Song of the Guarani Militiaman

In 1952, the Paraguayan poet Vicente Lamas Carísimo (1900-1982) wrote his Canción del miliciano guaraní (Song of the Guarani Militiaman), which he dedicated to the Paraguayan member of the IBs José Aparicio Gutiérrez, who had fought in the Paraguayan Army during the Chaco War against Bolivia before fighting in the Spanish Civil War. The poem blended elements of Paraguayan popular culture, such as the polca or guaranias, with references to Spanish culture and land, such as “the Castilian soul” or mentions of “Don Quixote” and the “fields of La Mancha.” In November 1937, together with Víctor Martínez another Paraguayan serving in Spain, Gutiérrez wrote a letter to his former comrades from the Chaco, in which he stated: “the triumph of the Spanish cause is the triumph of peace, democracy, and the right of peoples to freely determine their destinies,” because “we fight on the front of Democracy and Peace, contributing to the victory of the cause of the Spanish people, which is the cause of all humanity.” José Aparicio Gutiérrez was killed on the Aragon front in 1938.

Vicente Lamas was a poet and journalist who was born and died in Asunción. From a young age, he developed a style of poetry that was both nativist and urban, in a Paraguay where nationalist ideas gained significant strength during the 1930s. He was also a sympathizer of the Revolutionary Febrerista Party, a Paraguayan political organization with socialist ideology, as well as being close to some aspects of the Communist doctrine of the 1950s. 

All of this is clearly reflected in this deeply emotional song, in which Lamas praises the figure José Aparicio Gutiérrez, with references to his ideological motivations for fighting in the Spanish Civil War: "a spark of idealism," "bursting into heroic notes," or "the trumpet of libertarian deeds." But there is also a marked nativist or racial character, evident in the opening proclamation "let the native rattle vibrate," when he mentions the "aboriginal guitar," or when he writes "of the one who fell smiling for his honor and his race."

At the end of the poem, Lamas says: "Aparicio, for your death, the bells did not toll; (...) Guarani militiaman, militiaman of the race; you have paid the debt we owed to Spain; Don Quixote is not alone in the fields of La Mancha." These final words are a perfect example of the blending of idealism and historical memory, along with Paraguayan nationalism and conceptual references to colonial history and Spanish culture.

ETB