Camila O'Gorman (1828-1848), was a wealthy socialite and figure of scandal in 19th century Argentina. Her execution during the last stages of pregnancy caused an international uproar and contributed to the poltical demise of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.
Early Life
Camila was born in Buenos Aires, the youngest daughter of Adolfo O'Gorman and his wife, Joaquina Ximenez Pinto (d.1852). She was the second-to-last of six children in an upper class family of mixed Irish, French, and Spanish descent. Typical of powerful families in Argentina's post-colonial era, two of her brothers went on to pursue respectable careers in Argentine society. One sought a position in the Jesuit Order, and the other as police officer and the eventual founder of the Buenos Aires Police Academy. Camila was considered a pillar of polite society, frequently dancing at formal balls at the Presidential Palace. She was also a close friend and confidant of Rosas' daughter.
A Public Affair
In her late teens, Camila was introduced to Father Uladislao Gutierrez, a Jesuit priest who had attended seminary with her brother. Father Gutierrez came from a similar background, his uncle was the Provincial Governor of Tucuman. He had been assigned as the O'Gorman family's parish priest and was soon being frequently invited to her family's estate. They soon began a clandestine affair.
In 1847 Camila and Fr. Gutierrez eloped on horseback and found refuge in Corrientes Province, which was then under the control of a Leftist warlord hostile to the President Rosas. As the scandal broke, the supporters of Rosas suggested that she had been kidnapped. Rosas' exiled political opponents, including future President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, declared that the Rosas' tyranny was responsible for the moral corruption of Argentine womanhood.
Arrest and Execution
They were tracked down and arrested by an Irish priest named Fr. Michael Gannon. To the shock and horror of all following the story, Camila claimed that it had been she who had initiated the affair and insisted on their elopement, angrily denying rumors that she had been raped.
On the orders of President Rosas, Camila O'Gorman and Fr. Gutierrez were executed by a firing squad on 18 August, 1848 in the prison town of Santos Lugares. Camila O'Gorman was twenty years old and was eight-months pregnant with the illegitimate child of Father Uladislao Gutierrez.
Aftermath
In the aftermath of their deaths, Sarmiento and his fellow Unitario propagandists changed tactic, writing about "the beautiful girl," "the doomed couple," and "the repression of love."
Film
- Maria Luisa Bemberg, Camila (Buenos Aires, 1984), film with Susu Pecoraro, Imanol Arias and Hector Alterio (1 hour 45 minutes). Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1985.
Further reading
- Coghlan, Eduardo A., Los Irlandeses en Argentina: su Actuacion y Descendencia (Buenos Aires, 1987), p. 420.
- Julianello, Maria Teresa, The Scarlet Trinity: The Doomed Struggle of Camila O'Gorman against Family, Church and State in 19th-Century Buenos Aires (Cork: Irish Centre for Migration Studies, 2000).
- Luna, Felix (ed.), Camila O'Gorman (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 2002).
External links
Other pages about Argentine murder victims
-Anibal Veron -Axel Blumberg -Camila O'Gorman -Hector Aldo Fagetti Gallego -Jose Luis Cabezas -Oberdan Sallustro -Pocho Lepratti
Other pages about Irish Argentineans
-Benito Lynch -Camila O'Gorman -Che Guevara -Chris de Burgh -Dalmacio Velez Sarsfield -Domingo Cullen -Eamon Bulfin -Edelmiro Julian Farrell -Edmundo Murray -Eduardo Casey -Franco Niell -Guillermo O'Donnell -Irish settlement in Argentina -John Coghlan (engineer) -Juan Martin de Pueyrredon -Maria Elena Walsh -Norma Nolan -Pacho O'Donnell -Ricardo Lopez Murphy -Rob Smith (musician) -Rodolfo Walsh -The Southern Cross -Tomas MacCormik -William Brown (admiral)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Camila_O'Gorman
