Guarania is the national music genre of Paraguay. In the words of composer Jose Asuncion Flores, it is “from my people, written for and by my people”. These slow and melancholic folk ballads, sung in Spanish and Guaraní, are accompanied by guitar and harp. Betto Arcos tells the story of this genre with historical recordings of singer Amambay Cardozo Ocampo, Agustín Barboza and Los Troveros de América; he finds out how the style has been developed in recent years, and drops in on a late night session from two master instrumentalists in this style, Sixto Corbalán and Pedro Martínez.

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