O'Leary, Juan Emiliano (1880–1968)

Juan Emiliano O'Leary (b. 13 June 1880; d. 1968), Paraguayan historian, poet, and polemicist. Born in Asunción of mixed parentage, O'Leary received his education at the Colegio Nacional and the university, where he specialized in history. He later went on to teach history and geography at the colegio and the normal school. He was also for many years director of Paraguay's Archivo Nacional and Biblioteca Nacional.

As a historian, O'Leary saw as his particular goal the rehabilitation, even glorification, of Francisco Solano López, nineteenth-century field marshal and president of Paraguay during the War of the Triple Alliance and the object of heated criticism in its aftermath. Despite the fact that some members of his family had suffered under Marshal López, O'Leary spent years developing a portrait of the dictator as the supreme hero of the Paraguayan nation. Under the pseudonym Pompeyo González, O'Leary frequently wrote articles for the Partido Colorado's daily newspaper, Patria. His nationalist polemics were especially significant in channeling patriotic feelings in Paraguay during the Chaco War (1932–1935).

O'Leary lived to see his right-wing version of Paraguayan history adopted as official dogma during the Alfredo Stroessner regime (1954–1989). On several occasions O'Leary participated more directly in government as a Colorado deputy. Still, it is for his historical works that O'Leary is chiefly remembered. They include Páginas de historia (1916), Nuestra epopeya (1919), El libro de los héroes (1922), El mariscal López (1925), and El héroe del Paraguay (1930). He died in Asunción.

See alsoLópez, Francisco Solano; Paraguay: The Twentieth Century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

William B. Parker, Paraguayans of To-Day (1921).

Harris G. Warren, Rebirth of the Paraguayan Republic: The First Colorado Era, 1878–1904 (1985), esp. p. 293.

Additional Bibliography

Amaral, Raúl. Antecedentes del nacionalismo paraguayo: El grito de Piribebuy (12 de agosto de 1919). Asunción: Fundación Asunción, 1995.

Centurión Morínigo, Ubaldo. Raúl Amaral, el discípulo intelectual de Juan E. O'Leary. Asunción: Impr. Alber, 2000.

                                   Thomas L. Whigham