Literature in Spanish

Paraguayan literature in Spanish had its first period of affirmation in the firsts decades of the 20th Century, a period which saw the rise of writers such as Natalicio González, Manuel Domínguez, Manuel Gondra and Rafael Barret—a Spaniard—all of whom preferentially advanced the essay.  In addition, there were the poets and prose writers that identified with modernism and were politically active in their writings in the magazines Crónica and Juventud, such as Manuel Ortiz Guerrero, Eloy Fariña Núñez and Guillermo Molinas Rolón. 

The brilliant Generation of the 40s followed this group, many members of which gathered at the writers’ circle known as Vy’a Raity.  Member of this society, Josefina Plá, an Spanish author and artist, having arrived in the country in 1926, adopted Paraguay as her second country and bequeathed to this country an unrivaled masterpiece that spans all literary genres, with more than 100 titles.

Also belonging to this generation, Augusto Roa Bastos , in 1989, was the first Paraguayan writer to win the main prize for Hispanic literature:  the Cervantes Award for Literature.  Roa Bastos is considered one of the most important precursors of the “Boom” Movement that gave way to the most renowned figures in Latin American literature. 

Other renowned writers in this group were the poets Hérib Campos Cervera, Elvio Romero and Oscar Ferriero, and storytellers Gabriel Casaccia and Juan Bautista Rivarola Matto. 

The following generation, the Generation of the 50s, was no less important and gave Paraguay some of its best poets.  Springing forth from the University Academy, led by the Spanish priest and professor César Alonso de las Heras, this institution sheltered important figures like Rubén Bareiro Saguier, José Luis Appleyard, Ramiro Domínguez, Carlos Villagra Marsal and José María Gómez Sanjurjo. 

From the aforementioned group sprang the Paraguayan Exile Literature, whose most renowned members include Augusto Roa Bastos, Rubén Bareiro Saguier, and Elvio Romero, all of whom were forced into exile due to their opposition to the Stroessner dictatorship. 

The Generation of the 60s contributed other renowned figures such as the poets Jacobo Rauskin, Esteban Cabañas, Víctor Casartelli and Gladys Carmagnola and storytellers Osvaldo González Real, Renée Ferrer and Raquel Saguier.  Among the writers that emerged in the last decades that have achieved recognition, those who merit mentioning are storytellers Helio Vera, Sara Karlik and Guido Rodríguez Alcalá and some figures that made up the Manuel Ortiz Guerrero Poetry Workshop, such as Mario Casartelli, Amanda Pedrozo, Ricardo de la Vega and Delfina Acosta.