Guarani riches.

• Author: Barry, Patrick
• Position: Upfront

I very much enjoyed your informative article on the Guarani language. Seeing the names of some poets from the past reminded me that many of them had their poems put to music by some of Paraguay's greatest composers. Manuel Ortiz Guerrero (1894-1933) had many of his poems ("India," "Ne Renape Aju," "Panambi Vera," etc.) converted into songs by Jose Asuncion Flores, the creator of the unique Paraguayan song format called guarania. Similarly, Teodoro S. Mongelos (1914-66) had beautiful tunes composed for his poems, such as "Che Jazmin," "Minero Sapukai," and "Virginia."

As Natalie Krivoshein pointed out, the list of poets is really endless. However, I think one should be mentioned, and that is Emiliano R. Fenandez (1894-1948), who wrote close to two thousand verses. Many of his poems were written in Jopara and others in Guarani. He wrote music for some of them, but most of the music was written by others. There are many LP recordings containing...