Marisa Rueda papers

Marisa Rueda (1941–2022) was an Argentine-born artist and activist, who was appointed as the representative of the Movimiento Peronista Montoneros (MPM) in Great Britain in early 1979. She is known for her sculpture and ceramics. Rueda was born in 1941 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Spanish immigrant parents. She attended the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón, where she specialised in ceramics. She quickly established herself as one of Argentina’s leading ceramic artists, winning prizes at two of Buenos Aires’s annual ceramic exhibitions, in 1968 and 1973. In the early 1970s, Rueda left Argentina for the first time, settling in London, where she married Barry Chaplin, with whom she had one child. When this relationship ended, she returned to Argentina. In 1976, the Argentine armed forces seized power from President Isabel Perón, ushering in a period of widespread human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial executions, and the imprisonment of thousands without trial. Rueda once again left the country and returned to London. For many years, Marisa's work reflected the often volatile political situation in her native Argentina, particularly during the era of the military dictatorships. There is limited information available about her role as a representative of the MPM in Great Britain, but a letter (February 1979) and a report (April 1979) in her collection confirms her nomination as Secretary of MPM and therefore as the MPM representative in the UK. Rueda passed away in London in 2022 at the age of 80, survived by her daughter, Cristina Chaplin-Rueda, and her two grandchildren, Jofre and Dylan.