In Asuncion, the capital and the more important  population  establishment of the Paraguay,  the figure of the donkeys loaded with vegetables and fruits was a daily presence  – coming from Lamb are, a neighboring population - to the market outdoors that existed  in the heart of the historical center until the decade of the 70’s more or less. Walking in  front or mounted in her donkey, the proud owner (called “Burr Rita” or “Donkey Owner”)  dressed  with  embroidered clothes  and typical laces  of the country; the women for  in whose honor even the musicians  composed poems and songs…  Of these, the most popular is the song named “Chef burrito  Lambare” that in a mixture of the native language, Guarani and of Spanish,  means “My small donkey of Lambare” (Remark: The word Lambaré  has its origin in the name of a Guarani Chief  that inhabited the place upon  the arrival of the Spaniards in 1537).

However and pitifully, with the advance of other more modern means  of transportation .... of this  history only  blurred pictures remain  in the urban collective memory - and the popular melody of the referenced  “polka”.

At the present time,  donkeys only appear  in the T.V movies or in the colorful statuettes that compose the Paraguayan Nativity, done  in cooked mud and colored, mainly in the area of Areguá.

 

And this way,..... starting from the recovered  images – although just  for an instant -  full with color of the “burreritas”, of their laces  and embroideries.... and of their donkeys loaded with fruits and vegetables..... of the polka “Che Burrito  Lambaré”... and of the turns of the “Galoperas” – dancers of the popular/folk  music “Galopa” -  and also of the special  Baroque  of the Jesuit in Paraguay that still  subsists with force in the sizes and painted ceramics...............

..as from all that and even more ……... and with the wonderful pretext of the call to competition of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities of the Government of the District of Columbia....... I was untangling the//// roll/// (te gusta para OVILLO?/) of the own and borrowed memory... and trapping the images that  appeared in the figure of the predetermined donkey. With the feeling of the dream ,   of the game and also of the ritual...

 

...and also, as one more way  of sharing pieces of my country and of my own history with the citizens, residents and visitors of Washington D.C.

 

.. these are the concepts and the objectives of my proposal... of a small donkey that at some time existed between Asunción and Lambare... besides   the river Paraguay....

 

Oscar Centurion Frontanilla 

 

Washington DC/ Feb, 13th, 02,