Asunción

I

Introduction

Asunción or Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, capital city of Paraguay and the political, economic, educational, and cultural center of the nation. The city is sited on a bluff on the eastern banks of the Paraguay River, where it meets the Pilcomayo River. It serves as an important trading port for the landlocked country, linking it to the Atlantic Ocean 1,600 km (1,000 mi) downstream through the Paraná River system to the south. Its climate is moist and subtropical. Temperatures in the winter months are pleasant, but daytime temperatures in the summer often exceed 35º C (95º F).

II

City Landscape

Asunción covers 117 sq km (45 sq mi). It completely occupies the small capital district of Asunción and spreads into the adjacent district, the Central Department, which accounts for about half the city’s urbanized area. The metropolitan area covers 249 sq km (96 sq mi). Low-lying areas near the Paraguay River are occasionally flooded, but the city’s urban core is located on high ground.

Although the population of the urban agglomeration centered on Asunción totals 1.6 million, it retains many characteristics of a small Latin American city. Its skyline boasts only a few skyscrapers, concentrated in a few blocks in the downtown area. Beyond this central core, known as La Chacarita, most buildings are only two or three stories high. At midday on weekdays, traffic volume decreases and a noticeable quiet descends over most of the city as its residents return home to eat and enjoy the siesta, or afternoon rest.

Since the 1980s squatter settlements have sprung up along the river adjacent to the city center, but their area and population are small. Basic public services are deficient for much of the metropolitan population. Many squatter settlements have electricity but no water or sewer service, and service may be rationed or of poor quality in working-class neighborhoods.

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Although it was established in 1537, the city has few notable buildings dating from the colonial period. Most were destroyed in the early 1800s when successive presidents sought to modernize the city, replacing its winding streets and alleys with a gridlike street network. One notable exception is the Casa de la Independencia in the city center. Constructed in 1772, it was the site of the country’s declaration of independence from Spain in 1811.

The city’s downtown core focuses on the Plaza de los Heroes, a large four-block square that includes the national war memorial, called the Panteon Nacional de los Heroes (National Pantheon of Heroes). Important financial and commercial enterprises face the plaza, including banks, major airline offices, and the Hotel Guaraní, designed by the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho. Two blocks to the northeast, overlooking the Paraguay River, is the Plaza Independencia, the site of the National Congress and the city’s cathedral, both built in the first half of the 19th century. To the southeast is the city’s mid-19th century train station, which adjoins the immense Plaza Uruguay, a shady urban haven from the occasionally oppressive tropical heat.

Other important sites include the Government Palace, the National Museum of Fine Arts, the National Library and Archives, the Municipal Theater, the House of Paraguayan Culture, and the Casa Viola, a restored colonial building. The Botanical Gardens, the city’s largest open green space, are a popular site for recreational outings by the city’s residents, as well as home to the Natural History Museum. Two major universities are found in Asunción: the National University (1890) and the Catholic University of Our Lady of Asunción (1960).

III

Population

Asunción is Paraguay’s largest city, with 502,400 residents (1992 census), up from 454,881 in 1982. The population of the urban agglomeration is 1.6 million (2003), representing one-quarter of the nation’s total population. Most of the remainder of the nation’s people live within a semi-circular area extending 150 km (90 mi) north, east, and south of the city.

The majority of the population, of both Asunción and the country, is mestizo (of mixed Spanish and indigenous Guaraní ancestry). More than 90 percent of the population speaks both Spanish and the Guaraní language.

IV

Economy

Asunción is the nation’s center for manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and commerce. Major industries include food processing and production of consumer products for local consumption. Other manufacturing, principally in small factories and workshops, specializes in wood products, shoes, leather goods, and cotton textiles, some of which are exported to markets in Brazil and Argentina. Much of Paraguay’s agricultural production, the mainstay of its economy, is shipped through Asunción. Cotton, soybeans, oilseeds, timber, and meat products are exported to Brazil, Argentina, Germany, the United States, and The Netherlands.

A range of transportation systems provides passenger and cargo access to Asunción. The city is served by a modern international airport, Aeropuerto Pettirossi, which was completed in the early 1990s and is situated 15 km (9 mi) to the northeast of the city center. A number of regional and international air carriers, including North American and European airlines, fly into the country. Most cargo is shipped to and from Asunción along the Paraguay River through two modern ports: Asunción proper, which receives the bulk of the imports, and the port at Villeta, 25 km (15 mi) south of the capital, which was built in the 1980s and handles agricultural and industrial exports.

Land access to the capital was very limited until the 1980s, when two major highway projects were completed, providing paved road connections to Argentina and Brazil. Access to Paraguay’s sparsely settled western territory, the Chaco, is provided by the Trans-Chaco Highway, but only about half its length of 700 km (435 mi) is paved. Asunción’s single railroad line, running 370 km (230 mi) southeast to Encarnación on the Argentine border, is more a historical curiosity than a serious means of transportation. Its wood-burning steam locomotives average about 25 km/h (about 15 mph), and the trip can take as long as 24 hours.

Asunción developed a horse-drawn tram system in 1872 and an electric trolley system in 1913. Buses eventually replaced trolleys as the principal transportation for most of the population. The automobile caused comparatively few changes; except for taxis, automobile use is largely limited to the city’s upper and upper-middle classes, about 20 percent of the population.

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