After the Paraguayan public has celebrated the triumph of singer Ayelen Alfonso in the Spanish program X Factor, posts about other Paraguayan artists or athletes who won awards or positions abroad multiplied. They were a few days of heightened feeling of Paraguay. Breaking down this interesting topic, we can begin by describing the role of the artist in our society.
“The artist in Paraguayan society, just like the athlete, has two roles that we must recognize: on the one hand, can be the model to follow because it embodies virtues or because it achieves certain achievements that we consider consciously valid. On the other hand, and let us acknowledge it without sentimentality, the artist It can be the sublimation of our frustrationsresentment and things that we did not dare to do (it is subconscious), points out the sociologist Sofía Torales.
-What symptom does this frustration reveal?
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The virulence, the visceral nature of certain reactions: when the National Team or the “love” club wins or loses.
Clearly feeling stands out over reason. When people confront each other violently using rudeness, insults, even threats or fist bumps by a famous person – whom you don’t even know personally – that’s when you can appreciate the little rational, the passionate, the “reptilian” (an old-fashioned way of calling the brain archaic; relating it to territorial, aggressive, and conservation). This happens with public symbols or icons in Paraguayan society and, perhaps, in the entire world with its own characters (artists, politicians, athletes).
-They are passions that many cannot or do not want to stop.
Another look, according to Emilio Durkheim: the social fact (basic social unit, in his theory) is defined by the involvement of two parties: the fact itself (a singer) and the interaction with others (her fans). Ayelén is a complete social fact, is what it is thanks to the fact that people took that part of his career as their own and got involved in it. However, this social fact needs to be observed from two other angles.
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-How is so much massive exaltation generated by an artist?
On the one hand, a certain awareness of nationalism, quite strong in Paraguayan society at some key moments (not so in everyday life), and, on the other hand, the media and the “commoditization” of culture: the creation of symbols, icons and human products for consumption. With these two additional ingredients, Ayelén’s drag can be explained.
The Wars of Paraguay
-Many were offended due to the intersection between Ayelén and the two women on the jury and took it as a “national cause”, bringing up, among other factors, nationality as the reason for the clash, “those foreigners attacked a Paraguayan woman, we have to support her “Let’s not forget the War of the Triple Alliance,” followers wrote. Does this indignation reinforce identity?
Identity is normally reinforced in the face of its denial. People themselves tend to define by opposition: it happens to all of us. This does not mean that it is ideal: after so many years since the War of the Triple AllianceHave we done something as a society that we remember as the intimate contribution of each individual, so that it lasts in the memory of future generations? Asking a friend or relative this quickly gives the answer: no one can remember, locate or define what exactly they can be proud of (understood, I repeat, as a collective creation consciously made with a purpose, and that achieves that goal without remaining in a historical event vaguely remembered or imprecisely studied in classrooms). So, somehow that rational void is filled with sentimentalism, which is what we Paraguayans are experts in.
Anyone could affirm with absolute certainty that in other countries and continents people are not warm, helpful or friendly like Paraguayans, and there is no doubt that people are largely right. However, This over-sensitivity is almost an inverse racism or an inverse xenophobia: “I always see myself as smaller than the other, I don’t miss a single opportunity to show how good I am and how bad the foreigner is; I accuse anyone of being discriminatory as long as they do not critically view the work of the person who is in the spotlight. “I am always a victim.”
Therefore, it is really worth looking in the mirror and asking yourself if we consider Ayelén a “Paraguayan David against foreign Goliaths”rather than as a talented international artist.
-As a crowning achievement of his success, going out of the format -and permission- he sang a verse of 13 Tuyutí; some interpreted it as revenge. Whether true or not, it awakened a sensitive point evoking the Chaco War. Do you think that different generations have processed the Wars suffered?
I do not believe it. Furthermore, many historians denounce that the effects of the terrible Civil War of 1947 which, among other things, inaugurated the modern Paraguayan way of seeing the world: “we the political winners versus you the political losers.”
It is a fact that wars still shape not only society but politics: every time Itaipu and Yacyrerá or Mercosur appear in the news, we rightly remember the infamous War against the Triple Alliance: because Article 17 of the disastrous Secret Treaty affirms that the alliance against Paraguay is perpetual, and the suspicion always lurks in our collective subconscious that governments act by activating said clause.
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Regarding the fact that Ayelén wanted to “take revenge” on the jurors (I don’t know if it was like that, it could be, but I can’t say), although the idea is poetic, it continues in the line of “raw” sentimentalism, to the detriment of any a sign of reasoning or recognition of talent for talent’s sake, not out of a sense of victimhood.
Artists and athletes strengthen social ties
-Do you think that the advertising of misses, athletes, prominent artists enrich or impoverish social ties inside and outside the country?
Symbols are fictitious constructions (in the words of Yuval Noah Harariin his work Of animals and gods) that unite human beings. Whether it is “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” or, the opposite pole, a sense of collective belonging (a language, a song, some colors, a landscape). People are symbols all over the world, we have the example of Jesus Christ himself.
In every society there are human beings, including artists who appeal to the deepest part of collective identity. However, as you mentioned, advertising. Contemporary society is unthinkable without the press and consumption. However, you have to stop and think about where you want to be a human being. not plugged into the matrix Of consumption. If we are united by a consumer product, what kind of social ties do we have if not plastic packaging with a barcode, an expiration date and the usual label?made in…”? Having said this, it is possible that artists and athletes do enrich social ties.
Ayelén had talent, she played with others’ rules, she won and was recognized by them, which is why she aroused enthusiasm and identification. As she told you at the beginning: an artist, athlete, politician, public figure can represent something sublime and profound or something extremely sentimental and messy and just as profound.
Read More: The day Paraguay declared a “state of war” with Bolivia over the Chaco
-So, they unite, even for moments, all social classes.
They may be capable of it. Recognizing that society is divided into social classes is agreeing with a certain philosophical current, and I will not do that. Yes, I can say that an artist has the ability to unite different people. With this we recognize something else: Paraguay It is a relatively heterogeneous society, There are many Paraguays and many Paraguayans, not just one Paraguay.. Ayelén and artists like her can unite these realities, that is one of the most interesting aspects of art.
-Did people in Ayelén see the representation of a young, artistic Paraguay, attractive to the world?
Hopefully. I would really like Ayelén to kick off a renewal of Paraguayan art, with his own stamp. But to do this you have to combine what is related to marketing, consumption and advertisingwhat is related to fame and popularfar from “I fell in love with a bandit” – her fans excuse me – with a reasoning that innovates beyond low emotions.
One sees how Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay have various artistic expressions traditional, classic, modern, postmodern. However, historically Paraguayan art is exclusively the Hispanic-Guarani folklore that we all know, but about which we do not innovate.
Oscar Safuán believe the advanced In an attempt to stylize and give new air to the Paraguayan polka, today we are lucky enough to have this revival of folklore also with other artists such as Tierra Adentro, Néstor Ló, Grupo Jeheká, Víctor Espínola, an extremely talented harpist, but we don’t know much, for example, about pop, jazz, or more international rhythms of Paraguayan origin. Paraguay can give all that and much more if it sets its mind to it.
