Hotel Guaraní considers how Brazilian economic and cultural norms shaped Paraguayan consumer culture in the middle decades of the twentieth century, studying the period that Alfredo Stroessner ruled Paraguay as a dictator (1954–1989). Bridget María Chesterton illustrates how, in the wake of new infrastructural links, Paraguay embraced a Brazilian model of modernity and consumption. Argentina borders Paraguay to the west and south and was long Paraguay’s most important partner. But in the 1960s, the construction of the Acaray Dam and a bridge over the Paraná River ushered a cultural and economic shift to eastern Paraguay and Brazil. This shift was encouraged by Stroessner and resulted in environmental and urban changes throughout Paraguay. Economic growth resulting from the bridge and the dam dramatically altered the capital of Asunción, which grew and modernized quickly. Focusing on the shift from the traditional, colonial-era, southern trade on the Paraguay River to a new, modern, eastern-focused highway, Chesterton demonstrates how Paraguayans began to consume Brazilian commodities and adopt Brazilian cultural norms.
