page_title: Chaco War
section_title: Cultural references
hierarchical_section_title: Chaco War / Cultural references
caption_attribution_description: This Paraguayan stamp (Scott no. 629) pictures Chaco Peace.
context_page_description: The Chaco War was fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the northern part of the Gran Chaco region of South America, which was thought to be rich in oil. It is also referred to as La Guerra de la Sed in literary circles, for being fought in the semi-arid Chaco. It was the bloodiest military conflict fought in South America during the 20th century, between two of its poorest countries, both having previously lost territory to neighbors in 19th-century wars.
  During the war, both landlocked countries faced difficulties shipping arms and supplies through neighboring countries. Bolivia faced particular external trade problems, coupled with poor internal communications. Although Bolivia had lucrative mining income and a larger, better-equipped army, a series of factors turned the tide against it, and Paraguay came to control most of the disputed zone by war's end.
  The ultimate peace treaties granted two-thirds of the disputed territories to Paraguay.
context_section_description: Augusto Céspedes, the Bolivian ambassador to UNESCO, and one of the most important Bolivian writers of the 20th century, has written several books describing different aspects of the conflict. As a war reporter for the newspaper El Universal Céspedes had witnessed the penuries of the war, which he described in Crónicas heroicas de una guerra estúpida ("Heroic Chronicles of a stupid war") among other books. Several of his fiction works, considered masterworks of the genre, have used the Chaco War conflict as a setting. Another diplomat and important figure of Bolivian literature, Adolfo Costa du Rels, has written about the conflict, his novel Laguna H3 published in 1938 is also set in the Chaco War.
  One of the masterpieces of Paraguayan writer Augusto Roa Bastos, the 1960 novel Hijo de Hombre, describes in one of its chapters the carnage and harsh war conditions during the siege of Boquerón. The author himself took part in the conflict, joining the army medical service at the age of 17. The Argentine film Hijo de Hombre or Thirst, directed by Lucas Demare in 1961 is based on this part of the novel.
  In Pablo Neruda's poem, Standard Oil Company, Neruda refers to the Chaco War in the context of the role that oil companies played in the war.
  The Chaco War, particularly the brutal battle of Nanawa, plays an important role in the adventure novel Wings of Fury, by R.N. Vick.
  The Paraguayan polka, "Regimiento 13 Tuyutí", composed by Ramón Vargas Colman and written in Guaraní by Emiliano R. Fernández, remembers the Paraguayan Fifth Division and its exploits in the battles around Nanawa, in which Fernández fought and was injured. On the other side, the siege of Boquerón inspired "Boquerón abandonado", a Bolivian tonada recorded by Bolivian folk singer and politician Zulma Yugar in 1982.
  The Broken Ear, one of the Adventures of Tintin series of comic stories by Belgian author Hergé (Georges Remi) is set during a fictionalised account of the war between the invented nations of San Theodoros and Nuevo Rico.
  Federico Funes, an Argentine aviator and writer, published "Chaco: Sudor y Sangre" (Chaco: Sweat and Blood), a fictionalised story about an Argentine volunteer pilot fighting for Paraguay in the 1930s.
  Barrage of Fire by Bolivian novelist Oscar Cerruto, narrates the cruel realities of life in Bolivia during the war through the experiences of a young protagonist.
caption: Chaco Peace. The stamp is Scott no. 629