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Paraguayan histories for virtually closing the borders of the country to foreigners,
controlling internal migrations, outlawing books and newspapers, and closing
down the institutions of higher learning, including the College of Asunción
(Domínguez 1946[1918]). According to Julio Cesar Chaves (1942:279), the new
nation of Paraguay was left to incubate its new nationalism for the 26 years of
Francia's rule. “The isolation of Paraguay in 1823 was almost total. No
commercial relations whatsoever were maintained outside the country, reducing
commerce to barter of a few products in Pilar [a riverine port city].”
While the closing of outside trade was a hardship for all, it ended
Paraguay's dependent economic relationship as the most peripheral in exchanges
reaching to Europe or North America. There were a number of ramifications of
this. Luxury goods were no longer being imported; this would no doubt include
lace.
It is probable that the closure of the country facilitated the development of
local products that previously had been imported in order to fulfill local demand.
It is also probable that previously limited usages expanded to fill new needs left
vacant by the lack of imported goods. Ñandutí would fit into this category as a
product that had been used for religious rituals as altar cloths and vestments
being adapted to secular uses for the nation’s elites. This would be particularly
true in the area surrounding the capital of Asunción where luxury goods would
have been more in demand (Salerno 1996:13).
According to Pla (1993:8), ñandutí production continued in several small
communities surrounding the capital of Asunción, such as Itauguá, after the
expulsion of the Jesuits (1767) and the end of the colonial era (1811). At this
point, upper class women maintained the knowledge of the art of ñandutí.
These communities had a portion of upper class families from plantations or
businesses with daughters who prepared ñandutí for their weddings and
households. For the middle and lower class Paraguayan woman and her
household, ñandutí was not practical for dress, decoration, or the time spent in
production.
Francia died in 1840 and Carlos Antonio López became the next dictator of
the fledgling nation-state. He “tried to encourage commerce, to establish
diplomatic relations, to encourage immigration and to reestablish the school
system” (Rubin 1968:27). López found opening international commerce initially
difficult due to the refusal by Argentine dictator Juan Manuel Rosas to let
Paraguayan ships pass upriver. When Rosas fell in 1852, López increased
international trade, which tripled in the next ten years, and accelerated
modernization. López died in 1862 and, within a month, his son, Francisco
Solano López, was chosen unanimously to be the new president by a special
congress.
William Barrett (1952) suggests that López modeled himself after Louis
Bonaparte (Napolean III) and wanted to be a world leader. He toured France
and brought back an Irish mistress named Eliza Lynch who had been living at
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