Francisco Umbral nicknamed her ‘the muse of transition’ and that is because Carmen Diez de Rivera She was the first woman to direct the communications office of a President of the Government. In this case, that of Adolfo Suárez. Carmen Díaz de Rivera was undoubtedly a key figure who exercised notable political influence during those years due to her closeness not only with the president but also with the king and head of state, Juan Carlos I. It was she who convinced Suárez, later for months insisting on the need to legalize the Communist Party.

Later and until his last years of life, he was MEP for the PSOE taking on topics as novel at the time as environmentalism and of course, feminism. He studied at Oxford, at the Sorbonne and spoke up to 4 languages. He died young, at only 57 years old, in 1999, due to breast cancer.

But until we get here, Carmen Díez de Rivera’s life was marked by her own tragedy: for a lie that his own family hid from him for almost 18 years and he discovered in the most painful way possible. A life totally out of a novel that has now become a play, Carmen, Nada de Nadie’, and will be screened at the Teatro Español in Madrid from January 17 to February 18 and will star the actress, Mónica López.

Carmen Díaz was born in Madrid in August 1942. fruit of an adulterous relationship between the aristocrat Sonsoles de Icaza who was married to the Marquis of Llanzol (Francisco de Paula Díez de Rivera y Casares) and Ramón Serrano SuñerMinister of Foreign Affairs during the dictatorship, nicknamed the most in-law: he was married to Zita Polo, sister of Franco’s wife, Carmen Polo.

Despite everything, the Marquis of Llandol, aware of that infidelity as almost half of Madrid, welcomed Carmen Díez de Rivera as his own daughter, without expecting that 18 years later everything would be known and blown up, in the worst way. possible. Carmen and one of Serrano Suñer and Zita Polo’s sons, Ramón, fell in love and wanted to get married. That’s when everything exploded.

Those who knew her say that it broke her forever and that she never got over “the brother thing,” as she said. After that confession, at just 18 years old she became a nun in a convent in Arenas de San Pedro in Ávila and then she traveled to the Ivory Coast without getting vaccinated, wishing that any virus would kill her. But fate – again – had other plans for her.

Upon her return to Spain, her friend, the then Prince Juan Carlos, asks the Director of Spanish Television, Adolfo Suárez, to hire her. She did so and ended up being her Chief of Staff, the first woman to hold this position, and she immersed herself fully in the political life of the country. Hence, her nickname “muse of the Transition“His life has inspired books, television series and now this work in Spanish. And it doesn’t matter how many times it is told, it is always as fascinating as the first.