545: South America's Hidden Histories, a conversation with author Laurence Blair

'Romantic, adventurous and thrilling ... remarkable' Telegraph

'Vivid, fast-paced and wonderfully ambitious … Patria teems with alternative stories of a continent's life and peoples' New Internationalist

In late 1869, Richard Francis Burton stepped ashore in Southampton, fresh from a sightseeing tour of bone-strewn South American battlefields. The most lethal conflict ever fought on the continent was still stumbling to its gory conclusion. But if the celebrity adventurer expected to be mobbed with reporters, he was disappointed. Burton was 'mortified' to perceive how oblivious his fellow Britons were to 'perhaps the most remarkable campaign fought during the present century'. Tales of Dr Francia – Paraguay's dour, iron-willed dictator for almost thirty years – had once piqued the public's curiosity. But the country had since 'dropped clean out of vision. Many, indeed, were uncertain whether it formed part of North or of South America.' He found 'blankness of face' whenever Paraguay was mentioned, 'and a general confession of utter ignorance and hopeless lack of interest'.

Over 150 years later, the amnesia persists. If South America is a forgotten continent, Paraguay has fallen off the map altogether. Foreigners often confuse it with Uruguay, in many ways – a secular, liberal, World Cup-winner – Paraguay's opposite. The world takes Paraguay's drugs, beef, soybeans, migrant labourers, cleaners and midfielders, but has blanked out their distant source. In London, Madrid or New York, this might be understandable. But Paraguayans have long felt isolated and ignored even by their neighbours. In an aphorism so often repeated it has taken on the character of a curse, Augusto Roa Bastos – the country's most famous novelist – described his nation as 'an island surrounded by land'.

So, we discuss and end up philosophising about Latin America's place in the world, Lawrence's adventures across the region, Colombia, Paraguay and his new book, "Patria, Lost Countries of South America."

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/435719/patria-by-blair-laurence/97818479246…