Nueva Italia, Paraguay Nueva Italia, Paraguay Nueva Italia (Spanish for "New Italy") is a town in the Central Department of Paraguay. Nueva Italia was created in 1904 by the Paraguay government in order to establish some colonists from Italy and their 18 families in a farming area 40 km south of the capital Asunción. However also some German and Ucranian emigrants moved to live there. The first manager-administrator of this "Colonia Nueva Italia" (as was officially named) was the Italian count Enrico Statella. After WW1 many Italians returned to Italy or moved to the capital Asuncion, but the settlement -after an initial crisis-
History of Paraguay History of Paraguay The history of Paraguay is a result of development and interaction of varying cultures of indigenous peoples in Paraguay and overseas immigrants who together have created the modern-day Paraguay. Paraguay celebrates Independence Day on May 15, from 1811 to now. William E. Barrett wrote: "Paraguay is the country of prophecy. One of the two smallest nations [as of 1952] on the American continent, it was the first American communistic state, the first American nation to be governed by an absolute dictator (in the modern sense of the term)." The first Spaniards reached this territory in early 16th