Spanish heritage. Paraguay. Rafael Barrett. Josefina Pla. Cesar Alonso de las Heras. Paraguayan literature of XX century.

Herencia espanola. Paraguay. Rafael Barrett. Josefina Pla. Cesar Alonso de las Heras. Literatura paraguaya del siglo XX.

This article examines Spanish heritage in Paraguayan history and literature, starting from the colonial times when the country was part of Spanish kingdom. The article emphasizes the importance of the work of the Jesuits in the "Reducciones" in the region of La Plata, who collaborated actively in the development of theology and book edition. For several centuries, Paraguay has been a shelter for many Spanish authors who wrote in this land his best works and promoted the opening of Paraguayan letters towards more universal trends in aesthetics. We mention Rafael Barrett, Josefina Plá or father César Alonso de las Heras. Thanks to authors such as Augusto Roa Bastos and Gabriel Casaccia, Paraguay's literature is no longer considered only "folkloric" and "idealistic".