It has been announced that Julio de Torres, a prominent Paraguayan academician and theatrician, will be delivering a presentation on the Arete Guasu, a carnival-like festivity held by the indigenous people of Western Guarani, at the prestigious Congress of the International Federation of Theatre Research, which will be held later this year in Germany.
Julio de Torres is an actor, director, playwright and researcher in arts and humanities, has a degree in Sociology from the National University of Asunción (Paraguay) and a degree in Anthropology from the Federal University of Latin American Integration (Brazil). He has a master’s degree in Advanced Theatre Studies from the International University of La Rioja and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Society and Culture at the University of Barcelona, with a line of research in Performing Arts.
He will present a research paper at the Congress of the International Federation for Theatre Research, in Cologne, Germany, in June 2025. This is a meeting that rotates each year in different cities, and constitutes an important space for reflection from a multicultural perspective, since it brings together numerous academics from different countries.
Julio described his motivation for talking about this specific theatrical event of the Western Guarani culture:
“I thought it appropriate to present one of the experiences that I analyse in my doctoral thesis, which is that of the Western Guaraní, whose Arete Guasu is known by society as carnivals. The decolonized view of these festivities is extremely necessary to understand cultures outside the Western perspective. At the moment, the approach and the previous theoretical survey have been made, however, as I have not yet done the field work, I will rely on previous works by colleagues and artists whose work is fundamental.”
“The interesting thing about this Congress is that the topic addressed has to do with carnivals in the world. This topic is part of my doctoral research at the University of Barcelona, along with two other experiences from Chaco. Particularly, this presentation will be an opportunity to share reflections and discuss previous studies by colleagues and fellow countrymen artists that have supported this analysis.
Julio is an expert in a wide range of interesting topics that cross over between different academic disciplines; he will also present at the 11th International Congress of Anthropology of the Ibero-American Anthropologists Network, which will be held at the University of Cantabria, Santander, Spain. At this event, he will present the research topic in greater depth, and include two other experiences that he is analysing in his doctorate: the Yshir case and the Ayoreo case.
Julio de Torres reports that his topics of interest include the history of Paraguayan theater, the performative processes of indigenous peoples, the preservation of cultural memory and post-dictatorship historical memory (Paraguay and Spain). He has published more than forty articles in Paraguayan newspapers (ABC Color, La Nación, Última Hora and El Nacional) on theater, cinema, music and literature. Among his recent theatrical works are Veinticinco (2022) and Triste prodigio (2023). He acted in the films Boquerón (Bolivia, 2015) by Tonchy Antezana and Truenos (Paraguay, 2017). As a writer and poet, he has received seven awards and mentions in literary competitions. In 2019, he published his first collection of poems, Evasiva.
He also holds a Master’s degree in National Strategic Planning and Management from the Institute of Advanced Strategic Studies (Paraguay). He is a PhD candidate in Society and Culture from the University of Barcelona. He is a member of the Academy of Performing Arts of Spain (AAEE), the International Federation for Theatrical Research (IFTR), the Asturian Association of Anthropology and Ethnological Heritage, the Association of Ibero-American Anthropologists in Network and the Paraguayan Association of Anthropology, among others.
The International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) 2025 conference, in which Julio de Torres will participate, will be held in Cologne, Germany, from June 9 to 13, 2025. From all of us at The Asunción Times, we wish you all the best Julio – or as they say in the theatre, break a leg!
