José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia  José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco (6 January 1766 – 20 September 1840) was a Paraguayan lawyer and politician, and the first dictator (1814-1840) of Paraguay following its 1811 independence from the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. His official title was "Supreme and Perpetual Dictator of Paraguay", but he was popularly known as "El Supremo". He is considered to be the chief ideologue and political leader of the faction that advocated for the full independence of Paraguay from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and from the Empire of Brazil. Francia was born in Yaguarón, in modern-day Paraguarí. Francia's father was an officer turned tobacco planter from São Paulo, and his mother was a Paraguayan descended from Spanish colonists. He was christened Joseph Gaspar de Franza y Velasco, but later used the more popular name "Rodríguez", and changed "Franza" to the more Spanish "Francia". Although his father was simply García Rodríguez Francia (Portuguese: "Garcia Rodrigues França"), the dictator inserted the article "de" to style himself "Rodríguez de Francia y Velasco". He studied at the monastery school of San Francisco, Asunción, originally in training for the Catholic priesthood, but never entered it. On 13 April 1785, after four years studying, he became a doctor of theology and master of philosophy at the College of Monserrat at the National University of Córdoba, in what would soon become Argentina. Although he was dogged by suggestions that his father, a Brazilian tobacco exporter, was a mulatto, Francia was awarded a coveted chair of theology at the Seminary of San Carlos in Asunción in 1790. His radical views made his position as a teacher there untenable, and he soon gave up theology to study law. Eventually, he became a lawyer and learned five languages: Guarani, Spanish, French, Latin, and some English. During his studies, he was influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment and later the French Revolution. Francia was disgusted by Paraguay's class system imposed by Spain, and as a lawyer would defend the less fortunate against the affluent.