Guarania

Guarania is a Paraguayan song genre created in 1925 by the composer *José Asunción Flores* as a slow, melancholic counterpart to the upbeat Paraguayan polka. Written mainly in 6/8 and in minor keys, it is performed by voice with guitar and Paraguayan harp, and its texts — in Spanish, Guaraní or a mixture of both — treat love, exile, landscape and national longing. Flores designed the genre to express the Paraguayan character, and its emblematic song, "India", was declared the national guarania in 1944. In 2024 UNESCO inscribed guarania on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.