People

Juan Francisco “Panchito” López

A colonel at 15, killed at Cerro Corá.

Juan Francisco “Panchito” López
Panchito López, a fifteen-year-old Paraguayan colonel. Reconstructed portrait based on his photographs and his red colonel’s coat.
Birth
31 January 1855 ‡
Parents
Francisco Solano López and Elisa Alicia Lynch
Rank
Colonel
Death
1 March 1870, Cerro Corá

He was the eldest son of Marshal López and Elisa Lynch. Among his teachers were Colonel Francisco Wisner de Morgenstern and the priests Fidel Maíz and Manuel Antonio Palacios. He accompanied his father throughout the war. At Cerro Corá he was ordered to escort the cart carrying his mother and siblings; surrounded by Brazilian soldiers, he refused to surrender, saber in hand, and was killed.

‡ Disputed.Place of birth: Asunción or Buenos Aires. The phrase “A Paraguayan colonel does not surrender” comes from a late testimony by his brother Enrique, according to Maestri; Centurión, an eyewitness that day, does not record it. It is also unclear who struck the blow or fired the shot that ended his life.

Sources: Mário Maestri, “Quem matou o marechal?”, Tempos Históricos (2014); “Juan Francisco López”, Spanish Wikipedia; La Nación (Paraguay), “Panchito” (2020).

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