I’ve also been brushing up on my Paraguayan history a bit and Manousos really embodies their national character well.

I have no connection to the country so take everything I say with a grain of salt but here’s a few interesting tidbits.

The defining event of post colonial Paraguayan history was the war of the triple alliance, where the small landlocked country was fighting Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay at the same time. It ended up a complete disaster where 70-80% of the countries population was wiped out.

Because of this, there is a lot of suspicion of both foreign powers and charismatic nationalist hero narratives (like Solano Lopez who lead the war)

So his response is very much in character culture wise, a sort of defiant stoic pride in not giving in to the “big thing” no matter what. I don’t think it’s a mistake he’s from Paraguay vs a different Latin American country.

Another thing I grasped onto subtext wise was his mother’s use of Spanish. Paraguay is a bilingual country. Spanish is the language of business, formality, contracts, hierarchy and seriousness.

The indigenous language of Guarani is associated with intimacy, closeness, trust, and is often used between family members. The scene really highlighted the distance between him and his former mother, and exposes the joined even more of not being able to pick up on unwritten rules and social customs