Harmonia transfronteiriça: a influência de elementos musicais paraguaios na identidade cultural de Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

This master's thesis analyzes the influence of Paraguayan music on the construction of a regional identity in Mato Grosso do Sul, focusing specifically on the repertoires of sertaneja, caipira, and borderland music. Situated within historical studies on borders and cultural identity, this work is based on the understanding that music is a privileged means for producing meaning, expressing daily life, and consolidating emotional and symbolic bonds. The research focuses on the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where the intense coexistence between Brazilians and Paraguayans, especially in the regions of Ponta Porã and Pedro Juan Caballero, has resulted in a hybrid soundscape marked by the circulation of genres such as chamamé, guarânia, and Paraguayan polka. By analyzing the repertoires of artists like Jandira and Benítez, Delio and Delinha, Zacarias Mourão, and Zé Corrêa, among others, the study investigates how celebrations, dances, cross-border romances, and displacements appear in musical compositions and how these experiences are transformed into musical narratives. Using television interviews, phonographic and documentary sources, and engaging with cultural history theory, the dissertation seeks to understand how music functions as a site of memory and belonging, contributing to the invention and affirmation of a border identity in Mato Grosso do Sul, one rooted in a blend of languages, rhythms, and ways of life.