Eusebio Ayala (August 14, 1875 – June 4, 1942) was an intellectual and statesman, and President of Paraguay from 7 November 1921 to 12 April 1923 and again from 15 August 1932 to 17 February 1936. He was a member of the Liberal Party. He was overthrown by Rafael Franco. Early life Ayala was born in Barrero Guasu (Barrero Grande), Cordillera Department, Paraguay, on August 14, 1875; his parents were Abdón Bordenave and Casimira Ayala, his mother an illiterate adolescent of 19. His first schooling was in his hometown, with his aunt Benita. Then he moved to the country's capital, Asunción, where he worked as a trainee in a shop. He was able to enter the National College of Asunción and received his bachelor's degree in 1896. Ayala then taught classes in schools, through which he could afford his expenses at the College of Law, National University, where he graduated as Doctor of Social Science and Law in 1904, defending a thesis on the national budget. After completing his university education, Ayala made several trips to Europe. The first was as secretary of the embassy of Great Britain for three years, time that he came to master English and French, and also improve his philosophical and cultural training. It was in one of those trips where he met the person who would be his future wife, Madame Marcelle Amelia Durand. She was born in Tours, France, January 16, 1889. She had gotten married at very young age to a Parisian jeweler, but he suffered from a mental problem that drove him to suicide, leaving Marcelle a childless widow. After the incident, she continued living in Paris, where she met Eusebio Ayala. Marcelle lived until his last days in Paraguay. Marcelle Ayala died in Asuncion on April 20, 1954. Her years close to the statesman were recorded in his book Memories. Early career Upon his return to Paraguay, he taught classes of Criminal Law and Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law and he became Rector of the University of Asunción. As a journalist he worked at El Diario and El Liberal, and later he was editor of the Journal of Law and Social Sciences. Jose P. Guggiari appointed him ambassador to the United States. He was reminded, as the only Paraguayan of that era who gave a lecture in The Sorbonne, Paris, on the uti possidetis (the thing possessed) in