"The Chaco War was a military conflict between Bolivia and Paraguay, waged from the 9th of September, 1932, until the 12th of June, 1935, in the region known as the Chaco Boreal. Regarded as the most extensive military engagement in South America during the twentieth century, Bolivia is said to have mustered some 250,000 men, whilst Paraguay put into the field about 150,000 troops."

Many of the soldiers were kin, bound by blood and sorrow; countless perished amid the harsh and unforgiving conditions of the Chaco, far from all they once held dear. It is something that sears the soul—a memory that burns. From my grandfather’s account, I learned he was conscripted at the age of fifteen. Yet he passed away long before he could tell much of his ordeal. In truth, I never heard those words from his own lips, for he died many years before my birth—twenty-eight, to be precise.

What troubles me still is that I cannot speak freely of those soldiers—of either side, mind you. Should I lament the loss and anguish of the Paraguayans, I am branded a traitor to my own land; and if I speak of the Bolivians, there is ever some Paraguayan—though by no means all—who will remind me that it was we who began the war. I know well that the nation bore responsibility for its commencement, yet I speak rather of the men, young or otherwise, who were taken by force and sent to fight, to defend their homeland as best they could. The Paraguayans did the same.

It remains a burning memory.