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,
