Twenty miles north of Asunción, hugging the west bank of the Paraguay River, sits a bustling cattle-ranching hub called Villa Hayes. This dusty city serves as the capital of Paraguay’s Presidente Hayes Department, features a Hayes Primary School, and boasts a statue of its namesake: Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th President of the United States. Hayes may be obscure in his homeland, but citizens of this South American nation absolutely revere the long-dead president. “Rutherford B. Hayes is our national hero,” says Maria Teresa Garozzo de Caravaca, director of the…
