Maria Camila O'Gorman Ximénez, was a 19th-century Argentine socialite executed over a scandal involving her relationship with a Roman Catholic priest. She was 23 years old and believed to be eight months pregnant when she and Father Ladislao Gutiérrez faced a firing squad.

Camila O'Gorman (July 9, 1825 - August 18, 1848), is considered a national heroine. Born to an aristocratic Rosista family of Buenos Aires, Camila lived in a society dominated by the rules of the dictatorial regime of General Juan Manuel de Rosas, who later ordered her execution in the name of "law and order."

At nineteen, she fell in love with Uladislao Gutiérrez, a young and attractive Jesuit priest from Tucumán, then serving her Parish of the Virgen del Socorro. After some hesitation and knowing that they were defying the moral and civil codes of their time, they decided to elope on 12 December 1847, thus confronting family, political authorities, and the Catholic Church.

Their action threatened to provoke a major scandal that had the potential of tearing apart the Rosas regime. Using assumed names, the couple ran away to San Fernando in order to reach Goya, Corrientes province, where they settled and opened an elementary school, thus becoming part of that community. They were discovered by chance and were taken to Buenos Aires in August 1848.

While they were in jail in Santos Lugares, the Rosas government, in compliance with the request of Camila's father, ordered their immediate execution. The tragic end of these young lovers was made even more dramatic by the fact that, according to most accounts, Camila was pregnant.

This government action transformed a much-debated social transgression into one of the major crimes of Argentine history. Much has been written about the fatal journey of these lovers.

The execution turned out to be an act of political suicide by Rosas. Its barbaric savagery caused a wave of popular revulsion, leading to the downfall of his regime. For more historical context, visit this site, www.historyireland.com/camila-ogorman-a-rose-among-the-thorns/".

Among the most interesting accounts in recent times are Una Sombra Donde Sueña Camila O'Gorman (A Shadow Where Camila O'Gorman Dreams, 1973), a novel by the Argentine poet Enrique Molina, and the film Camila (1984), directed by Argentine filmmaker María Luisa Bemberg.