Eliza Lynch
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Eliza Lynch (1835? - 1884) was the mistress of Francisco Solano López, the president of Paraguay.
She was born in Cork, Ireland, and emigrated with her family to Paris to escape the Potato Famine ten years later.
Eliza Lynch met Francisco Solano López, son of Carlos Antonio López, president of Paraguay, while working as a Parisian courtesan in 1854. She accompanied him when he returned to Paraguay in 1855 and spent the next 15 years as the most powerful woman in the country.
When Solano López became president in 1862, she became de facto first lady (they never married). She supported him in his disastrous wars which led to the deaths of over three hundred thousand Paraguayans. Despised and reviled, she was expelled from the country in 1870 (following the death of López) and died in obscurity in Paris. Over one hundred years later, her body was exhumed and brought to Paraguay where the dictator General she was proclaimed a national heroine.
Some people believe that Eliza Lynch was responsible in inducing Francisco Solano López to start the War of the Triple Alliance.
[edit] In fiction
Due to the melodramatic appeal of her story, many fictionalized accounts of her life were written at the time and up to the present day, but the historical record is somewhat ignored and liberties are taken to maximize dramatic effect. Novels include:
- Graham Shelby, Demand the World (1990)
- Anne Enright, The Pleasure of Eliza Lynch (2003)
- Lily Tuck, The News from Paraguay (2004), which won the National Book Award for that year.
See also The Shadows of Eliza Lynch by Sian Rees (Headline Review (6 Jan 2003)) and The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne (William Heinemann, London 2003) both of which have their strengths and weaknesses.
The play Visions (1978) by Louis Nowra depicts Lynch and Lopez leading Paraguay to disaster in the War of the Triple Alliance.
