Humility to Humiliation

So last Sunday, I was at a party in the street, since the Multimillionaire Bingo was cancelled due to rain (unfortunately in Guaraníes, not dollars, but still). Lots of people dancing and drinking heavily with music pumping out from pickup trucks outfitted with large stereos. I ended up standing around on the side next to some friends and was introduced as an American. One drunk Paraguayan asked me suddenly, "Why are we always humiliated?" I didn't know what he meant so he explained that Paraguayans were humble and poor. He used both words and talked about how poor all Paraguayans are. I told him that not all Paraguayans are poor, especially in Asunción, there are several extremely rich Paraguayans that have lots of money. But he said that all Paraguayans were humble and poor and they are always humiliated. I wish I could have recorded him, but it struck me how he was alternating between humilde and humillados, especially in reference to being here, where there are many, slightly more affluent Brazilians. His friend started a fight with some people he thought was Brazilian and one of my friends hinted that he might have a gun. In fact, a man with a gun rode by on a motorcycle and shot into the air, but I am more used to that now, so I wasn't worried. But humble and humiliated.

Paraguayans in the countryside are often proud of being "humble" or praise others for being humble people. "Ese señor es humilde" I have heard as a point of praise over and over about various people, and a Brazilian living here noted to me with a sense of shock perhaps that Paraguayans were proud of humility. Pride, humility and something akin to both privacy and shame seem to be highly prized qualities. But neither are they so innocent, as they have a political dimension that is rarely commented upon.

The CP (Colorado Party, in power a bit longer than the Chinese Communist Party) has effectively used "humility" and the peasant ideal as a powerful image that helped co-opt a large majority of Paraguayans into the party ideologically, while high-level Party operatives have effectively helped themselves to the riches of the State and society in classic kleptocratic fashion. And the constant monitoring of everyday bodily grooming under the Stroessner regime has created or at least heavily reinforced certain ideas about masculinity and the body that are only slowly changing (no long hair or beards for men--especially beards, since Castro had a beard--beards might also mean you are Jewish (oh my). If you were a young man with a beard or long hair, you could and would be picked up by the police and forcibly shaved and given a haircut.

But back to humility.