José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia
Encyclopedia
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
following its independence from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. He ran the country with little outside influence from 1814 to 1840.
Biography
Born in YaguarónYaguarón (town)
Yaguarón is a city in Paraguay, located at the base of Yaguarón Hill in the Yaguarón District of Paraguarí Department, from the capital Asunción...
, Francia's father was an officer turned tobacco planter from São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and his mother was a Paraguayan descendent of Spanish colonizers. He received in the baptism the name Joseph Gaspar de Franza y Velasco, but later used the more popular name Rodriguez and changed Franza to the Spanish Francia. Although his father was simply García Rodríguez Francia (or Garcia Rodrigues França in Portuguese), the dictator inserted the particle de to style himself "Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco". The Paraguayans often referred to him simply as "Dr. Francia" or Caraí Guazú (great lord in Guaraní language
Guaraní language
Guaraní, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guaraní , is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí–Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and half of...
). The Indians believed he had supernatural powers. When they saw him measuring the stars with his Theodolite
Theodolite
A theodolite is a precision instrument for measuring angles in the horizontal and vertical planes. Theodolites are mainly used for surveying applications, and have been adapted for specialized purposes in fields like metrology and rocket launch technology...
, they thought he was talking to the night demons. Later, he would use it to straighten the streets of Asunción
Asunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
.
He became a doctor of theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and master of philosophy at the University of Córdoba
National University of Córdoba
The National University of Córdoba, , is the oldest university in Argentina, and one of the oldest in the Americas. It is located in Córdoba, the capital of Córdoba Province. Since the early 20th century it has been the second largest university in the country in terms of the number of students,...
. Eventually, he would learn five languages (Guarani
Guaraní language
Guaraní, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guaraní , is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí–Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and half of...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
and some English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
). He was trained for the Catholic priesthood but never entered it. As a lawyer, he became a social activist and defended the less fortunate against the affluent. He demonstrated an early interest in politics and attained with difficulty the position of alcalde del primer voto, or head of the Asunción cabildo, by 1809, the highest position he could aspire to as a criollo. Other significant members included Fulgencio Yegros
Fulgencio Yegros
Fulgencio Yegros y Franco de Torres was Paraguayan soldier and first head of state of independent Paraguay.Yegros was born to a family of military tradition and also pursued a military career. He studied in Asunción and joined the army...
, Pedro Juan Caballero
Pedro Juan Caballero (politician)
Pedro Juan Caballero was a leading figure of Paraguayan independence. He was born in Tobatí a town located in a region called Department Cordillera, Paraguay. Even though he was 6 years younger than Fulgencio Yegros and 20 than Dr...
, Manuel Atanasio Cabañas and the last governor, Bernardo de Velasco. On 24 July 1810, Francia shocked the other members by saying it was irrelevant which king they had. When Paraguay's independence was declared, on 15 May 1811, he was appointed secretary to the national junta or congress. On 1 August he resigned because of the army's dominance over Congress. He retired to the countryside where he spread rumours the country was going to be betrayed by the incompetent government. He was one of the few men in the country with any significant education, and soon became the country's real leader. Only one other Paraguayan had a doctorate: Pedro Somellera, secretary to the last governor, Velasco. He suggested Francia join the junta
Junta
Junta may refer to:Governance:* Military-led government:** By military junta or committee**Military dictatorship regardless of structure* Other governance:** Junta ** Specific to Spain:*** Junta , 1808–1810...
and was later imprisoned.
From his retirement in his modest chacra (cottage or hut) at Ibaray, near Asunción, he told countless ordinary citizens who came to visit him that their revolution had been betrayed, that the change in government had only traded a Spanish-born elite for a criollo one, and that the present government was incompetent and mismanaged. He returned to the junta in October, resigned again in December. He did not return till November 1812 and only if he was in charge of foreign policy and half the army.
On 1 October 1813 Congress named Francia and Yegros as alternate consuls for a year, Francia taking the first and third four month periods.
On 1 July 1814 Francia banned Spaniards from marrying each other; they had to wed Indians, Blacks, or Mulattoes.
On 1 October 1814 Congress named him Consul of Paraguay
President of Paraguay
The President of Paraguay is according to the Paraguayan Constitution the Chief of the Executive branch of the Government of Paraguay...
, with absolute powers for three years. He consolidated his power to such an extent that on 1 June 1816, another Congress voted him absolute control over the country for life. His official title was "Supreme and Perpetual Dictator of Paraguay," but he was popularly known as El Supremo. According to historian Richard Alan White, these congresses were actually very progressive for the era; all men over 23 could vote for them. For the next 24 years, he ran the country with the aid of only three other people. He aimed to found a society on the principles of Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
's Social Contract and was also inspired by Robespierre and Napoleon. To create such a personal utopia he imposed a ruthless isolation
Isolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
upon Paraguay, interdicting all external trade, while at the same time he fostered national industries. He became known as a caudillo
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
who ruled through ruthless suppression and random terror.
1820 uprising
In 1820 Francia's political police (the pyraguës, hairy feet) uncovered and quickly crushed a plot by the elite to assassinate El Supremo. Francia arrested almost 200 prominent Paraguayans and executed most of them. In June 1821, a letter detailing an anti-Francia conspiracy was found by two slaves, as well as Francia's priest, who had knowledge of the plot from the confessions of a conspirator. Francia had all 300 Spaniards arrested and made them stand in the plaza while he read the letter out. They were only released when they had paid 150,000 pesos (by comparison the 1820 budget was 164,723 pesos). The head conspirators; Fulgencio YegrosFulgencio Yegros
Fulgencio Yegros y Franco de Torres was Paraguayan soldier and first head of state of independent Paraguay.Yegros was born to a family of military tradition and also pursued a military career. He studied in Asunción and joined the army...
and Pedro Caballero
Pedro Juan Caballero (politician)
Pedro Juan Caballero was a leading figure of Paraguayan independence. He was born in Tobatí a town located in a region called Department Cordillera, Paraguay. Even though he was 6 years younger than Fulgencio Yegros and 20 than Dr...
were arrested and imprisoned for life. Caballero committed suicide on July 13, 1821, and Yegros was executed four days later.
He outlawed all opposition and established a secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
force. His underground prison was known as the chamber of truth, most of Paraguay's manufactures were made with prison labour. He abolished flogging but his executions were brutal. He insisted all executions happen at a stool (banquillo) outside his window under an orange tree. Because he was so stingy about wasting bullets, most victims were bayoneted. The families were not allowed to collect the bodies till they had been lying there all day to make sure they were dead. Many prisoners were also banished to Tevego
Tevego
Tevego was a settlement and eventual penal colony in Paraguay between 1813 and 1823. It was repopulated in 1843, but then abandoned. It was also known as Tebego, Etevego or Estevegó.-History:...
, a prison camp 70 miles away from any other settlement, surrounded in the east by an endless swamp
, and in the west by the Gran Chaco
Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semi-arid lowland region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, Paraguay, northern Argentina and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, where it is connected with the Pantanal region...
. Upon his death there were 606 prisoners in Paraguay's jails. These were mainly foreign.
Military policy
Francia believed the states of Latin America should form a confederation based on equality of nations and joint defense.All soldiers had to be unmarried, aged between 18 and 30 and white (apart from the lancer squadrons, which were reserved for blacks and mulattoes). Indians and mestizos could join the militia, which permanently numbered between 5-10,000. The cadet corps was founded in 1821.
Companies consisted of roughly 100 men, and ranks included fusiliers, grenadiers, dragoons, horse grenadiers, rifles, chasseurs and lancers.
Uniforms consisted of a black shako
Shako
A shako is a tall, cylindrical military cap, usually with a peak or visor and sometimes tapered at the top...
with Paraguay's national cockade
Cockade
A cockade is a knot of ribbons, or other circular- or oval-shaped symbol of distinctive colors which is usually worn on a hat.-Eighteenth century:...
, a blue coat and white trousers. Cavalry units (apart from the lancers) had yellow aiguillettes and facings
Facing colour
A Facing Colour is a common European uniform military tailoring technique where the lining of the standard military jacket visible to the observer is of a different colour to that of the jacket. The jacket lining evolved to be of different coloured material, then of specific hues...
, while infantry had said decorations in red, and chasseurs and rifles had them in green. The lancers wore a white jacket without buttons with white trousers, and a red forage cap with a red waistcoat.
No rank above captain was allowed, and soldiers only very rarely received this position. Soldiers guarding the borders were not paid till they returned to Asunción, so if they died no money was wasted.
The size of the army varied compared to the magnitude of the threat. In 1824 for example, the army had over 5,500 troops, but in 1834, only 649. Francia deliberately misled foreigners into thinking that the army was over 5,000 strong, when in fact it rarely exceeded 2,000. The first Paraguayan-built warship was launched in 1815, and by the mid 1820s, a navy of 100 canoes, sloops and flatboats had been built. People had to doff their hats to any soldier, many Indians who could not afford headgear wore nothing but a hat brim so they could obey. Cash could only be exported in exchange for arms and ammunition, and in 1832 2000 muskets and sabres were imported from Brazil.
While no wars were fought, there were disputes over Candelaria/Misiones
Misiones Province
Misiones is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamiсa region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes Province of Argentina to the southwest.- History :The province was...
with Argentina. Francia initially abandoned it in 1815, then in 1821 built a fort on the border, followed by another one the next year and a third in 1832. In 1838, the army actually invaded and occupied Candelaria on the grounds that Francia was protecting the Guarani natives living there.
Paraguayan soldiers only saw action on the outposts of the frontier, which frequently came under attack from Guaycurú Indians.
In 1823, Francia allowed Brazilian merchants to trade in Candelaria.
Francia would spend most of the state's budget on the army, but soldiers were used for labour on public projects.
Educational policies
Francia had abolished higher education because he saw the need to spend more money in the military in order to defend Paraguayan independence. Francia closed the country's only seminary in 1822, mainly due to the bishop's mental illness.However, in 1828 Francia made state education compulsory for all males (he neither helped nor hindered the private schools). Even before this, the pupil-teacher ratio was good, 1 teacher to 36 pupils by 1825 according to Richard Alan White. In 1836 Francia opened Paraguay's first public library, stocked with his opponents' books. Books were one of the few duty-free items (munitions being another).
Refugees
Contrary to popular belief, Paraguay was not completely isolated, Francia welcomed political refugees from various countries. José Artigas, hero of Uruguay'sUruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
independence, was given asylum in 1820 along with 200 of his men. He stayed in Paraguay even after Francia's death on a pension of $30 a month. He was pursued by Francisco Ramírez
Francisco Ramírez
Francisco Ramírez, 19th-century ruler of Republic of Entre Ríos, Argentina.Francisco Ramírez may also refer to:*Francisco Ramírez , Honduran footballer...
, who saw one of his warships also desert to Paraguay. In 1820, Francia ordered that runaway slaves were to be given refuge and refugees from Corrientes
Corrientes
Corrientes is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12...
were to have canoes and land. In 1839, a whole company of Brazilian deserters were welcomed. Many ex-slaves were also sent to guard the penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
of Tevego
Tevego
Tevego was a settlement and eventual penal colony in Paraguay between 1813 and 1823. It was repopulated in 1843, but then abandoned. It was also known as Tebego, Etevego or Estevegó.-History:...
.
Agrarian policies
In October 1820, a plague of locusts destroyed most of the crops. Francia ordered a second harvest planted. It proved abundant, so from then on Paraguay's farmers planted two crops a year. Through the decade, Francia nationalised half the land in four stages. First he confiscated the lands of traitors, then clerics (1823–4), squatters (1825) and finally unused land (1828). The land was either run directly by soldiers for making their own supplies or leased to the peasants. By 1825 Paraguay was self-sufficient in sugar cane, and wheat was introduced. At the end of his life, to stop a cattle plague spreading from Argentina, Francia ruthlessly confined all the cattle at Ytapua until the plague had died out.Nationalization of the Church
Francia seized the possessions of the Roman Catholic ChurchRoman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, he appointed himself head of the Paraguayan church, for which the Pope excommunicated him. Francia's reply on hearing this was: "If the Holy Father himself should come to Paraguay I would make him my private chaplain." He re-purposed confessional boxes as sentry posts, and abolished the Inquisition. In 1815 the Church was declared independent of Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. In mid-June 1816 all nocturnal processions were banned except the Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi (feast)
Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
. In 1819, the Bishop was persuaded to transfer authority to the vicar-general. The Friars were secularised in 1820. On August 4, 1820, all clergy were forced to swear allegiance to the state and their clerical immunities were withdrawn. The four monasteries were nationalised in 1824. One was knocked down, another became a parish church. The remaining two became an artillery park and barracks. The three convents also became barracks. The confessionals became sentry boxes while the hangings in the mission churches became the lancers' red waistcoats.
One Latin American scholar summarized his rule as follows:
As time went on he appears to have grown more arbitrary and despotic. Deeply imbued with the principles of the French Revolution, he was a stern antagonist of the church. He abolished the Inquisition, suppressed the college of theology, did away with the tithes, and inflicted endless indignities on the priests. He kept the aristocracy in subjection and discouraged marriage both by precept and example, leaving behind him several illegitimate children. For the extravagances of his later years the plea of insanity has been put forward.
Personal life
Francia was almost certainly an atheist (he had stopped attending mass by 1820) and had a very liberal view of sexuality. He made marriageMarriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
subject to high taxation and restrictions, insisting he personally conduct all weddings. Francia kept a ledger of all the women he slept with. He himself had no close relationships, but had seven illegitimate children, the oldest being Ubalda García de Cañete
Ubalda García de Cañete
200px|right|thumb|Her father; José Gaspar Rodríguez de FranciaUbalda García de Cañete was the eldest daughter of the Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia....
. He caught her soliciting as a prostitute outside his palace, he declared prostitution an honourable profession and that they should all wear gold hair combs. They became known as peinetas de oro. This was done to humiliate the Spanish ladies as it was a Spanish fashion.
Francia took several precautions against assassination. He would lock the palace doors himself, unroll the cigars his sister made to ensure there was no poison, prepared his own yerba maté
Yerba mate
Maté, yerba maté or erva maté , Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
and slept with a pistol under his pillow. No one could come within six paces of him or even carry a cane near him. He uprooted all bushes and trees along his riding route so assassins could not hide, all shutters had to be closed and pedestrians had to throw themselves to the floor.
Francia lived a spartan lifestyle. Apart from his books furniture, his only possessions were a tobacco case and a pewter confectionery box. Francia left the state treasury with at least twice as much money in it as when he took office, including 36,500 pesos of his unspent salary, the equivalent of several years' salary.
Francia died on 20 September 1840. He had just destroyed all his papers, sensing his mortality. He refused medical aid, even lashing out at a doctor with his sabre. His daughter would burn Francia's furniture after his death. He was given a state funeral where the priest eulogized him. Some old Spanish families later stole his corpse, dismembered it and threw it into the river.
His reputation abroad was negative: Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
, for one, hoped he would be overthrown, though Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
, no friend to democracy, found material to admire even in the publications of Francia's detractors and wrote in an 1843 essay that "Liberty of private judgement, unless it kept its mouth shut, was at an end in Paraguay" but considered that under the social circumstances this was of little detriment to a "Gaucho population... not yet fit for constitutional liberty." A modern reader might consider this faint praise, taken all in all.
Francia imbued Paraguay with a tradition of autocratic rule that lasted, with only a few breaks, until 1989. Nonetheless, he is still considered a national hero, with a museum dedicated to his memory in Yaguarón. Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos
Augusto Roa Bastos
Augusto Roa Bastos, was a noted Paraguayan novelist and short story writer, and one of the most important Latin American writers of the 20th century. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor...
wrote an ambivalent depiction of the life of Francia, a novel entitled Yo el Supremo (I, the Supreme
I, the Supreme
I, the Supreme is a historical novel written by exiled Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos. It is a fictionalized account of the nineteenth-century Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, who was also known as "Dr...
).