By Laurie Morrissey

At 11 p.m. on October 7, 1977, Dr. Teresa Méndez-Faith got a phone call from her mother in Buenos Aires. Her father and brother had “disappeared.” They had been arrested and charged with membership in an Argentine guerrilla organization. The daughter of a political exile, Teresa Méndez-Faith was used to being afraid. But in the nearly 30 years between her father’s exile and his death, the moment stands out in her memory. It was the start of a 43-day ordeal, as the young Stanford University lecturer and her husband worked practically around the clock to mobilize international support and secure their safety and release.

Teresa Méndez-Faith is a Paraguayan-born Spanish professor at Saint Anselm College. Beneath the surface of her life as a scholar, teacher, wife and mother in the United States, the story of her father’s exile and her country’s political struggles is a current that has caught her up and swept her along many times. The most recent episode in that story (and the most symbolic) occurred last November, when her father’s remains were returned to his native country, cheered and serenaded by his countrymen. Méndez-Faith was there. Four days later, she publicly presented her most recent book, the third edition of an anthology of Paraguayan literature, in the country’s capital.

Epifanio Méndez Fleitas was born in 1917, one of 10 children of a farmer in the village of San Solano. He read widely, attended law school, and became a self-taught economist. He joined the National Republican Alliance, or “Partido Colorado;” wrote political articles; and was one of the leaders of a political dissident movement in favor of a democratic Paraguay. He also enjoyed the intellectual life, composing music and writing poetry. At 32, with a wife and growing family, Méndez Fleitas was appointed chief of police of Asuncion, and subsequently president of the Paraguay Central Bank.

Teresa Méndez-Faith recalls those years as happy and comfortable. As the eldest child, she enjoyed special attention from her father, who had a large library and was constantly joined by friends and political followers. She attended good schools and learned to play the harp. When the country’s president was overthrown in 1954, Alfredo Stroessner, the young colonel who had engineered the coup, stepped into the role. Stroessner’s daughter was in Teresa’s class at school, and she and her brother attended birthday parties at the Presidential Palace.

“For a brief time, we had the life of being with the top echelon of society,” the professor recalls.

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