Martha en OC Register
A story of history
A woman says her dad was Juan Perón.
BUENOS AIRES – Martha Holgado knew just what she'd say to her father if she ever met him: "A father isn't someone who gives you life, but someone who raises you."Yet when she saw him, what popped into her mind was her grandmother saying, "Blood is thicker than water."
"I realized that I looked like him," Holgado says.
The sizable nose. The prominent forehead. The arched eyebrows.
It was 1953, and this wasn't just any encounter between a daughter and an estranged parent. Holgado, now 71, says that the man she met decades ago was Juan Domingo Per?n, one of the most influential presidents in Argentina's history.
She says their seven-hour conversation at the Casa Rosada, a government house, began with Per?n's statement that he named her Lucia Virginia Perón. She was the child from his affair with her mother.
The meeting ended with Holgado, then 19, insisting that the president continue to keep the secret, fearing the truth would shame her family, especially her mother.
"Now, it's common, this sort of thing, but during that time, having an affair I didn't want anyone to know," Holgado says.
Still, she says, they kept a secret father-daughter relationship. She followed him during his exile in the late 1950s and '60s and tried to stay close to him despite Perón's third wife's disapproval, she says.
Per?n died in July 1974. Holgado's legal parents followed months later. She was free to make her claim but had no proof. In 1993, while living in San Clemente, she found out about DNA testing and officially claimed to be Perón's only child.
For 12 years, Holgado has been trying to prove it, demanding that the Argentine icon be exhumed so DNA tests can prove that he is her father. Her legal claims have been strongly resisted by Perón's widow, Mar?a Estela "Isabel" Martinez Cartas, and her attorneys.
The official story is that Per?n never had a child, although he was married three times. There are rumors that he was sterile and that he was left impotent after a motorcycle accident. Holgado says she doesn't care about the rumors and that she is living proof.
Now, she may be close to finding out whether the story she says Perón told her during their encounter in 1953 is true.
A love affair began in the mid-1930s between married socialite Mar?a Cecilia Demarchi and Per?n early in his military career while he was married to his first wife. "They fell in love," Holgado says. "It was a love that was doomed to fail."
Demarchi, Holgado's mother, returned to her husband. Per?n said they kept the secret from Holgado to avoid traumatizing her.
"Now that I was 19, he thought I could better understand," Holgado says.
She was angry, but Perón's charisma won her over.
"He was a seducer of the masses," Holgado says.
Later that day, Holgado told her mother of the encounter and asked her to tell the truth. Her mother replied "yes" and refused to say more, Holgado says.
Holgado last saw Per?n in 1969. She says that Mart?nez wouldn't let them meet.
Holgado went into exile in the United States in 1978, fearing anti-Perón forces who took power during the late-1970s military dictatorship. She settled in Southern California, where she felt safe.
She lived primarily in San Clemente and Newport Beach and flies back frequently. "I love the beach," Holgado says. "I love Laguna Beach." She laughs when she admits she relishes scouring estate sales in Orange County.
She says the United States gave her liberty.
"I have a debt with the U.S. It gave me everything and didn't ask me for anything," she says. "Nobody does that."
Holgado fires off dates, places and names of important officials from the past, but she's vague and somewhat secretive about her recent life, explaining that she fears for her life because of her claim.
She says that she has traveled extensively, living a "comfortable life" because of wise investments made by her parents and her son, Horacio Wieszezuk Jr.
Wieszezuk says he remembers his "grandfather Per?n" visiting him as a young child, sleeping the siesta with him when he and his mother lived in Spain.
Per?n even brought him a gift once: "a play fortress with soldiers made of lead," he says, flashing a child-like smile.
Wieszesuk, who combs his hair back as Perón used to do, said he's proud to be the great man's grandchild and actively supports his mother's claim. He appears beside her at news conferences, conducts research for her claim and joins her on her travels.
During a stay in San Clemente, Holgado wrote a book, released in 1993, called "Perón: Mi Padre." She plans to release another book soon, with more secrets and details of Per?n's life.
Last summer, she moved back to Buenos Aires to pursue her claim.
Holgado says she has the right to a gene test, citing a 1985 law created to identify descendants of people killed during Argentina's "dirty war" between 1976 and 1983.
"I never thought it would be so difficult," Holgado says. "I was dumb. I thought they would take some blood and take a piece from father. I thought justice would be stronger than Isabel."
She says she doesn't regret keeping the secret for so long.
"It was difficult, but it had to be this way because of my mother. The only thing that is being asked here is for a test, which is my right, constitutionally. Are they scared for the truth to come out?"
Holgado says witnesses have testified that Perón admitted having a daughter.
Martinez Cartas' attorney, Humberto Linares, says the witnesses are not credible and suggested that they may have been bought.
To that, Holgado says she has a solution.
"Perform the DNA tests. Witnesses can lie. DNA doesn't lie. I have all the time in the world. If I can't continue, my son will."
Holgado may not have to wait long. On Sept. 2, a civil judge ordered Perón's body to be exhumed for a DNA test. The results should be in by the end of the year, Holgado's attorney, Eduardo Barcesat, says.
The fight over Perón's body and name is not so much about money, Holgado says, but political inheritance – which may be worth more.
Perón, three-time president and founder of the Justicialistas, the only political party in Argentina with any power, is one of the country's most enduring figures, alongside his popular second wife, Evita.
Holgado says when the results come in, she plans to put the court battles behind her. She hopes to return to her home in Orange County.
She won't say whether she'll pursue politics if her claim is proven. For her, there's something more important she seeks.
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