Alma Guaraní: The Paradoxical Cultural Identity of Paraguayan Music

Music, Meaning and Value in Paraguayan Song - Alfredo C Colman

Timothy D. Watkins [+-]
Texas Christian University
Timothy D. Watkins is Associate Professor of Musicology at Texas Christian University. His research centers on the musical consequences of the encounter between European and Indigenous cultures in the Americas. His articles and reviews have appeared in Ars LYRICA, The Journal of Musicological Research, The Journal of Music History Pedagogy, The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music, The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, and elsewhere. He is the editor of Performance Practice: Issues and Approaches, published by Steglein Press and of the forthcoming Handbook of Folk and Popular Music of Hispanic South America, published by Rowman & Littlefield. He is also working on a monograph on the importance of Guaraní cultural identity to Paraguayan musical nationalism.

Description

Though less than three percent of Paraguay’s population is Indigenous, Paraguayan national identity is closely linked to the culture of the Guarani Indians that dominated the area at the time of the arrival of Europeans. Europeans were always a small minority in Paraguay, and the Paraguayan population quickly developed a relatively homogenous mestizo ethnic identity. Though by definition a mixture of European and Indian, this mestizo identity has come to be understood in ways that highlight its continuity with Indigenous Guarani elements over European ones in such cultural expressions as language, foodways, folk medicine, mythology and even religion. While many aspects of Paraguayan culture do in fact derive from Indigenous ones, music is a prominent exception; both Paraguayan música folclórica (folk music) and concert music are overwhelmingly stylistically European. Paradoxically, despite its thoroughly European nature, Paraguayan music has been bestowed a Guarani identity precisely because it is Paraguayan. This article examines the centrality of this mythical Guarani heritage to notions of musical paraguayidad (Paraguayan-ness) in such varied contexts as the language, topics, and traditional instruments of Paraguayan folk musics; the creation of the popular guarania genre in the 1920s as an intentionally nationalistic music expression; the stage persona and music of the guitarist Agustín Barrios (1885-1944); and the reception of the music of the Italian Jesuit missionary composer Domenico Zipoli (1688-1726), and its incorporation into the national Guarani mythos.

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Citation

Watkins, Timothy. Alma Guaraní: The Paradoxical Cultural Identity of Paraguayan Music. Music, Meaning and Value in Paraguayan Song. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. Oct 2026. ISBN 9781000000000. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=44105. Date accessed: 07 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.44105. Oct 2026

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