Between Yerba Mate and Soy: The Orange as National Food and Landscape from the Early Nineteenth to the Early Twenty-First Centuries in Paraguay

Abstract

ABSTRACT Yerba mate (Paraguayan green tea) and soy are the commodities most associated with Paraguayan foodways and landscapes. This article, however, explores how oranges played an outsized role in Paraguay from the nation’s founding in the early nineteenth century to the fruit’s decline in the early twenty-first century. Using the narratives of travel writers, the writings of Paraguayan scientists, newspaper articles, and recorded memories, the text argues that oranges shaped an image of an “exotic,” “fertile,” and “abundant” nation. Even during times of famine oranges persisted as symbols of “survival.” In the end, the article posits that a simple imported plant fundamentally shaped the construction of ideas about nation and landscape in nineteenth and twentieth-century Paraguay. By connecting land, production, and subsistence, this article interrogates the creation and meanings of national foods.