A Tragic Nineteenth Century Love
Nineteenth century Argentine socialite Maria Camila O’Gorman Ximenez (1828 – 1848) is one of the most famous romantic – and tragic – figures of her country. Born in Buenos Aires, Camila had cultivated manners, a ladylike education, suave beauty, and a kindly disposition. Those traits, which belonged in a land of peace and beauty, were at odds with the Argentina of her day. She lived in a brutalized country whose dictator, a general named Juan Manuel de Rosas, often spiked town squares with the heads of political opponents.
Camila’s downfall came because she fell in love and carried on a romantic affair with a Roman Catholic priest, whom she eventually wed. Their relationship and marriage scandalized the country, and got both of them killed. A pillar of polite society, Camila was a friend of the dictator’s daughter. Then she was introduced to a Jesuit priest named Ladislao Guiterrez. Things clicked between the socialite and the man of the cloth. They fell in love, and in 1847, the two began an affair.