It often seems to me that Americans don’t think much about South America, even though we have a lot of shared colonial history. Europe is a shorter flight, but going to South America from Chicago involves a lot less jet lag.
Paraguay is down there, nestled among Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. It’s a former Spanish colony that became independent in 1811. After that, it was led by a series of military dictators with pretensions of royalty. The News from Paraguay is the story of one of them. Well, it’s the story of his mistress. Francisco Solano López Carrillo, the son of the president of Paraguay, went to Paris in Paraguay’s diplomatic services and took up with Eliza Lynch, an Irish woman who was working as a courtesan there. They fell in love, and Francisco brought Eliza back to Paraguay. The two never married, but Eliza gave birth to six children, and the two stayed together until Francisco’s death.
Francisco became president of Paraguay after his father’s death, and he abandoned his father’s isolationist strategy in pursuit of more territory and power. This lead to the War of the Triple Alliance in 1864, with Paraguayan forces fighting Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. It was a disaster; Paraguay lost about a third of its territory and half of its population in the fighting. The war ended in 1870, shortly after Francisco was killed in battle.
Eliza Lynch has long been a figure of fascination in South American history. She brought modern ideas about arts, manners, and the rights to women to Paraguay. Also, Eliza seems to have supported and maybe even fuelled Francisco López’s ambition, going so far as to travel from battle to battle with him during the war. She was clearly his primary advisor and primary relationship. She returned to France after Francisco died, living in genteel poverty. About a century after her death, her body was exumed and returned to Paraguay, where she is considered to be a national heroine.
The News from Paraguay is a fictionalized version of Eliza Lynch’s life. I knew nothing of her story, so at first, I thought it was about a fictional mistress. I soon realized that the story was essentially true and that Eliza was a main character, not a footnote.
Paraguay has 7.5 million people, is currently a democracy, and has GDP per capita of about $16,000. I’m going to have to visit soon.
