictator novel genre. As is customary for most Paraguayans of peasant or working class origins, Roa Bastos learned to speak Spanish and Guaraní from birth. Both Spanish and Guaraní are the official languages of Paraguay (the latter is primarily an oral language). Although Guaraní remains
5130-401: The 20th century, it was fought between two of its poorest countries, both of which had lost territory to neighbours in 19th-century wars. During the war, both landlocked countries faced difficulties shipping arms and supplies through neighbouring countries. Bolivia, in particular, faced external trade problems and poor internal communications. Although Bolivia had lucrative mining income and
5265-521: The Altiplano's aboriginals of Quechua or Aymará (90% of the infantry troops), while the lower-ranking officers were of Spanish or other European ancestry, and the army commander-in-chief, Hans Kundt , was German. Although the Bolivian army had more manpower, it never mobilized more than 60,000 men, and no more than two-thirds of its army were ever on the Chaco. Paraguay, on the other hand, mobilized its entire army. A British diplomat reported in 1932 that
5400-627: The Baroque and Renaissance traditions that he would imitate in his early poetry throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In addition, his uncle's emphasis on the mystical aspects of classic literature would have a profound Roa Bastos's later writings. His experience of Guaraní social customs and language combined with the traditional Spanish education that he received in Asunción, created a cultural and linguistic duality that would manifest itself in much of Roa Bastos's writing. His rural upbringing also exposed Roa Bastos to
5535-461: The Bolivian Army two weeks to march their men and supplies to the Chaco and that Bolivia's "inordinately long lines of communication" would help Paraguay if war broke out. Furthermore, the drop in altitude from 3,700 m (12,000 ft) in the Andes to 150 metres (500 ft) in the Chaco imposed further strain on Bolivia's efforts to supply its soldiers in the Chaco. Bolivia's railroads did not run to
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5670-485: The Bolivian army a few kilometres northwest of Bahía Negra. The Paraguayans captured 21 Bolivian soldiers and burned the scattered huts to the ground. The Bolivians retaliated with an air strike on Bahía Negra on 15 December, which caused few casualties and little damage. On 14 December, Bolivia seized Fortin Boquerón, which later would be the site of the first major battle of the campaign, and 15 Paraguayans died. A return to
5805-459: The Bolivian high command and to order it to spare more men. The defeat seriously damaged Kundt's prestige. In September, his resignation of his position as commander-in-chief was not accepted by the president. Nanawa was a major turning point in the war since the Paraguayan Army regained the strategic initiative, which had belonged to the Bolivians since early 1933. In September, Paraguay began
5940-577: The Bolivian nor the Paraguayan Parliaments ever approved. Meanwhile, in 1905 Bolivia founded two new outposts in the Chaco, Ballivián and Guachalla, this time along the Pilcomayo River . The Bolivian government ignored the halfhearted Paraguayan official protest. Bolivian penetration in the region went unopposed until 1927, when the first blood was shed over the Chaco Boreal. On 27 February,
6075-600: The Bolivian oilfields, this time at Camiri , 130 km north of Villa Montes. The commander of the Paraguayan 3rd Corps, General Franco, found a gap between the Bolivian 1st and 18th Infantry regiments and ordered his troops to attack through it, but they became stuck in a salient with no hope of further progress. The Bolivian Sixth Cavalry forced the hasty retreat of Franco's troops to avoid being cut off. The Paraguayans lost 84 troops who were taken prisoner, and more than 500 dead were left behind. The Bolivians lost almost 200 men, but unlike their exhausted enemies, they could afford
6210-460: The Bolivian troops near Fortín Nanawa to withdraw northwest to form a new defensive line. Paraguayan Colonel Rafael Franco proposed to launch a new attack against Ballivián and Villa Montes but was turned down, as Ayala thought that Paraguay had already won the war. A 20-day ceasefire was agreed upon between the warring parties on 19 December 1933. On 6 January 1934, when the armistice expired, Bolivia had reorganized its eroded army and had assembled
6345-480: The Bolivians failed to capture the fort but formed a defensive amphitheater in front of it. The Second Corps managed to capture Fortín Corrales and Fortín Platanillos but failed to take Fortín Fernández and Fortín Toledo . After a siege that lasted from 26 February to 11 March 1933, the Second Corps aborted its attack on Fortín Toledo and withdrew to a defensive line, built 15 km from Fortín Corrales. After
6480-611: The Bolivians made extensive use of at least 20 CW-14 Ospreys . Despite an international arms embargo imposed by the League of Nations , Bolivia in particular went to great lengths in trying to import a small number of Curtiss T-32 Condor II twin-engined bombers, disguised as civil transport planes, but they were stopped in Peru before they could be delivered. The valuable aerial reconnaissance produced by Bolivia's superior air force in spotting approaching Paraguayan encirclements of Bolivian forces
6615-470: The Bolivians to abandon Ballivián and to form a new defensive line at Villa Montes . On 27 November 1934, Bolivian generals confronted Salamanca while he was visiting their headquarters in Villa Montes and forced him to resign. They replaced him with Vice President José Luis Tejada . On 9 November 1934, the 12,000-man-strong Bolivian Cavalry Corps managed to capture Yrendagüé and to put the Paraguayan Army on
6750-407: The Bolivians to surrender. The Paraguayans had expected to lay a new siege on Fortín Arce, the most advanced Bolivian outpost in the Chaco, but when they got there, they found it in ruins. The 4,000 Bolivians who were defending Arce had retreated to the southeast to Fortín Alihuatá and Saveedra . In December 1932, Bolivia's war mobilization had concluded. In terms of weaponry and manpower, its army
6885-730: The Cervantes Prize, an award given by the Spanish government for lifetime achievement, and Spanish language literature's most prestigious prize, which he received in 1989. Roa Bastos donated most of his prize money to provide easier access to books in Paraguay. In 1995, he received Paraguay's National Prize for Literature . In 1997 France distinguished him as Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur . The writing of Roa Bastos spans four countries, six decades, and countless genres. In his lifetime he made important contributions to Latin American Boom writing, to
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#17328945134817020-482: The Chaco War in the 1930s. Its multiple narrative perspectives and historical and political themes anticipate his most famous work, Yo, el Supremo , written more than a decade later. Roa Bastos adapted Hijo de hombre into an award-winning film in the same year as its publication. Roa Bastos further established himself as a screenwriter with the screenplay of Shunko (1960), directed by Lautaro Murúa and based on
7155-424: The Chaco might prove a rich source of petroleum, and foreign oil companies were involved in the exploration. Standard Oil was already producing oil from wells in the high hills of eastern Bolivia, around Villa Montes . However, it is uncertain if the war would have been caused solely by the interests of the companies, not by aims of Argentina to import oil from the Chaco. In opposition to the " dependency theory " of
7290-688: The Chaco region. One month later, on 16 July, a Paraguayan detachment drove the Bolivian troops from the area. The lake had been discovered by Paraguayan explorers in March 1931, but the Bolivian High Command was unaware of that when one of its aircraft spotted the lake in April 1932. After the initial incident, Salamanca changed his status quo policy over the disputed area and ordered the outposts of Corrales, Toledo, and Fortín Boquerón to be captured. All three were soon taken, and in response, Paraguay called for
7425-414: The Chaco, and all Bolivian supplies and soldiers had to travel to the front on badly-maintained dirt roads. Hughes wrote that the Bolivian elite was well aware of the logistical problems but that throughout the war, Bolivia's leaders had a "fatalistic" outlook. It took for granted that the fact that the Bolivian Army had been trained by a German military mission whilst the Paraguayan Army had been trained by
7560-528: The Chaco, who settled there in the 1920s under the auspices of the Paraguayan Parliament, was another factor in favour of Paraguay's claim. The impetus for war was exacerbated by a conflict between oil companies jockeying for exploration and drilling rights, with Royal Dutch Shell backing Paraguay and Standard Oil supporting Bolivia. The discovery of oil in the Andean foothills sparked speculation that
7695-777: The Chaco. Many Paraguayan Army commanders had gained combat experience as volunteers with the French Army in World War I. Its army commander, Colonel (later General and then Marshal) José Félix Estigarribia , soon rose to the top of the combat command. Estigarribia capitalized on the native Guarani knowledge of the forest and ability to live off the land to gain valuable intelligence on conducting his military campaigns. Estigarribia preferred to bypass Bolivian garrisons, and his subordinates, such as Colonel Rafael Franco , proved adept at infiltrating enemy lines often by encircling Bolivian strongholds (Paraguay held over 21,000 prisoners-of-war when
7830-521: The First Battle of Nanawa. The Bolivian two-pronged attack managed to capture parts of the defensive complex but was soon retaken by Paraguayan counterattacks by reserves . The Bolivians lost more than 2,000 men, who were injured or killed in the Second battle of Nanawa, but Paraguay lost only 559, men who were injured or killed. The failure to capture Nanawa and the heavy loss of life led Salamanca to criticize
7965-466: The German MP 40 submachine gun, giving the Colorados superior firepower. Most importantly, Argentina under Juan Perón gave vital support to the government without which they might well have fallen. On April 27 the navy joined the rebellion and shelled Asunción ; they were fought off by the artillery division that had come from Paraguarí , commanded by Gen. Alfredo Stroessner . The largest gunboats of
8100-424: The Paraguay River to Puerto Casado and from there directly to the front lines by railway, but most Bolivian troops had to come from the western highlands, some 800 km away and with little or no logistic support. In fact, it took a Bolivian soldier 14 days to cross the distance, as opposed to a Paraguayan soldier's four. The heavy equipment used by the Bolivian Army made things even worse. The poor water supply and
8235-505: The Paraguayan Army continued its advance by capturing the outposts of Platanillos, Loa, Esteros, and Jayucubás. After the Battle of Campo de Vía in December, the Bolivian Army built up a defensive line at Magariños-La China. The line, carefully built, was considered to be one of the finest defensive lines of the war. However, a small Paraguayan attack on 11 February 1934, managed to breach the line to
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#17328945134818370-692: The Paraguayan naval presence in Bahía Negra. She was withdrawn to the Itenez River , in northern Bolivia, after Bolivian aerial reconnaissance revealed the actual strength of the Paraguayan Navy in the area. On 15 June 1932, a Bolivian detachment captured and burned to the ground the Fortín Carlos Antonio López at Pitiantutá Lake. The captain in charge had disobeyed explicit orders by Bolivian President Daniel Salamanca to avoid provocations in
8505-547: The Paraguayan people and their customs pure by protecting them from the corrupting influence of European and other outside forces. In Yo, el supremo , Roa Bastos is also fundamentally concerned with the power (and the weakness) of writing itself: its plot revolves around the dictator's efforts to uncover who has been forging his signature on a series of pasquinades discovered around the capital, and his relationship with his secretary, Patiño, to whom he dictates his thoughts and orders, but whom he never fully trusts. The novel itself
8640-465: The Paraguayan soldiers. Some M1927 rifles experienced catastrophic receiver failures, a fault that was later traced to faulty ammunition. After the commencement of hostilities, Paraguay captured sufficient numbers of Bolivian VZ-24 rifles and MP 28 submachine guns (nicknamed piripipi ) to equip all of its front-line infantry forces. Paraguay had a population only a third as large as that of Bolivia (880,000 vs. 2,150,000). However, Paraguay gained
8775-405: The Paraguayans continued their attempts to capture Ballivián. It was considered to be a key stronghold by the Bolivians, mostly for its symbolic position, since it was the most southeastern Bolivian position that remained after the second Paraguayan offensive. In November 1934, Paraguayan forces once again managed to surround and to neutralize two Bolivian divisions at El Carmen. The disaster forced
8910-410: The Paraguayans lost only a few dozen men. Some fleeing Bolivian soldiers were reported to have jumped into the fast-flowing waters of the Pilcomayo River to avoid capture. After that defeat, the Bolivian Army prepared for a last stand at Villa Montes . The loss of that base would allow the Paraguayans to reach the proper Andes . Colonel Bernardino Bilbao Rioja and Oscar Moscoso were left in charge of
9045-596: The United States began a campaign to combat communism throughout the Americas, which included supporting right-wing governments and political movements. As a result, the U.S. backed Juan Natalicio Gonzalez , a wealthy landowner and political ally, in leading the 1947 coup against President Morinigo. On the rebels' side were all the political parties except the Colorados, most of the bankers and administrators and 80% of military officers. Out of 11 army divisions, four joined
9180-574: The United States to arm themselves for the coming conflict. It was the need for both sides to import sufficient arms that held back the outbreak of the war to 1932, when both sides felt capable of resorting to arms to settle the long-running dispute. Bolivian infantry forces were armed with the latest in foreign weapons, including DWM Maxim M1904 and M1911 machine guns, Czechoslovak ZB vz. 26 and Vickers-Berthier light machine guns, Mauser-type Czechoslovak Vz. 24 7.65 mm rifles ( mosquetones ) and Schmeisser MP-28 II 9 mm submachine guns. At
9315-483: The average Bolivian had never been anywhere close to the Chaco and "had not the slightest expectation of visiting it in the course of his life." Most Bolivians had little interest in fighting, let alone dying, for the Chaco. Furthermore, the typical Bolivian soldier was a Quechua or Aymara peasant conscript accustomed to life high in the Andes Mountains and did not fare well in the low-lying, hot, and humid land of
9450-519: The book was banned in Argentina, and Roa Bastos was exiled once again, this time to Toulouse , France. In Toulouse Roa Bastos taught Guaraní and Spanish literature at the University of Toulouse . Although he had been allowed to visit Paraguay to work with a new generation of Paraguayan writers, starting in 1970, he was again barred from entry in 1982, for purportedly engaging in subversive activities. There
9585-656: The book was never published. In the early 1940s he spent significant time on the yerba mate plantations in northern Paraguay, an experience he would later draw upon in his first published novel, Hijo de hombre ( 1960; Son of Man ). In 1942 he was appointed editorial secretary for the Asunción daily El País . In 1944 the British Council awarded Roa Bastos a nine-month fellowship for journalism in London . During this time he traveled extensively in Britain, France and Africa and witnessed
9720-443: The captured Bolivian forces. By then, Paraguayan forces had captured so many Bolivian tanks and armored vehicles that Bolivia was forced to purchase Steyr Solothurn 15 mm anti-tank rifles to fend off its own armor. The remaining Bolivian troops withdrew to their headquarters at Muñoz, which was set on fire and evacuated on 18 December. Kundt resigned as chief of staff of the Bolivian Army. The massive defeat at Campo de Vía forced
9855-469: The collection of 17 short stories El trueno entre las hojas (1953; Thunder Among the Leaves ) was published and circulated internationally, but it was not until the 1960 publication of the novel Hijo de hombre ( Son of Man ) that Roa Bastos won major critical and popular success. The novel draws on the oppressive history of Paraguay from the rule of Dr. Jose Gaspar de Francia in the early 19th century until
9990-543: The complex relationships of a contemporary reality – that is to say, by projecting themselves toward a universal world of man.” Thus, one of the major themes in the writing of Roa Bastos is a deep and universal humanism, with a particular focus on suffering Undoubtedly, Roa Bastos's own experiences played a significant role in his emphasis on human suffering. As a young man he fought in the Chaco war between Bolivia and Paraguay, an event he portrayed in Hijo de hombre . Later he saw
10125-507: The conflict between the governing élite and the oppressed masses in Paraguay from 1912 until just after the end of the Chaco War with Bolivia in 1936. Like his later Yo, el Supremo , Hijo de hombre draws upon a series of Paraguayan legends and stories dating back to start of Dr. Francia's dictatorship in 1814. Hijo de hombre builds upon a system of Christian metaphors as part of the Neobaroque concept of Magic Realism , in order to examine
10260-498: The creation of his first major novel Hijo de hombre . The Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga is another important predecessor. Roa Bastos was an exponent of the Neobaroque style that brought Latin American literature to the fore internationally in the mid-20th century. Among others, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is also associated with this school of writing. The style uses a complex system of metaphors that are often very closely tied to
10395-463: The defenses after other high-ranking officers had declined. On 11 January 1935, the Paraguayans encircled and forced the retreat of two Bolivian regiments. The Paraguayans also managed in January to cut off the road between Villa Montes and Santa Cruz . The Paraguayan commander-in-chief, Estigarribia , decided to launch a final assault on Villa Montes. On 7 February 1935, around 5,000 Paraguayans attacked
10530-525: The devastation of WWII at first hand in Europe, the violent strife of 1947 in Paraguay, and the rise of the Argentinian military dictatorship in 1976. His collection of short stories published in 1953, El Trueno entre las Hojas , set the stage for Hijo de hombre and Yo, el Supremo with its dark portrayal of devastating political struggle and oppression. Two decades later, Yo, el Supremo was published, providing
10665-500: The devastation of WWII first hand. He served as the El País war correspondent, notably conducting an interview with General Charles de Gaulle after the latter's return to Paris in 1945. Roa Bastos also broadcast Latin American programs at the invitation of the BBC and France's Ministry of Information. Throughout this eventful period in his life Roa Bastos continued to write and he was considered
10800-419: The dictations and inner thoughts of José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia , the eccentric dictator of Paraguay who ruled with an iron fist, from 1814 until his death in 1840. Roa Bastos's life and writing were marked by experience with dictatorial military regimes. In 1947 he was forced into exile in Argentina, and in 1976 he fled Buenos Aires for France in similar political circumstances. Most of Roa Bastos's work
10935-531: The dictator and freeing the Paraguayan people. Combining autobiography, detective fiction, historical novel and philosophy, the novel examines the question of whether one man has the right to judge another. Helene Carol Weldt-Basson's translation was published in 2018 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Annotated edition (20 February 2018)); she is professor of Spanish and Latin American literature at University of North Dakota. Ruy Díaz de Guzmán's Anales del descubrimiento, población y conquista del Río de la Plata ,
11070-583: The divisional level. At the insistence of the Minister of War General Hans Kundt , Bolivia purchased a number of light tanks and tankettes for support of infantry forces. German instructors provided training to the mostly-Bolivian crews, who received eight weeks' training. The Vickers light tanks bought by Bolivia were the Vickers Type A and Type B, commissioned into the Bolivian army in December 1932 and were originally painted in camouflage patterns. Hampered by
11205-411: The dry climate of the region played a key role during the conflict. There were thousands of non-combat casualties from dehydration , mostly by the Bolivian troops. The Chaco War is also important historically as the first instance of large-scale aerial warfare to take place in the Americas. Both sides used obsolete single-engined biplane fighter-bombers. The Paraguayans deployed 14 Potez 25s , and
11340-477: The emancipation of their homeland. Roa Bastos started out writing poetry in the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque traditions. Later he took on "a new sensibility" in response to the poetry of Valle-Inclán , Juan Ramón Jiménez , and García Lorca . However, it is as a prose-fiction writer Roa Bastos has built his considerable reputation, through his novels and numerous short stories. Roa Bastos's novels blend
11475-463: The exploitation and oppression of the indigenous and peasant peoples of Paraguay, which would become a prominent theme in his writing. In 1932 the territorial Chaco War began between Paraguay and Bolivia and continued until 1935. At some point, perhaps as late as 1934, Roa Bastos joined the Paraguayan army as a medical auxiliary. The war would have a profound effect on the future writer who said: "when I left for that war I dreamed of purification in
11610-514: The fire of battles." Instead of glory he found "maimed bodies" and "destruction" which left him to question "why two brother countries like Bolivia and Paraguay were massacring each other", and as a consequence Roa Bastos became a pacifist. Directly after the war he worked as a bank clerk and later as a journalist. During this time he began writing plays and poetry. In 1941 Roa Bastos won the Ateneo Paraguayo prize for Fulgencia Miranda , although
11745-518: The first night air attack in South America when they raided the Bolivian outposts of Vitriones and San Juan, on 22 December 1934. The Paraguayan Navy has celebrated ever since the annual "Day of the Naval Air Service" on the anniversary of the action. The Bolivian Army deployed at least 10 locally-built patrol boats and transport vessels during the conflict, mostly to ship military supplies to
11880-410: The front lines via the Paraguay River , as well as by providing anti-aircraft support to transport ships and port facilities. The Humaitá and Paraguay , two Italian-built gunboats, ferried troops to Puerto Casado . On 22 December 1932, three Bolivian Vickers Vespas attacked the Paraguayan riverine outpost of Bahía Negra, on the Paraguay River, and killed an army colonel, but one of the aircraft
12015-597: The genre of novelas de dictadores or dictator novels , and also to the Latin American Boom , a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Yo, el supremo is also an important milestone in the evolution of the historical novel genre. "Yo, el supremo weaves a plethora of formats into a single work: history, novel, sociological essay, moral philosophy, biographical novel , revolutionary pamphlet, testimonial documentary, poetic prose, autobiographic confession, ideological debate over literary limits, and linguistic treatise on
12150-520: The geography and difficult terrain of the Gran Chaco, combined with scarce water sources and inadequate logistical preparations, the Bolivian superiority in vehicles (water-cooled), tanks, and towed artillery did not prove decisive in the end. Thousands of truck and vehicle engines succumbed to the thick Chaco dust, which also jammed the heavy water-cooled machine guns employed by both sides. Having relatively few artillery pieces of its own, Paraguay purchased
12285-521: The heavily fortified Bolivian lines near Villa Montes with the aim of capturing the oilfields at Nancarainza , but they were beaten back by the Bolivian First Cavalry Division. The Paraguayans lost 350 men and were forced to withdraw north toward Boyuibé. Estigarribia claimed that the defeat was largely because of the mountainous terrain in which his forces were not used to fighting. On 6 March, Estigarribia again focused all his efforts on
12420-457: The hot, dry forest. The Bolivian Cavalry Corps had been considered one of the best units of the new army that was formed after the armistice. In February 1934, Emilio Sfeir—a Lebanese-Bolivian merchant residing in Jujuy , Argentina—masterminded the planning and execution of the capture, in Argentine territory, of Juan Valori, the most important Paraguayan spy of the Chaco War. After the collapse of
12555-458: The ill-fated attack on Nanawa and the failures at Fernández and Toledo, Kundt ordered an assault on Fortín Alihuatá . The attack on the fortín overwhelmed its few defenders. The capture of Alihuatá allowed the Bolivians to cut the supply route of the Paraguayan First Division. When the Bolivians were informed of the isolation of the First Division, they launched an attack on it. The attack led to
12690-466: The intervention of two other Bolivian regiments. The success of the Paraguayan Army led Paraguayan President Eusebio Ayala to travel to the Chaco to promote José Félix Estigarribia to the rank of general. In that meeting, Ayala approved Estigarribia's new offensive plan. On the other side, the Bolivians gave up their initial plan of reaching the Paraguayan capital, Asunción , and switched to defensive and attrition warfare. The Paraguayan Army executed
12825-438: The land, flora and culture of the particular writer, especially in the case of Roa Bastos. Magic realism is a Neobaroque concept that applies such systems of metaphor to otherwise realistic settings ( Yo, el Supremo being a notable example of the form). The Neobaroque style was used by many Paraguayan writers in exile after 1947 and until the 1980s. At the core of much of the work from this group are ideas of political freedom and
12960-518: The limits of verbal expression." El Fiscal (1993; The Prosecutor ), is the third novel of the trilogy written by Augusto Roa Bastos. These three works contemplate what the author has termed “the monotheism of power.” The Prosecutor explores the atrocities of the Alfredo Stroessner dictatorship in Paraguay, which lasted from 1954 to 1989. The novel links the protagonist to Paraguay's past as he struggles to give meaning to his life by assassinating
13095-427: The memoirs of a country school teacher. In 1961 he once again collaborated with Murúa for Alias Gardelito (1961), which depicted the lives of urban petty criminals and became a major independent film of the nuevo cine movement. In 1974 Roa Bastos published his influential masterpiece Yo, el Supremo , the result of seven years' work. When Jorge Rafael Videla 's military dictatorship came to power in 1976, however,
13230-549: The northern Chaco through the Mamoré - Madeira system. The transport ships Presidente Saavedra and Presidente Siles steamed on the Paraguay River from 1927 to the beginning of the war, when both units were sold to private companies. The 50-ton armed launch Tahuamanu , based in the Mamoré-Madeira fluvial system, was briefly transferred to Laguna Cáceres to ferry troops downriver from Puerto Suárez and challenged for eight months
13365-426: The northern and the northeastern fronts, the Bolivian defenses focused on the south to avoid the fall of their war headquarters and supply base at Villa Montes . The Paraguayans launched an attack towards Ybybobó and isolated some of the Bolivian forces on the Pilcomayo River. The battle began on 28 December 1934 and lasted until early January 1935. It caused 200 Bolivian troops to be killed and 1,200 to surrender, but
13500-552: The novels Hijo de hombre (1960; Son of Man ) and El fiscal (1993; The Prosecutor ), as well as numerous other novels, short stories, poems, and screenplays. Roa Bastos was born in Asunción on 13 June 1917. He spent his childhood in Iturbe , a provincial town in the Guaira region where his father was an administrator on a sugar plantation. It was here, some 200 kilometres (120 mi) to
13635-925: The outset, the Paraguayan troops used a motley collection of small arms, including the German Maxim, the British Vickers , the Browning MG38 water-cooled machine guns, and the Danish Madsen light machine gun. The primary service rifle was the M1927 7.65 mm Paraguayan Long Rifle, a Mauser design based on the M1909 Argentine Long Rifle and manufactured by the Oviedo arsenal in Spain. The M1927 rifle, which tended to overheat in rapid fire, proved highly unpopular with
13770-403: The pain of being Paraguayan. This novel contrasts two figures: Miguel Vera and Cristóbal Jara. Vera narrates the odd chapters, although he might also be the narrator of all nine chapters (this is unclear). He is a well-to-do and educated romantic supporter of revolution, who is unable to take real action to support his ideals and in the end betrays them (not unlike Judas). Jara, on the other hand,
13905-506: The present and past by creating scenes with myths from pre-colonial times and Christian legends, developing a special kind of Magic Realism, although there are significant stylistic variations between his major novels. The majority of Roa Bastos's work was written in exile owing to the oppressive political condition of his country, at a time when Paraguay was one of the least culturally, economically, and politically developed countries in Latin America. Thus, much of Roa Bastos's important writing
14040-454: The rebels: on March 8 the two infantry divisions at Concepcion rebelled, joined by the two Chaco infantry divisions a few days later. On the government's side were the Colorados, three cavalry divisions at Campo Grande; three Asunción divisions (infantry, signallers and engineers) and the artillery division from Paraguari equipped with World War II American weapons, specifically M1 Garand rifles and American-supplied captured weapons such as
14175-471: The related Dictator Novel, and to the Nuevo Cine film movement through screenplays like Alias Gardelito (1961). Roa Bastos's influence can be found in the works of many foreign post-boom writers, including Mempo Giardinelli , Isabel Allende , Eraclio Zepeda , Antonio Skármeta , Saul Ibargoyen , and Luisa Valenzuela . The most important author to come out of Paraguay, he also remains highly influential for
14310-476: The relationship between the two languages as "an almost schizophrenic split not only on communicational levels of the spoken language, but also and quite particularly in the literary language." Over the course of his career, Roa Bastos received a diversity of honors and distinctions. In 1941 he won the Ateneo Paraguayo Prize for his (unpublished) novel Fulgencio Miranda . This first award was followed by
14445-400: The revision of Paraguayan history, social literature, exploration of collective memory and the universe of poetic symbols. Barrett's essay "Lo que son los yerbales" is a severe critique of the exploitation of workers on yerba mate tea plantations. Roa Bastos spent part of the early 1940s documenting this same issue and there is much speculation about the role of "Lo que son los yerbales" in
14580-557: The run. Yrendagüé was one of the few places with fresh water in that part of the Chaco. Although the Bolivian cavalry was marching towards La Faye from Yrendagüé, a Paraguayan force recaptured all of the wells in Yrendague. Therefore, upon their return, the exhausted and thirsty Bolivian troops found themselves without water. The already-weakened force fell apart. Many were taken prisoner, and many of those who had avoided capture died of thirst and exposure after they had wandered aimlessly through
14715-499: The screen. His first novel since Yo, el Supremo , Vigilia del almirante (1992; Vigil of the Admiral ) was published in 1992, and El fiscal (1993; The Prosecutor ) the following year. Although neither of his later novels had the impact of his earlier work, El fiscal is considered an important work. Roa Bastos died on 26 April 2005 in Asunción from a heart attack. He was survived by his three children, his third wife, Iris Giménez, and
14850-462: The siege area. A few Bolivian units managed to enter Fortín Boquerón with supplies, and the Bolivian Air Force dropped food and ammunition to the besieged soldiers. Having begun on 9 September, the siege ended when Fortín Boquerón finally fell on 29 September 1932. After the fall of Fortín Boquerón, the Paraguayans continued their offensive and executed a pincer movement , which forced some of
14985-423: The south of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción, that Roa Bastos learned to speak both Spanish and Guaraní , the language of Paraguay's indigenous people. At the age of ten he was sent to school in Asunción where he stayed with his uncle, Hermenegildo Roa, the liberal bishop of Asunción. His uncle's extensive personal library provided the young Roa Bastos with his first exposure to the classical Spanish literature of
15120-419: The surprise of the Paraguayan command, which forced the abandonment of the whole line. A Paraguayan offensive towards Cañada Tarija managed to surround and to neutralize 1,000 Bolivian troops on 27 March. In May 1934, the Paraguayans discovered a gap in the Bolivian defenses, which would allow them to isolate the Bolivian stronghold of Ballivián and to force its surrender. The Paraguayans worked all night to open
15255-554: The troops' barracks usually consisted in no more than a few mud huts. The Bolivian government formally regretted the death of Rojas Silva, but Paraguayan public opinion called it "murder." After subsequent talks arranged in Buenos Aires failed to produce any agreement and eventually collapsed in January 1928, the dispute grew violent. On 5 December 1928, a Paraguayan cavalry unit overran Fortin Vanguardia, an advance outpost established by
15390-520: The upper hand because of its innovative style of fighting, centered on rapid marches and flanking encirclements, compared to Bolivia's more conventional strategy. In June 1932, the Paraguayan Army totaled about 4,026 men (355 combat officers, 146 surgeons and non-combatant officers, 200 cadets, 690 NCOs and 2,653 soldiers). Both racially and culturally, the Paraguayan Army was practically homogeneous. Almost all of its soldiers were European-Guaraní mestizos . Bolivia's army, however, were mostly descended from
15525-437: The war ended, Bolivia some 2,500). Both sides resorted to entrenched strongpoints and used barbed wire, mortars, machineguns, and mines with interlocking fields of fire. Paraguay's war effort was total. Buses were commandeered to transport troops, wedding rings were donated to buy weapons, and Paraguay had by 1935 widened conscription to include 17-year-olds and policemen. Perhaps the most important advantage enjoyed by Paraguay
15660-403: The war". The historian Bret Gustafson, on the other hand, argues that "the blurred lines between the bank and the oil industry show that [Standard Oil] did indeed finance the Bolivian build-up, even if instigating the war was left to Bolivian generals." The first confrontation between the two countries dates back to 1885, when the Bolivian entrepreneur Miguel Araña Suárez founded Puerto Pacheco,
15795-464: The war's origins, the British historian Matthew Hughes argued against the thesis that Bolivian and Paraguayan governments were the "puppets" of Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell respectively by writing: "In fact, there is little hard evidence available in the company and government archives to support the theory that oil companies had anything to do with causing the war or helping one side or the other during
15930-413: Was a prolific period. Roa Bastos said this in reference to his exile: I can't complain...Exile brought out in me, in addition to a revulsion against violence and against depreciation of the human condition, a feeling for the universality of man. Exile lent me perspectives from which to know my own country from other people's point of view, and from which to live for the enormity of its misfortune. In 1953
16065-445: Was already in the conflict's zone, with 6,000 men. The breaking of the fragile status quo in the disputed areas of the Chaco by Bolivia convinced Paraguay that a diplomatic solution on agreeable terms was impossible. Paraguay gave its general staff orders to recapture the three forts. In August, Paraguay mobilized over 10,000 troops and sent them into the Chaco region. Paraguayan Lieutenant Colonel José Félix Estigarribia prepared for
16200-503: Was also known as "Dr. Francia". The book's title derives from the fact that Francia referred to himself as "El Supremo" or "The Supreme." The first in a long line of dictators, The Supreme was a severe, calculating despot. He ruled absolutely from 1814 until his death in 1840, and is a unique figure in Latin American history. The goal of his rule mirrored that of the Jesuits who had ruled Paraguay for much of its history before him: to keep
16335-416: Was centralized and led by the state-owned national dockyards, managed by José Bozzano . The Paraguayan Army received its first consignment of carumbe'i grenades in January 1933. The Paraguayans took advantage of their ability to communicate over the radio in Guaraní, a language not spoken by the average Bolivian soldier. Paraguay had little trouble in transporting its army in large barges and gunboats on
16470-587: Was chosen as the main target of the Bolivian offensive and was to be followed by the command centre at Isla Poí . Their capture would allow Bolivia to reach the Paraguay River and to endanger the Paraguayan city of Concepción . The capture of the fortines of Corrales, Toledo, and Fernández by the Bolivian Second Corps were also part of Kundt's offensive plan. In January 1933, the Bolivian First Corps began its attack on Fortín Nanawa. The stronghold
16605-492: Was considered by the Paraguayans to be the backbone of their defenses. It had zig-zag trenches; kilometres of barbed wire; and many machine-gun nests, some of which were embedded in tree trunks. The Bolivian troops had stormed the nearby Paraguayan outpost of Mariscal López, which isolated Nanawa from the south. On 20 January 1933, Kundt, who personally commanded the Bolivian force, launched six to nine aircraft and 6,000 unhorsed cavalry supported by 12 Vickers machine guns . However,
16740-589: Was defeated and forced to surrender at Ingavi, in the northern front, after a last attempt had been made to reach the Paraguay River. On 12 June, the day that the ceasefire agreement was signed, Paraguayan troops were entrenched only 15 km away from the Bolivian oil fields in Cordillera Province . Paraguayan Civil War (1947) [REDACTED] Paraguayan Government [REDACTED] Military of Paraguay [REDACTED] Colorado militias Supported by: The Paraguayan Civil War (also known as
16875-496: Was fought from 1932 to 1935 between Bolivia and Paraguay , over the control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region (known in Spanish as Chaco Boreal ) of South America, which was thought to be rich in oil . The war is also referred to as La Guerra de la Sed (Spanish for "The War of Thirst") in literary circles since it was fought in the semi-arid Chaco. The bloodiest interstate military conflict fought in South America in
17010-505: Was largely ignored by Kundt and other Bolivian Army generals, who tended to dismiss such reports as exaggerations by overzealous airmen. Four Junkers Ju 52s were purchased by Bolivia, which used the German transports mainly for medical evacuation and air supply. The Ju 52s alone delivered more than 4,400 tons of cargo to the front. The Paraguayan Navy played a key role in the conflict by carrying thousands of troops and tons of supplies to
17145-545: Was primarily academic, and his literary output did not match that of his time in Argentina. In 1985 Roa Bastos retired from the University of Toulouse. Following the downfall of the oppressive Alfredo Stroessner regime in 1989, Roa Bastos returned to Paraguay at the request of its new leader Andrés Rodríguez . Following the toppling of the Stroessner regime, Roa Bastos won the Premio Cervantes (Cervantes Prize), awarded by
17280-539: Was published. During the 1947 Paraguayan Civil War , Roa Bastos was forced to flee to Buenos Aires , Argentina, because he had spoken out against President Higinio Moríñigo . About 500,000 of his fellow Paraguayans left for Argentina at the same time. Roa Bastos remained in Argentina until just before the establishment of the military dictatorship there in 1976, and he did not return permanently to Paraguay until 1989. He found exile difficult, but his time in Buenos Aires
17415-499: Was ready to overpower the Paraguayans. General Hans Kundt , a former German officer who had fought on the Eastern Front of World War I , was called by Salamanca to lead the Bolivian counteroffensive. Kundt had served intermittently as military advisor to Bolivia since the beginning of the century and had established good relationships with officers of the Bolivian Army and the country's political elites. The Paraguayan Fortín Nanawa
17550-516: Was shot down by the gunboat Tacuary . Both surviving Vespas met another gunboat, the Humaitá , while they were flying downriver. Paraguayan sources claim that one of them was damaged. Conversely, the Bolivian army reported that the Humaitá limped back to Asunción seriously damaged. The Paraguayan Navy admitted that Humaitá was struck by machine gun fire from the aircraft but claimed that its armor shield averted damage. Shortly before 29 March 1933,
17685-509: Was strafed and mistakenly bombed by Bolivian aircraft while it was sailing the Paraguay River near Puerto Mihanovich . The Brazilian government sent 11 naval planes to the area, and its navy began to convoy shipping on the river. The Paraguayan navy air service was also very active in the conflict by harassing Bolivian troops deployed along the northern front with flying boats . The aircraft were moored at Bahía Negra Naval Air Base, and consisted of two Macchi M.18s . The seaplanes carried out
17820-448: Was that the Paraguayans had a rail network running to the Chaco with five narrow-gauge railroads totaling some 428 kilometres (266 mi) running from the ports on the Paraguay River to the Chaco, which allowed the Paraguayan Army to bring men and supplies to the front far more effectively than the Bolivians ever managed. In 1928, the British legation in La Paz reported to London that it took
17955-714: Was the former work that cemented his place as a significant literary figure. According to Juan Manuel Marcos, Yo, el Supremo "anticipates many of the post-boom writing techniques" such as "the carnivalization of historical discourse, transtextualization, and parody". Mexican literary great, Carlos Fuentes has called Yo, el Supremo one of the milestones in Latin American literature. While his reputation rests on his novels, Roa Bastos's achievements in film, creative writing, and journalism add further substance to his legacy. Chaco War [REDACTED] Paraguay [REDACTED] Bolivia The Chaco War (Spanish: Guerra del Chaco , Guarani : Cháko Ñorairõ )
18090-464: Was the role of the writer to directly engage in the interpretation of both contemporary and historical events. Rather than be the objective "chronicler", he thought the writer should engage morally with the social problems depicted in the writing. According to Roa Bastos, ”literary activity has come to signify the necessity for facing up to a destiny, the will to enlist in the vital reality of a collectivity, in its true moral context and social structure, in
18225-452: Was written in exile, but this did not deter him from fiercely tackling Paraguayan social and historical issues in his work. Writing in a Spanish that was at times heavily augmented by Guaraní words (the major Paraguayan indigenous language), Roa Bastos incorporated Paraguayan myths and symbols into a Baroque style known as magical realism . He is considered a late-comer to the Latin American Boom literary movement. Roa Bastos's canon includes
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