Nelly Rivas

Nélida Haydeé "Nelly" Rivas (April 21, 1939 – August 28, 2012) was an Argentine woman known for having been romantically linked to Juan Domingo Perón, President of Argentina, between the years 1953–1955, a relationship that began when Rivas was 14 years old. The relationship was cited among the reasons for the overthrow and exile of Perón in 1955.

Rivas (center) with Perón (right) in 1953

Early life

Nélida Haydeé Rivas was born on April 21, 1939, at the Rawson hospital in Buenos Aires, the only daughter of José María Rivas and María Sebastiana Viva. Rivas was a worker at the Noel confectionery factory and his wife worked as a caretaker in an apartment building.

Encounter with Perón

As a teenager, she participated in the activities organized in the UES or Union of Secondary Students (female branch), a Peronist organization in which high school students met in the Presidential Residence at Olivos. At this time she met President Peron and became linked sentimentally, and sexually, with the Argentine president between the years 1953-1955, after the death of Evita Perón. At the time they first met she was either 13 or 14 years of age.[1][2]

This is how Nelly described her first face to face with Perón:

"I was speechless. I felt a chill run through my body. I began to tremble like a leaf (...) I had been stunned by his simplicity and cordiality. I hadn't expected him to be so handsome either."

Nelly told Zavala, according to what he says in his book:

"Perón, in our workers' house, was a god (...) It would be a great falsehood not to recognize that each one of us wanted to be a second Evita."

Though much of Argentina's media had, since 1950, been either controlled or monitored by Perón's government, lurid pieces on his ongoing relationship with an underage girl (something Perón never denied) filled the gossip pages.[3] Pressed by reporters on whether his supposed new paramour was, as the magazines claimed, thirteen years of age, the fifty-nine-year-old Perón responded that he was "not superstitious."[4]

Life after Perón

When Perón was overthrown in September 1955, she was arrested with her family in the province of Chaco. During the military government calling itself the "Revolución Libertadora" (Liberating Revolution), her parents were convicted and confined in the Villa Devoto Prison, while Nelly was transferred to a Correctional Asylum for Minors.

The letters she exchanged with Perón were officially published in 1957 by a newspaper in the United States. The relationship was cited among the reasons for the overthrow of Perón in 1955, and following the overthrow, Perón was prosecuted for statutory rape, a crime that occurs when an adult maintains a consensual relationship with a minor; in Argentine law that is under 15 years of age (she was 14 when he started the relationship).[5] The process prescribed in 1971 whilst Perón was negotiating with the de facto president Alejandro Agustín Lanusse the legalization of the Partido Justicialista.[6][7]

Nelly married in 1958 and, in 1973, she reunited with Perón when he returned for his third presidency. Nelly at that time had two children.

She died on the 28th of August 2012 at the age of 73.

References
  1. Ella tenía 14, él 60: el testimonio de la joven que fue amante de Perón
  2. El relato de la "amante" de 14 años de Juan Domingo Perón, Nelly Rivas
  3. "The Hemisphere: Daddykins & Nelly". Time. October 10, 1955. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
  4. Martínez, Tomás Eloy (1997). La Novela de Perón. Vintage Books. ISBN 9780679781462.
  5. Alaniz, Rogelio (April 18, 2013). "Perón, Nelly Rivas y "la fiesta del chivo"". El Litoral. Santa Fe. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  6. Rodríguez, Daniel (April 22, 2018). "Ella 14, él 60: La historia de la joven amante de Perón". Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  7. Gambini, Hugo (2008). Historia del peronismo. La violencia (1956-1983). Buenos Aires: Javier Vergara Editor. p. 242. ISBN 978-950-15-2433-8.

Bibliography
  • Nuestro Siglo: Historia de la Argentina, Tomo 1949-1955 "Escándalos y Frivolidades". Director y autor de la obra: Félix Luna. Hyspamérica y Editorial Sarmiento S.A. (1992).
  • Amor y Violencia: La verdadera historia entre Perón y Nelly Rivas. Del autor Juan Ovidio Zavala. Editorial Planeta (1987).
  • Nelly R., la niña amante de Perón: Novela (anti)histórica. Del autor Santiago Giralt (1994).
  • Las vírgenes de Perón. Del autor Ignacio Yrigoyen. Ediciones B (1990).
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