University of Northern Iowa
The Divorcee Looks at Her SonAuthor(s): Herbert ScottSource: The North American Review, Vol. 254, No. 2 (Summer, 1969), p. 5Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25116937 .
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disastrous war with Argentina, Bra
zil and Uruguay, and not only lost some 300,000 people out of a total
population of 500,000, but also a
large chunk of territory. In the 1930's in a war with Bolivia in the lowland
"chaco" area, Paraguay suffered an
other punishing manpower loss.
These two wars, added to Para
guay's long history of isolation, have
brought her into the Twentieth Cen
tury as a country closer to the year
One than the year 2000.
Even in terms of the possibility of
entering into the Latin America Com
mon Market, the question arises of
what a country that produces mainly
yerba mate (Paraguayan tea) and
quebracho (a hardwood tree from which tanning extract is derived) can
contribute to a world of jets, plastics and steel mills.
As George Pendle notes in his ex
cellent book Paraguay, A Riverside Nation (London, 1967) :
Sidney Dell in his comprehensive study of LAFTA (Latin American Free
Trade Association) expresses doubt as
to whether Paraguay will get its share
of any benefits that the opening up of the common market may bring.
^till to a great extent a closed agri
cultural police-state, the future of
Paraguay can be more or less easily
plotted. It will remain "primitive."
With almost no buying-power to
secure foreign manufactured goods, life will continue to revolve around
agriculture and home industries such
as brick and tile-making and tanning.
Any widespread industrial develop ment is unlikely,
as is any attraction
of large amounts of foreign capital.
People will wear poor, out-of-date
clothes, have enough to eat (primarily
mate, manioc and maize, all locally
grown) and stay out of politics if
they wish to survive. It will continue,
in other words, to stay out of the
mainstream of South American eco
nomic development, which in itself, is already considerably removed from
"development" throughout the rest of
the world.
At the same time, though, this
agriculturally-based primitive econo
my is buffered against the dramatic and often horrifying changes being
experienced by other Latin American nations. The Guarani language with
its songs and literature, enough to eat,
a place to live, a kind of soft and attractive demographic homogeneity
.this is the expected life of the
average Paraguayan. Elsewhere in Latin America and the
rest of the Third World, however, the
picture is very different. Industriali
zation splits the nation into frag
ments, partially incorporating some
segments into usually subordinate
positions within the superstructure of international corporations whose
profits are not fed back into the na
tional economy but pumped out of the country to the head office in one of the major industrial nations. Aug
mented urbanization and a drastic
population growth hang heavily on a
comparatively slow agricultural
growth-rate. The settled and bland life of the country is exchanged for the
rapid, vertiginous life of too-rapidly
expanding cities. Hunger is wide
spread. Population movements are un
predictable and often flood labor mar
kets to the extent that there are large
masses of starving unemployed. At the same time, this picture of
rapid, unequal and painful industrial
ization obtains exactly what for the
country involved? Cars, radios, wash
ings machines, TV's. To use Henry
Adams' symbolism, isn't the Dynamo too often traded for the "spirit"?
It may be, on the other hand, that
foreign industrial exploitation is
merely one step in the development
of native industrial capacity and that while the rest of Latin America moves
along in terms of world industrial
development (although necessarily
lagging far behind), Paraguay will become more and more archaic, a
kind of "museum" or "reservation"
where the past can be visited, viewed
?and perhaps, just perhaps, envied.
?Hugh Fox
HERBERT SCOTT
THE DIVORCEE LOOKS AT HER SON
In your contrary walk
I hear his footsteps: he is home from work,
the door closing.
You throw your books on the table.
It is difficult waiting: what will I see when you enter
this room, your eyes striking my face?
Will it be him, young as morning, sweet as fresh washed sheets?
You walk into my hands
and in your body I suffer
his desire. But as we touch
you turn within yourself;
you are at odds with me.
I know: he is there,
hiding in your heart.
I put my finger on him.
Where am I? What can I keep?
Why do you look at me like this?
Summer 1969 5
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