The Triple Alliance War as school knowledge in Paraguay: historical narratives centered on characters (1897-2009)

Abstract

The present research defines didactic works of History conceived and adopted inschools of basic education in Paraguay, as a documental corpus for this study. Twelve didacticParaguayan books of History were analyzed with the purpose of observing the translationof the War of the Triple Alliance into the school knowledge environment, specificallyabout historical narratives centered on characters. The selected works cover a timeline, whichinitial mark is at the end of the conflict. It is thus, from the second half of the nineteenthcentury until the year 2009. It was assumed that in Paraguay, the War of the Triple Allianceevent, marked the collective memory of that country, and had / still has an important roleon national identities development. Regarding the narratives of Paraguayan textbooks, itwas predominant in most of the, a descriptive perspective based on military campaignsand individual actions of army commanders, and they were non-rare associated with actsof heroism. It is important to mention that in Paraguay, during the whole XX Century,the political and historical discussions practically led to the dichotomization between theones who were in favor of Solano López and the ones who were against him (“lopists” and“non-lopists”), which were eventually transposed to the school books of that country.