Talk:Paraguay

Political History

Did Paraguay's political history really finish in 1988? Anyone reading this article would certainly think so. Should this not be brought up to date, including events leading up to the election of the country's first leftist president in 2008? Skinsmoke (talk) 02:44, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

Landlocked

the article begins by noting that Paraguay is one of only two landlocked countries "entirely in the Western Hemisphere". I understand that Bolivia is the other one.... but why is the word "Entirely" used. Is there some other landlocked nation partially in the western hemisphere? .... never mind doing some checking I guess Burkina Faso does straddle the Prime Meridian... but wouldn't it be simply simply to say "the americas" and drop the "entirely"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aapold (talk • contribs) 11:34, 26 May 2010 (UTC)

This is such a bizarre factoid that it's a rather jarring start to the article, surely mentioning that it is landlocked is sufficient? 81.108.240.122 (talk) 19:32, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

The History Section's Reference to "West America"

"The official narrative of Paraguay's history is fraught with disputes among historians, educators and politicians. The "authentic" version of historical events, wars in particular, varies depending on whether it was written in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Europe, or West America."

I represent a very powerful group of individuals who are concerned with the use of the title "West America." What does that even mean? Are they talking about the Western United States? That doesn't seem to make sense, since with the exception of Texas, our historical accounts are more or less standardized. Please explain this. I believe that this could reflect poorly on Paraguay if it is not clarified.

Chillbear Latrigue —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.204.156.245 (talk) 22:54, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

 Done. By the way, which is that "very powerful group of individuals"? Cambalachero (talk) 15:36, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

Demographics

What is the Minister of Education and Culture talking about? The suggestion that enough of the mestizo population was killed off as to make them a minority in a sea of Italian and German descendants sounds rather fantastic, to say the least. It goes against all of the other demographic speculation, not to mention the survival of Guarani as the majority language. Why would Italian immigrants bother to learn the drastically different language of a dying minority that also conveniently happens to speak Spanish, which is much closer to Italian and much more practical for communication purposes? Early colonial Brazil had a similar situation with a Tupi-based creole as the lingua franca used by the majority population, but as the Tupi-descended population became more and more outnumbered by Europeans and Africans, Portuguese quickly supplanted it. I think the Minister is just playing into the old "whitening" policies of post-colonial Latin American nationalism with a bit of wishful thinking. --74.103.150.125 (talk) 22:58, 9 July 2011 (UTC)