One episode stands out as a mark of her father’s character and an influence on her life. One day when she was 7 years old, a stranger came to her house bearing gifts. The Eva Péron Foundation had sent gifts to the poor children of Asuncion, and as a favor, they gave a tricycle and a doll to the chief of police’s children. Delighted, Teresa and her brother ran off to play—only to have the new toys swiftly taken away by their father. They weren’t poor, he explained; they had toys, and it wouldn’t be fair to keep the gifts.

“It was a defining moment,” says the professor. “A social consciousness woke up in me when I was very little.”

But life for the family—and the country—was about to change. Since 1811, when Paraguay became independent from Spanish rule, it had been led by a series of military strongmen, and, after a period of democratic government, a brutal new dictator was about to emerge: Alfredo Stroessner. The 35 years that followed are known as “the Stronato,” the second longest single dictatorship in the Americas (Castro’s tenure is the longest).

Stroessner operated a corrupt regime, sheltered Nazi war criminals, and abused human rights. To Stroessner, Epifanio Méndez Fleitas was seen as a political rival. He invented a “diplomatic mission” to Spain for the young bank president, a cover-up for what was to be his permanent banishment from the country.

Although his family was allowed to return to Paraguay three months later, Méndez Fleitas was not. He continued his political activity in Montevideo, Uruguay, writing articles and books and founding newspapers for the community of Paraguayan exiles. While in Uruguay, he was elected president of the Partido Colorado del Exilio y la Resistencia, the Colorado Party in Exile, which favored the democratic process as the only legitimate way to establish governmental authority.

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