41 Fun Facts About Paraguay

Which country is, with Paraguay, one of South America's only two landlocked nations?

Bolivia lost its whole coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific, which left it and always-inland Paraguay as South America's only landlocked countries.

Which philosopher's sister co-founded Nueva Germania, a would-be 'pure German' colony in Paraguay?

Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth co-founded it with her antisemitic husband Bernhard Förster, but the colony faltered, he killed himself, and she went home to Germany.

Besides Spanish and Guarani, which language is widely spoken in Paraguay's eastern border departments?

Portuguese is spoken by the 'Brasiguayos', Brazilian settlers and their descendants, drawn in their tens of thousands to the eastern border region as its farm economy boomed.

Which religious order ran the 'reductions' that gathered indigenous people into mission towns in Paraguay?

The Jesuits shielded their Guaraní converts from slave raiders, but after Spain expelled the order in 1767 the missions were looted, mismanaged and abandoned.

Which exiled Latin American dictator was killed when guerrillas fired rockets at his car in Asuncion?

Anastasio Somoza fled Nicaragua in 1979 and took refuge under Stroessner, but a commando team tracked him down and blew up his car in September 1980.

Paraguay broke from Spain after its troops beat an invading army from which city?

Buenos Aires's revolutionary junta sent Manuel Belgrano to bring Paraguay under its rule; beaten at Paraguarí and Tacuarí, he withdrew, and Paraguay went its own way.

Paraguay's first dictator, who sealed the country off from the outside world, was nicknamed what?

El Supremo, José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, trapped even foreigners inside: he held the French botanist Aimé Bonpland captive for years.

Why did Paraguay's dictator Francia forbid Spaniards to marry one another?

To weaken the colonial elite, Francia in 1814 barred Spaniards from marrying other whites, forcing old ruling families to marry into the local population.

The 1864–1870 war that devastated Paraguay is known by what name?

The War of the Triple Alliance ended with Paraguay under foreign occupation and forced to give up large areas of its territory to its victorious neighbours.

Which Paraguayan leader died at the Battle of Cerro Cora in 1870, refusing to surrender?

Francisco Solano Lopez held out in the northern jungles for 14 months after the capital fell, until Brazilian troops killed him at Cerro Cora.

Which Paraguayan city was known as Puerto Presidente Stroessner until 1989?

Ciudad del Este began in 1957 as Puerto Flor de Lis, took the dictator's name, and in 1989 its residents voted for a new name meaning 'East City'.

Paraguay fought its northern neighbour in the 1930s over a region thought to be rich in what?

Oil: Paraguay, with a third of its enemy's population, won most of the disputed land, but the oil fields stayed on the losing side of the new border.

What ended Alfredo Stroessner's rule over Paraguay in 1989?

A military coup: General Andrés Rodríguez toppled him in February 1989, Stroessner flew into exile in Brazil, and Rodríguez then won that year's presidential election.

Which infamous Nazi fugitive was granted Paraguayan citizenship under Stroessner?

Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz 'Angel of Death', obtained Paraguayan citizenship in 1959 under Stroessner before moving on to Brazil, where he drowned in 1979.

Stroessner's Paraguay took part in which 1970s campaign of state terror run by South American dictatorships?

Operation Condor let the regimes hunt down each other's opponents across borders; its secret records, the 'Archives of Terror', turned up in a police station near Asunción in 1992.

Fernando Lugo, elected president in 2008 and ending 61 years of one-party rule, had previously been what?

A Roman Catholic bishop: within a year of taking office, Lugo admitted fathering a child while he was still bishop of San Pedro, and more paternity claims followed.

Which political party produced Paraguay's presidents Alfredo Stroessner, Horacio Cartes and Santiago Peña?

The Colorado Party lost the presidency in 2008 for the first time in 61 years, to Fernando Lugo, then won it back at the next election in 2013.

What is unusual about Paraguay's national flag?

Its two sides carry different emblems, the national arms and the Treasury's lion seal, and its red, white and blue were influenced by France's tricolour.

Paraguay's tereré is yerba mate prepared how?

With cold water and ice, which makes tereré a refresher in hot weather, and Paraguayans often add medicinal herbs called pohã ñana.

Paraguay's traditional lace, nanduti, takes its name from the indigenous word for what?

Spider web: despite its Guaraní name, the lace is thought to descend from needlework brought by European settlers, reworked into radial, web-like circles.

Which instrument is most associated with Paraguayan music, from polkas to the languid guarania?

The harp came with Spanish missionaries in colonial times, and Paraguayan makers reshaped it into a lighter folk harp, now the national instrument.

The Itaipu Dam, shared with Brazil, sits on which river?

The Parana: Itaipu feeds two different national grids, so ten of its turbines run at 50 Hz for Paraguay and ten at 60 Hz for Brazil.

Eliza Lynch, partner of Paraguay's leader in its 1860s war, was a native of which country?

Ireland: she died forgotten in Paris, but Stroessner's regime later brought her remains to Paraguay and hailed her as a national heroine.

The Friendship Bridge links Paraguay with which Brazilian city?

Foz do Iguaçu: since the bridge opened in 1965, Brazilians have crossed it every day to buy goods made cheap by Paraguay's low taxes on imports.

Which natural sweetener comes from a plant native to Paraguay and long used by the Guaraní?

Stevia: the Guaraní sweetened mate with its leaves, whose compounds taste hundreds of times sweeter than sugar.

Which vast wetland, famous for its caimans, spills over from Brazil into Paraguay's far north?

The Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland, is about 80 percent submerged in the rainy season, when the Paraguay River and its tributaries overflow.

Which religious community migrated from Canada in the 1920s to build prosperous farming towns in Paraguay's arid west?

Mennonites: when Canada required English in their schools, conservative families left, and in Paraguay they turned dry scrubland into productive farms.

Which Paraguayan goalkeeper became the first known to score a professional hat-trick, in 1999?

Jose Luis Chilavert, who took his teams' penalties and free kicks, scored all three from the spot for Vélez Sarsfield against Ferro Carril Oeste.

Paraguay's national football team is nicknamed what?

La Albirroja's Óscar Cardozo had a penalty saved by Iker Casillas at 0–0 in the 2010 World Cup quarter-final, and Spain won 1–0 on their way to the title.

The headquarters of CONMEBOL, South American football's governing body, is in which city of greater Asunción?

Luque hosts the building, and in 2015 Paraguay's Senate voted to lift its legal immunity so investigators could enter during the FIFA corruption scandal.

Which country borders Paraguay to the south and west?

Argentina annexed a large slice of Paraguayan land after the 1864–70 war, pushing the border back along Paraguay's south and west.

Which US president did Paraguay honour for an 1878 border award?

Rutherford Hayes: his ruling went Paraguay's way, so it renamed a town Villa Hayes and a department Presidente Hayes in his honour.

Which Paraguayan fortress, developed by Carlos Antonio Lopez, anchored the defences on the Paraguay River?

Humaita, nicknamed the 'Gibraltar of South America', blocked the river route to the capital until allied forces cut it off and its garrison abandoned it in 1868.

In a 2014 global polling index, Paraguay was ranked as what?

The world's happiest place: Paraguay led Gallup's world ranking for positive emotions, which Gallup partly credited to Latin American cultures' focus on the positives in life.

Which Paraguayan indigenous group of the eastern forests suffered massacres under Stroessner?

The Ache, forest hunter-gatherers of eastern Paraguay, were massacred and enslaved.

What is chipa, eaten across Paraguay and baked in quantity for Holy Week?

A cheese bread: Guaraní cooks already baked breads of cassava, and colonial Spanish cheese and eggs turned them into chipa.

Spanish expeditions pushed up the Paraguay River hunting the legendary 'White King' and his mountain of what?

Silver: the legend of a silver mountain ruled by a 'White King' even gave the Río de la Plata, the 'river of silver', its name.

What is the name of the widely spoken mixture of Guarani and Spanish?

Jopara, Guaraní for 'mixture', is the everyday Guaraní full of Spanish loanwords that most Paraguayans speak, unlike the purer Guaraní taught in schools.

Which new highway, opened in stages from 2022, crosses Paraguay's northern Chaco?

The Bioceanic Corridor gave remote Alto Paraguay, long cut off by distance and a lack of roads, one of its first major road links.

One theory says Paraguay takes its name, via its river, from which indigenous people?

The Payagua, canoe people of the Paraguay River: the Guaraní called it 'river of the Payaguá', though rival theories read the name as 'river of colourful birds'.

Paraguay's highest peak is slightly taller than which skyscraper?

Burj Khalifa: planned as Burj Dubai, it was renamed at its 2010 opening for UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed, after Abu Dhabi helped bail Dubai out of its debts.