Gunter's Winter

Introduction

The Concentric Circles

of Juan Manuel Marcos’ Gunter’s Winter

[N.B.: This introduction largely coincides, in title, language, and theory, with the preface to the 2015 bilingual edition of Juan Manuel Marcos’ poetry collection Poemas y canciones (Doral, FL: Stockcero). Naturally, this overlap has the enthusiastic consent of Dr. Marcos. The reasons for the overlap are simple and compelling: 1) the same historical and biographical data are equally applicable to both Gunter’s Winter and Poemas y canciones, 2) most of the poems in the latter are also contained, in novelized form, in the former, 3) the two books are inextricably linked in their publication history, as we shall explain and 4) most importantly, the theory of participatory readership developed in this introduction is essential in understanding both works.]

What the reader has in hand, like any substantial work of literature, is a meeting point, an intersecting of planes that cross in the electricity of the written Word. For that reason, to say simply work by X author, is to give the most trivial detail, unless that statement bears with it some sense of the contextual energy that flowed from the author’s hand onto the page. We begin by affirming, a novel by Juan Manuel Marcos, obviously, but through him, Gunter’s Winter¹ is the work of his time and place, Paraguay in the 1970’s and 1980’s. What is more, it is the work of many times and many places, including yours, dear reader. It is work that by the magnetism of its language, by the vast learning and technical virtuosity of the novelist, and by its blend of private confession and public conscience, draws the reader into a sudden realization of identity with the reading.

To say this of a Paraguayan writer is no small thing, given the historical and cultural circumstances which have always marked Paraguay with a kind of negative exceptionalism, separating it unjustifiably from the rest of Latin America and the international community. It has been hard for other Latin Americans, or for others of any continent, to see in this isolated, supposedly idiosyncratic country, a cipher of their own condition. The genius, however, of Gunter’s Winter is precisely that it projects those marks of difference as marks of a wider, broadly human identity. Paraguay in all its putative idiosyncrasy, in its historic misfortune and its perennial struggle and its transcendence, is us.

Historical Background.

Such an apparently radical statement requires a few basic historical facts, particularly as these will be new to most non-Paraguayan readers. As the reader will observe, we offer this information in full awareness of its adherence to a notably Paraguayan historical perspective, and what is more important for the purposes of this introduction, to a historical perspective with which the novelist himself passionately concurs. No impartiality is intended here with respect to historical figures like Francia, the two López and Stroessner; to events like the War of the Triple Alliance and the Chaco War; or to certain forces that have shaped Paraguay’s trajectory amongst nations. We know, of course, that other interpretations exist, but we also believe it is high time to place amongst them this particularly Paraguayan vision, worthy of consideration and, until now, deeply marginalized outside of Paraguay. Not to offer that vision would mean depriving the reader of the historical perspective that infuses Gunter’s Winter.

Admitting in advance that the information given is anything but comprehensive, we offer it in the form of a chronology²:

1536—The so-called first foundation of Buenos Aires by a group of Spaniards led by Pedro de Mendoza. The new settlement is subsequently destroyed in indigenous attacks.³

1537—The foundation of Asunción, capital of what is today Paraguay, by one of Mendoza’s subordinates, Juan de Salazar. With the destruction of Buenos Aires, Asunción assumes for much of the century, status as a centre of Spanish power throughout the River Plate basin.

1580—The second, definitive founding of Buenos Aires, after which the city grows steadily in size and influence. The second founding is accomplished by forces sent from Asunción, under the command of Juan de Garay.

1587—Arrival of the first Jesuits in the region of Paraguay. Some years later, in 1606, the Jesuit Province of Paraguay is formally established, leading to the founding of a series of mission communities, the reducciones, where indigenous inhabitants of the area are grouped and catechized. The system has the full support of King Felipe II of Spain and his successors, but is an object of hostility from certain elements of the colonial population, both native-born Spaniards and criollos (creoles) born in the New World.⁴

1723—The comunero revolt by the criollos of Asunción against the Spanish governor, Diego de los Reyes Balmaceda. Headed by José de Antequera y Castro, a lawyer from Panama, the revolt is today considered an important forerunner of the 19th-century independence movement, also led by criollos. One motive for the insurrection is criollo resentment against the Jesuits, whose interests Reyes Balmaceda had favoured. The rebels succeed in deposing Reyes, but their rebellion subsequently fails. Their leader Antequera, jailed in Lima, dies by execution in the same city.⁵

1767—Expulsion of the Jesuits from the entire region, by decree of King Carlos III of Spain. Promulgated at the insistence of strong anti-Jesuit elements in Spain and Portugal, the decree undoes a century and a half of Jesuit missionary work in the region and leads to the dismantling of the reducciones, tragically scattering thousands of Guarani residents.⁶

1776—Creation of the Spanish Viceroyalty of La Plata.

1810—First steps toward independence declared in an open meeting of leaders in Buenos Aires. Two months later, a similar meeting in Asunción produces like-minded declarations, but rejects the leadership of Buenos Aires in the independence movement.

First months of 1811—In the conflict between Paraguayans and Buenos Aires, an expeditionary force from the latter city, under the command of Manuel Belgrano, is defeated by Paraguayans still loyal to the Spanish crown. Despite this defeat, however, sentiment for independence continues to gain ground amongst the Paraguayan population.

May, 1811—Paraguay’s declaration of independence. A board comprised of Fulgencio Yegros, Fernando de la Mora, Pedro Juan Caballero, Francisco Javier Bogarín, and José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia assumes the reins of government, and in the celebrated Nota del 20 de Julio de 1811, drafted by de la Mora and signed by all five members, declares its commitment to principles of equality and sovereignty and its sympathy with the formation of a federation of the provinces of the former Spanish viceroyalty.

Francia, however, a Machiavellian theologian of Portuguese extraction, manipulates the situation so as to assume sole power for himself. Proclaimed Supreme Dictator, he suppresses higher and secondary education; jails, tortures, and executes the Founding Fathers of Independence; severs communication between Paraguay and the outside world; discourages every form of modernity and cultural expression in the country; insures the failure of every attempt at federalism, thus leaving the dismembered River Plate provinces at the mercy of the Luso-Brazilian Empire; and in general creates a climate of terror that will last until his death.

1811-1820—The Uruguayan José Gervasio Artigas, another proponent of River Plate federalism, leads a broad movement for the independence of Uruguay but finds himself betrayed by his colleagues and forced to live out his days in Paraguay under the control of Francia.

1828—Founding of the República Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Republic of Uruguay), a country which Artigas never lived to see but which by its creation keeps alive his ideal of a federation of the former provinces of the viceroyalty: Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and the Santa Cruz de la Sierra region of Bolivia.

1840—Death of the dictator Francia.

1844—The lawyer Carlos Antonio López assumes sole leadership of Paraguay after a three-year period of shared power. His government drastically alters the model enforced by Francia, opening the country to international trade, promoting education and culture, sending young Paraguayans to study in Europe, hiring European, and especially British teachers, professionals, and technicians, incorporating technology, developing railroads, shipyards, arsenals and public works, fomenting vigorous economic growth, and renewing dialogue with Argentine and Uruguayan leaders concerning the region’s historic dream of federalism. López’ federalist overtures provoke concern in Brazil, which wishes to control the Paraguayan territory now constituting the Brazilian state of Matto Grosso do Sul.

1853—President López’ eldest son, General Francisco Solano López, travels to Europe to deepen his military skills, fortify Paraguay’s international relations and weave political alliances with that continent. In France, Solano López meets Eliza Lynch, a beautiful Irish woman who then returns to Paraguay with him, bears him seven children, and remains with him till his death years later on the field of battle.

1862—Death of Carlos Antonio López. Francisco Solano López assumes power.

December, 1864—Outbreak of the War of the Triple Alliance, in which Paraguay faces the combined forces of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The war is the result of territorial disputes between Paraguay and Brazil, as well as Brazilian attempts to influence Argentine and Uruguayan politics through corrupt officials. Despite its geographic isolation, Paraguay triumphs in the opening battles against the three countries combined and succeeds in greatly prolonging its unequal struggle. Eventually, however, over grinding years of attrition in which regular adult male Paraguayan troops are increasingly supported and replaced by underage combatants and valiant female soldier/auxiliaries known as residentas, the Paraguayan side is destroyed, and in the process loses 25% of its territory and some 80% of its male population.⁷

March 1, 1870—The Brazilian army, having burnt down the hospital for the wounded in Piribebuy and murdered 3500 Paraguayan children in Acosta Ñu, assassinates Paraguayan President Solano López, who was already disarmed, in the Battle of Cerro Korá, the last engagement of the war.

1880-1936—As a consequence of the ideas of Paraguayan historians like Juan E. O’Leary, Manuel Domínguez, and Manuel Gondra, as well as measures taken by leaders like Eligio Ayala and Rafael Franco, the memory of Solano López is vindicated with the Paraguayan populace, which comes to see him now as a hero who fought to preserve the nation’s independence. During this period when the Liberal side of Paraguayan politics predominates, the country strengthens its institutions and emerges from its ashes under leaders such as Bernardino Caballero, Emilio Aceval, Eduardo Schaerer, José Patricio Guggiari, and the great statesman Eligio Ayala.

1932-1935—The Chaco War, during which bloody conflict Paraguay defeats Bolivia and legitimates its possession of the Chaco, approximately 60% of its national territory. Key leaders of the Paraguayan victory are the brilliant Liberal president Eusebio Ayala, and the French-trained military commander José Félix Estigarribia.

1947—The rise of fascist groups within the Paraguayan Armed Forces, in the context of similar trends a few years earlier in the world at large, leads to the civil war of 1947. Conservative populist elements, both civilian and military, buoyed by support from the Argentine strongman Juan Perón, gain the upper hand, forcing many of Paraguay’s most valued intellectuals, amongst them the great writer Augusto Roa Bastos, into exile.

1954-1989—The dictatorship of Gen. Alfredo Stroessner, noteworthy for its combination of venality, political astuteness, and cruelty. Propping itself up on an ideology of strident anti-communism, the regime draws support from the most reactionary U.S. administrations as well as from populist leaders in Argentina and from Brazil’s military dictatorship, which uses it as a puppet. Repression by the Stroessner regime forces thousands into exile in neighbouring countries, North America and Europe, and leaves many others, internal opponents of the government, suffering the forced silence of self-censorship. Amongst the external exiles, the author of this novel, Juan Manuel Marcos, from 1977 to 1989.

1989 to the present—Era of the post-dictatorship, in which democracy is restored but fragile owing to weak institutions, an uneducated populace and generalized corruption. In 1989 the elderly Stroessner is deposed from power in a coup d’état carried out by military and civilian elements of his own party, the Colorados. The Colorado Party remains in power after the coup, with the exception of a five-year opposition hiatus brought on by the election victory of an alliance of Liberals and socialists in 2008.⁸

1991 to the present—Years of Paraguay’s participation as a founding member in the Common Market of the South, known informally as the Mercosur. The other founding members are Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The founding treaty is signed in Asunción. The organization’s official languages are Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani. The founding countries, plus Venezuela, have full membership, whilst associate membership is accorded to Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Due to the political crisis surrounding Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo’s removal from office in 2012, Paraguay is suspended from the Mercosur, only to be reinstated a year later upon accepting Venezuela’s entry into the organization.⁹

In any analysis of Paraguayan history, it has become almost de rigueur to quote Augusto Roa Bastos’ observation that Paraguay is an island surrounded by land.¹⁰ We too comply with that obligation, not out of simple adulation for the venerable Paraguayan writer, but because his sentence, even as a cliché, expresses a profound truth about Paraguay. Ever since its incorporation into the Spanish Empire in the 16th century, Paraguay has been a world apart, distinct from the Andean region to the west, distinct from the Buenos Aires-Argentine sphere to the south, and distinct from the Luso-Brazilian hegemony to the north and east, on whose unstable frontier it has struggled mightily not to be absorbed.

However much some historians discount the historical importance of geography, it seems to us that the latter has been decisively important in the formation of Paraguay. Paraguay has been, and to a certain extent remains, a textbook case of what it means to be landlocked.¹¹ Throughout the colonial period, all during the 19th century and well into the 20th, landlockedness was a constant theme in the country’s development, or under-development. The lack of a seacoast, the country’s problematical access to oceans via rivers controlled by others, and the omnipresence of scarcely penetrable tropical forests, were a combination of factors not faced by any other South American nation, with the exception of Bolivia. Nor is it hard to verify certain results, as seen in the chronology presented earlier: the survival, over more than a century, of the so-called Jesuit utopia, so radically different from other Spanish colonial jurisdictions; the ease with which the dictator Francia was able to cut off relations with neighbouring nations; the Paraguayan ability to prolong the War of the Triple Alliance simply by maintaining the fortress of Humaitá on the Paraguay River.¹² Indeed, the entire question of access to the sea was undoubtedly an underlying cause of the conflict with the Triple Alliance, with eventually disastrous consequences for Paraguay.

However, to show with greater clarity the roots of Paraguayan isolation, we must add to the geographic factor another, purely human factor: the absolutely singular relationship which existed in Paraguay between colonizer and colonized, between the country’s European heritage and its indigenous heritage. The Jesuit period in Paraguay was exceptional within Spanish colonialism not only for its theocratic administration, but also for its raison d’etre: the defence and prosperity of its recently evangelized Guarani communities. To be sure, the Jesuits were quite severe in governing the Guarani,¹³ but by grouping them in protected reducciones, they stemmed the violence of Brazilian slave-traders and the greed of other Spanish colonists, thereby promoting the Guarani language and laying the foundation for Paraguay’s Guarani-speaking mestizo majority. Thus was born something absolutely unparalleled on the world stage: a society where the colonizer adopted the language of the colonized. Unlike the case of Peru, for example, in Paraguay the indigenous tongue ceased to be only indigenous, and became in fact the majority national language. In today’s Paraguay, a country where the indigenous population comprises only about 2% of the total,¹⁴ some 50% of the people are bilingual in Guarani and Spanish, and some 37% speak only Guarani. Fully 87% of Paraguayans, that is, are Guarani speakers, whilst a scant 7% are monolingual in Spanish.¹⁵ This linguistic distribution does not mean that Paraguay’s indigenous peoples have suffered fewer abuses than those of other countries in the Americas; Paraguay is at least as guilty in this respect.¹⁶ But it does mean that Paraguay possesses a linguistic and historical difference which is both a source of pride and of separation from other nations.

Of course, it was not only the Guarani language which entered the national consciousness. Aspects of the world view encoded in that language were also internalized. Attitudes, myths and beliefs were absorbed, not, to be sure, in their pre-Hispanic aboriginal form, but rather in a way which is singularly Paraguayan. So it is that today’s Paraguay is home to an absolutely unique, complex bilingual literature, replete with mythic allusions and the rich symbiosis of European and Guarani elements. So it is that today’s Paraguayan speaks, seriously or in jest, of pomberos, ao ao, poras, Jasyjatere, and other denizens of the Spanish-Guarani supernatural. So it is that today’s Paraguayan studies the shadows with particular attention as he or she walks the country roads at night. And so it is that the pre-Hispanic Guarani search for Yvy Marae’y, the Land Without Evil—which multitudes sought to find under the guidance of prophets known as karai, in the belief that an immense blue jaguar from the heavens would imminently devour the earth and its ills—lives on today as a political aspiration and as a powerful literary symbol.¹⁷

I am far from the first to describe Paraguay’s isolating interiority in these terms. Our analysis up to this point is anything but original. If, however, we focus on the converse side of the equation, on Paraguay’s equally deep-seated calling to exteriority, perhaps we will have brought something new to the discussion. It is a grave mistake to speak of Paraguay as if it were the proverbial hermit kingdom, complacent in its magnificent seclusion. Throughout its history, Paraguay has searched, successfully or catastrophically, for the difficult balance between its internal difference and its yearning to externalize. The historical chronology cited earlier reveals interesting data in this regard: the back-and-forth of power between Buenos Aires and Asunción in the colonial era; the links between the Paraguayan independence movement and other regional independentistas, such as Artigas; the holocaust of the War of the Triple Alliance, ignited precisely by Paraguay’s problematical relations with its neighbours;¹⁸ the experience of millions of exiles, who upon repatriation bring with them the vast contribution of their life abroad; the central and at times conflictive role of Paraguay in the creation and functioning of the Mercosur. Clearly, we need nuance in interpreting Roa Bastos’ famous dictum: Paraguay is indeed an island surrounded by land, but yearning for contact, and rich in existential tension as a result.

The Biographical and Literary Context.

It requires, of course, a certain intellectual leap to apply the word existential to an entire nation’s unfolding. We do so, however, buoyed by the illustrious precedent of Américo Castro, the mid-20th-century Spanish thinker whose dazzling series of books documented the trajectory of medieval and Renaissance Spain in terms of the socio-existential anguish of its most distinguished writers. What is important here is not Castro’s specific interpretation, but rather his central premise: that those who produce art are the truest measure of their society’s collective becoming.¹⁹ The artist, and for our present purpose the creator of literature, is at once a lightning rod, a reflector and a protagonist of that collectivity, and it is through his or her artistic struggle that we touch the deep substrate that connects us to it.

Juan Manuel Marcos and his literary work are the best possible example of this concept. Again, a brief chronology will support our argument:

1950—Birth of the novelist in Asunción, son of José Marcos, a Spanish Republican living in exile in Paraguay, and Amanda Álvarez, a Paraguayan woman whose ancestors include Hernandarias (1561-1634), the first River Plate governor born in the Americas.

1956-1967—Elementary and secondary schooling at Asunción’s Colegio San José, founded by French priests in 1904. Whilst there, he excels both academically and literarily, and serves as president of the school’s Literary Academy, Paraguay’s oldest, whose alumni include some of the country’s foremost writers, amongst them Gabriel Casaccia, Hérib Campos Cervera, Augusto Roa Bastos, Hugo Rodríguez Alcalá, José María Gómez Sanjurjo and José Luis Appleyard.

1970 and years immediately following—Along with Maneco Galeano, Carlos Noguera, Mito Sequera, Emilio Pérez Chaves and others, Marcos founds Joven Alianza (of which he is elected General Coordinator), an association of poets and musicians which becomes the touchstone of the Nuevo Cancionero Popular Paraguayo movement. The movement opposes the Stroessner dictatorship by organizing massive recitals in Asunción and throughout the country, and in the process has a deep renewing influence on Paraguayan poetry and music.

Poems, stories, and articles by Marcos appear in this period in dailies like La Tribuna and ABC Color, other newspapers such as Frente, Sendero and El Radical, and magazines such as La Estrella, Época and Acción. In 1970, the author wins the René Dávalos Prize, sponsored by the journal Criterio and awarded by a jury made up of Augusto Roa Bastos, Rubén Bareiro Saguier and José María Gómez Sanjurjo, for his book simply titled Poemas, with illustrations by the Brazilian artist Livio Abramo. Thus begins Marcos’ relationship with the Criterio generation, the most important nucleus of writers and thinkers shaping Paraguayan literature since the 1960’s.

1973—His theatrical production López, with music by Galeano, Noguera and Sequera, debuts to enthusiastic crowds in Asunción. The work presents a positive interpretation of Solano López’ place in history. A number of its musical themes, such as ¡Independencia o muerte!, A la residenta, and Canto a Alberdi, all with lyrics by Marcos, have become an enduring part of Paraguayan culture, having been presented at numerous mass concerts and recorded many times in Asunción and Buenos Aires.

1971-1977—Simultaneously with the aforementioned activities, Marcos carries out duties as a teacher of literature at his alma mater, the Colegio San José, as well as at the Colegio Teresiano, the Colegio Dante Alighieri, the Colegio Juan Ramón Dahlquist, the Seminario Metropolitano and the National and Catholic Universities in Asunción.

1977—Having savagely repressed members of the First of March Organization (OPM), an armed anti-Stroessner group, the dictatorship undertakes preventive repressive measures against Marcos and other intellectuals linked to Criterio, who in fact had no relationship whatsoever with the OPM. After suffering arrest and illegal abuses in the much-feared Department of Investigations, some of these intellectuals are sent to prison at Emboscada. Others find asylum in embassies, and eventually go into exile. Detained in July, Marcos receives asylum in the Mexican Embassy in Asunción on August 25th. For the duration of his asylum, he is only permitted to see his wife Greta Gustafson briefly each Tuesday. Finally granted safe conduct out of Paraguay in December, he departs for exile in Mexico, still unaccompanied by his wife and his son Sergio.

1978—After a one-month stay in Mexico, where he is befriended by the poet Elva Macías and her husband, the fiction writer Eraclio Zepeda,²⁰ Marcos departs for Madrid on January 11th. At last reunited with his family, he teaches at a secondary school in the Spanish capital, and earns his doctorate in philosophy from the Universidad Complutense.

1980—In August, Marcos moves with his family to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., where having been awarded a Provost’s Humanities Fellowship and an Andrew Mellon Fellowship, he earns a masters and a doctorate in literature from the University of Pittsburgh. This is also the time when his daughter Valeria Jimena is born.

1982 and years immediately following—Marcos and his family again move in August, this time to Stillwater, Oklahoma, U.S.A., where he has received the first of seven professorships he will be offered in the United States. In Stillwater he teaches literature until 1988 at Oklahoma State University. Whilst there he also founds the influential journal Discurso Literario, with an editorial board bearing such names as Claude Levi-Strauss, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida, organizes four international symposia, and presents more than 60 lectures all around the country. Other accomplishments include publication of more than 50 articles in juried journals of major repute, including Revista Iberoamericana, the world’s oldest and most important journal in its field, and diverse distinctions and research grants, including a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship at Yale, a South Central Modern Language Association Research Grant at the University of Texas in Austin, and a