"This involves Paraguay and artisanal beer, so obviously: you." Thus wrote a good friend as he sent me the link to the following story. A better compliment I cannot imagine. Burkhard Bilger's New Yorker piece "A Better Brew: The Rise of Extreme Beer" chronicles John Gasparine's, professional wood expert and amateur beer specialist, treks to Paraguay to procure palo santo, a local hardwood, to build a 9,000 gallon barrel for Dogfish Head, an excellent brewery in Delaware. Palo Santo, Bulnesia sarmientoi, is native to the Chaco, the dry north-west region of Paraguay (bordering Bolivia and Argentina) much of which is impassable and unpaved (though my friend Richard Lavielle, a French photographer based in Asunción, has ventured into it to take amazing photographs). It's increidibly hard and fragrant and used in indigenous religious ceremonies (see The Curse of Nemur) as well as in aging alcoholic beverages (wine and beer).



Tom Gjelten's new book Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba: The Biography of a Cause is fashioned like a cigar box. The NPR correspondent looks at Cuba through the lens of one of its most famous families and products. And, in the spirit of an honest grad student, I must admit that I haven't yet thumbed through it, but can, in the spirit of an intrepid grad student nevertheless, still make a comment about it: The 1862 founder of the company, Facundo Bacardi, was a French Catalan immigrant, one of a larger migration in the mid 19th century as Cuba attempted (and, unlike Argentina, generally unsuccessfully) a whitening of its population via European immigration. He brings to mind another significant Cuban-Catalan culinary contributor (no lie, the alliteration was unintentional): Juan Cabrisas who, in 1858, wrote one of the first Cuban cookbooks Nuevo manual de la cocinera Catalana y Cubana which I discuss in my new article in the Latin American Research Review.

"Why are you here? Don't you know that we're terrorists?" the two Syrian women asked me and my friend Jane with jesting smiles after we approached them in Damascus to ask directions to the Old City and the Umayyad Mosque. Then they, of course, cheerfully helped us get to Old City (one of the most wondrous places I've ever seen). After our initial inquiry (it's policy for me as a female traveler to ask other women for help and directions when I travel abroad) they had asked the obvious question when chatting to obvious tourists and we had answered honestly. I don't understand why Americans prevaricate and say things like "Canadian" to that question--I'm not embarrassed. And I'm not trying to avoid the conversation about US foreign policy that often ensues. In the little bit of international travel I've been incredibly fortunate to do, I've heard criticisms, again and again, of the United States. A lot of anger against "unilateralism" and "arrogrance" and "yankee imperialism."

Which is why the last month has shocked me.

On the night of November 4, I joined a group of my friends at the Centro Cultural Paraguayo-Americano's election party to watch as the results of the US Presidential election rolled in. As states were called by networks and shaded from gray to either blue or red, cheers erupted in different sections on the lawn. A couple of the waiters took extra special care to make sure that our foursome had all the drinks and snacks we could want. And asking us how things were going "for us." Because "we"--the three PhD candidates, the professional clarinetist, and the Paraguayan waiters--were hoping for an Obama victory.

There's a stunning level of goodwill and outright affection towards the United States. Paraguayan taxi drivers and journalists in Paris were quick to congratulate me on November 5 and with such a glow of delight spoke of the example the United States is to the rest of the world. The recriminations stopped and instead an effusion of admiration for the "leadership" of the United States began. "Solo en los Estados Unidos," I have heard said repeatedly in the last few weeks with unbridled warmth and, to be truthful, idealization. I had just assumed that the "Anti-Americanism" I'd encountered for years was the norm but instead I've found a euphoric desire for the United States to succeed, to do well, and to bring "peace" to the world.

Highlights include:

The drunk (?) man who kept crying out "brujas" (witches) and making the sign of the cross to ward off the evil of the women as they carried the coffin (representing the death of justice).


The poem recited by the women of the funeral procession, which reminded me of the chorus in Greek tragedies.


The most beautifully haunting song I've heard in Paraguay... I don't know the name of it and I don't know who sang it and this is only a little clip in a poorly recorded sound file. Err... I'll figure out how to load that up later?


Here's a bit of video from one of the dramatic presentations... In the US, this treads a bit too close to what looks like satire for a theme so serious, but perhaps there's a different cultural sensibility here?

I think street art, with the way it uses public space and is constrained by surfaces the artist cannot control (a dented pole, an uneven brick wall already layered with half stuck sheets of paper and old peeling paint), is both fascinating and beautiful and incredibly innovative.

Muto, a project by Italian street artist Blu, submits animation to the boundaries of graffiti and the result, well, take a look:



Art is political, but while I don't know whether Blu means to, this does speak to the violent torture regime that governed Argentina during the dictatorship of the 70s and 80s.

Hat tip: Ned Batchelder's blog (via a friend's suggestion).

In other news, Mawatres, a Spanish street artist I met in New York, has a blog worth checking out, too. Here's just a sample from his fotolog.

Monday, November 24 at 9pm, in front of the Panteon de los Heroes, there'll be a vigil to protest the decision to incarcerate Zully Samudio for killing a man who broke into her apartment as he attempted to force himself on her with his own gun.

The Panteon commemorates the "heroes" of the nation, most notably those who defended "la patria" (the homeland). The women's rights and justice groups by staging the vigil at the Panteon are using a powerful symbol of the Paraguayan nation, appealing to more than just the government or the state and instead directly addressing the people of Paraguay.

This vigil, on the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, kicks off a 16-day campaign of Activism Against Violence Against Women (la Campaña 16 Días de Activismo Contra la Violencia hacia la Mujer).

Women's activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).

Verdict: Effective abroad, but severely challenged at home.

Solution? Judicial reform. I think his top priority actually needs to be a change in the judiciary. The court system is filled with political appointees of the 6 decade Colorado reign, which means that they have profited from and abetted the corrupt administration of a torturing dictatorship, graft-practicing politicians, personalist politics coopting rural campesino and indigenous groups, swindling water engineers, dishonest international business interests.

Lugo entered office in an unprecedented election where, despite coup threats and electoral fraud, an opposition candidate won the highest office of the land for the first time in 6 decades. Expectations were extremely high on August 15th when he took office, to the dismay of the political economic establishment, which had benefited from a relatively unchallenged and unchanged system of routine graft and legal impunity. My basic assessment of his presidency is thus:

1) 100 days is not very much time to make substantial changes anywhere and, given the level of hope attached to Lugo's presidency, there's bound to be disappointment and disaffection.

2) "The head has changed, but the body remains the same." The power of the executive to implement change is continually challenged by a political system still dominated by traditional elites. New legislation and politices are countered, somewhat effectively, at every turn.

3) A changing politics. Nevertheless, traditional elites do feel threatened by Lugo and what he represents and so are fighting publicly to retain their hold on power structures. The open escalation of conflict within political parties, the daily attempts to destabilize the governing coalition from within evidence this.


So, for a more detailed assessment:

International Posture: Lugo has successfully consolidated his international reputation as a legitimate and respected sovereign. His multiple trips to the United States, his meetings with heads of states throughout the region, the pledges of financial support and investment from governments and private foundations all signal an international confidence that this is "someone with whom we can work." The early rumors of a coup plot in the works drew a resounding and immediate disapproval from governments in the region, effectively eliminating that as an option and demonstrating that there's been a significant shift in the political options of the western hemisphere. "The Cold War is over," responded former US Ambassador James Cason when asked about the United States' opinion about the election of a left-leaning president in Paraguay.

This international stature is a threat at home and several politicians have grumbled that Lugo should travel less.

Rural Crisis: Paraguay is one of the least urbanized countries in the western hemisphere and plagued with a land distribution problem that's extreme, even for Latin America. The situation of the rural farmer (the peasant or the campesino) is at a boiling point, as a glance at any Paraguayan daily shows. The unequal rule of law is at the heart of these struggles.

Campesino groups are calling for the enforcement of existing environmental laws that prohibit the spraying of pesticides onto non-farm land, which has induced miscarriages, birth defects, and death among campesinos and for enforcement of land tenure laws that were intended to keep land in Paraguayan hands. The prime culprits are the sojeros, the large-scale soy producers (many of them from Brazil) who, with the aid of abetting Paraguayan officials, force farmers off their lands or takeover Indian lands and who have at their recourse wealth but lack political representation (in one way they're very empowered, in another they feel disenfranchised). For their part, urban residents, large land-holders, and Brazilians living in Paraguay are troubled by the heightening protests that block the streets and by land occupations where campesinos perch themselves on properties they wanted expropriated.

Last week, Lugo decided to form a "mesa" for agrarian reform.

Water Sovereignty (Itaipú and Yacyreta): Paraguay is a net electricity exporter with two large hydroelectric plants at border points with Brazil and Argentina. Due to a number of factors (the enumeration of which will be part of my dissertation), it receives less than a fair share of the wealth produced by these two dams. Lugo made the renegotiation of injurious water treaties and the honest administration of these binational agencies core to his campaign. To that end, he appointed two new general directors to implement internal changes and to bring Brazil and Argentina to the negotiating table.

But Brazil isn't too eager to let go of such a favorable energy agreement (it pays Paraguay $2 to $3 per mWh... about $50 below market price). And construction on Yacyreta still isn't finished (though the initial agreement was signed in the 1920s). Meanwhile, both agencies are rife with rumors of Paraguayan corruption (financing the ANR political campaign, burning documents, functionaries pocketing money).

Partisan bickering: See everything everyday in all of Paraguay for more details. Political party : Paraguay :: Race : United States. Perhaps even (Race : United States)^2.

This may look like sun-brewed iced tea, but, nay, it's Argentine fuel smuggled into Paraguay. The price of oil has dropped over the past few months, as we all know well (which raises uncomfortable questions like: Has the demand for oil really plummeted 50%? What does that say about the economy? How unreasonably inflated was the price of oil?). The Paraguayan state oil/gas company, though, hasn't adjusted the price of fuel sold in the country and so people have taken to bringing over the goods from Argentina and selling them at market-prices.

Meanwhile, Paraguay accounts for 15% of global marijuana production. Most of this goes to the Brazilian market. As the country undertakes agrarian reform in an unprecedented way, as campesinos block streets and occupy large land-holdings, as homeless peasants and indigenous groups are forced off their own titled land, as soy producers indiscriminately spray pesticides on farm and village alike leading to miscarriages and deformed babies, this just adds another twist to the tangled knot.

More problems with Brazilian troops too close to the Paraguayan border, this time just north of Itaipú at Salto de Guaira. Brazil's ambassador, summoned to give an explanation, said that the border was not crossed.

Itaipú is all about Plan C.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to explore the innards of Itaipú Binacional, thanks to a set of fortunate circumstances (which will be detailed in my book*). Itaipú is the world's largest energy producing dam at the center of much controversy and a key part of my dissertation (remember aforementioned book?).

But, it's also straight up an astonishing engineering feat that, executed so well on the technical side, it gave me a much deeper respect for engineers in general. These guys (gender neutral) could build the starship Enterprise. A good engineer has multiple contigency plans-- and this is laced throughout the dam.

The three rows of buttons? Separate systems in case the controls for the elevators go down.



Everything goes to ground.

The floors are marked by meters above sea level.



The still-functioning control panels on the walls, befitting the original Star Trek, have been replaced by the flatscreen computer terminals you see. But, should the computers and the control panels fail (plans A and B), there's always the original manual lever system a few hundred meters below. The left (top?) is Brazil's half of the turbines, the right (bottom?) is Paraguay's.



And this? Well... the beginning of an ongoing project to record the humorously gendered restroom signs I see in Paraguay. Unlike the United States, these are by no means standardized or homogenous.

* when, one magical day, I'm done writing up my dissertation research and actually, dream of all dreams, writing up a book draft!

Zully Samudio shot Brígido Javier Peralta Souza when he broke into her apartment to rape her on March 29, 2006. In the struggle as he attacked her, the gun he carried with him went off, and he died.

For this, Ms. Samudio will go to prison.

Beginning today, the UN auditorium will host a 60-image exposition of Rafael Urzúa's photographs taken during a two-month journey following the Lugo campaign around Paraguay as the opposition candidate successfully (seen from hindsight) made his case for the presidency.

(In case they choose not to print it, here it is...)

Sir,

I write to clear up an international controversy in Paraguay stirred by the public announcement by Electrobrás on page 9 of the October 31 print edition of the Financial Times. The advertisement, showing an aerial photograph of Itaipú Binacional hydroelectric dam, states “Brazilian Energy, now in New York” to celebrate the official listing of Brazil’s federal energy company in the New York Stock Exchange. Itaipú Binacional, as the name suggests, is owned equally by Paraguay and Brazil whereas the photography and text imply otherwise.

Unequal access to the energy produced by the world’s largest hydroelectric plant continues to be a source of conflict and the renegotiation of injurious energy agreements is a central tenet of the agenda of President Fernando Lugo, the popular democratically elected opposition candidate who ended six decades of one-party rule in Paraguay. The presentation of Brazil as solitary owner of Itaipú Binacional raises anxieties within Paraguay as to the intentions of the South American giant and its recognition of Paraguayan sovereignty.

p.s. To see how this incident is being reported in Paraguay, http://www.abc.com.py/2008-11-11/articulos/468557/eletrobras-se-presenta-como-la-duena-absoluta-de-itaipu

I wonder if the fact that his name literally means in Guaraní what many in the US thought it also meant contributed to the immense support President Elect Barack Obama has in Paraguay. In any case, it's quite cool, no?

Paraguay is incredibly pleased with the results of our elections, which several people have commented to me reminds them of theirs. At the Centro Cultural Paraguayo Americano's election watch party last night, only non-Americans (i.e., not citizens of the USA) were allowed to participate in a mock election, which Obama won about 150 to 40. There was also a cute family of Paraguayan kids who sang two stanzas of The Star Spangled Banner. Who knew that there were two? And who knows them?

My other favorite part of the night was the cotton candy machine.

I don't know when I've been so excited by an online find. Paraguay's art (visual, literary, musical) is stunningly high, especially given the isolation and size of population and wealth. Lenguapop (Lenguaje Popular... translated as "popular language," but probably better, "the vernacular") calls itself "a publicity agency that offers creative solutions." But don't let that fool you, they're doing some really sophisticated creative interpretive work on the aural and visual culture of Paraguay. Their home page captures the blend of the rural and the urban in Asunción to a tee... Look out for the guys passing the tereré in the guampa.



These are from a recent project to document urban visual culture in Asunción. For more. Or.

And Como se ingenian los perros. Their blog.

And here is Ultima Hora's story on them.