Uruguay’s former president Lacalle Herrera proposes Guarani cultural institute

The former Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Herrera (1990-1995) proposed to create a Guarani cultural institute in the country to “tighten more the knot of affection” with Paraguay, a nation that awarded him on Thursday, August 18, with the traditional Paraguayan “Poncho de 60 listas” (“Poncho of 60 lists”).

It was expressed by the father of the current Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, after receiving at the headquarters of the Embassy of Paraguay in Uruguay the award created in 2021 by the Paraguayan authorities to distinguish Uruguayan individuals and institutions that have contributed to improving ties with his country.

Specifically, Lacalle Herrera, who began his speech by recalling his first visit to Asunción and the ties he inherited from his ancestors through his mother’s line, who fought in the Chaco War (1932-1935), said he would like to see more recognition of the Guarani influence in Uruguay.

To which he pointed out that there are in the nomenclature and geography of his country many words of that origin, which, quoting a poem by the Uruguayan Fernán Silva Valdés, he described as “words that sweeten the mouth” he said that, if the initiative prospers with the help of the authorities, he would like to collaborate in the creation of an institute.

“They have to help, and the embassy must generate days of oriental Guarani bonding because the presence here was not of the Charrúa (Indians); the great presence was that of the Tapés Indians (Guarani from the Jesuit missions) coming to the construction of the wall of Montevideo,” he opined.

Lacalle Herrera, who received the “Poncho de 60 listas” -given in 2021 to the former foreign minister during his mandate and current secretary general of the Latin American Integration Association, Sergio Abreu- from the hands of the Paraguayan senator Lilian Samaniego, was preceded in the oratory by the former ambassador of Paraguay in Uruguay, Rogelio Benítez.

Both the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy, Juan Alberto Radice, and Benítez, who a few days ago ended his mission in the country, recalled in their speech the tragic history that, towards the end of the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) gave rise to the creation of the poncho, today nominated by Paraguay as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity before UNESCO.

With information from EFE