Jorge Rivera López

Jorge Rivera López is an Argentine actor of television and film. During the 1980s military dictatorship, López, along with Luis Brandoni, Roberto Cossa, Osvaldo Dragún and Pepe Soriano, accompanied by Nobel Peace Prize winner (1980) Adolfo Esquivel and writer Ernesto Sábato formed a group called Teatro Abierto in an attempt to reinvent independent theater separated from government propaganda and approval. Despite threats, they opened with the declaration that they were against dictatorship and government intervention in the arts. On the opening night, Rivera López read the “Declaration of the Principles” claiming for all the participants their right to freedom of opinion and expression. Three works per day were presented for a full week in the Tabaris Theatre, to an estimated audience of 25,000. The movement continued to perform, despite government disapproval, until the return to democracy, and for several years afterwards presented works critical of the abuses of the dictatorship.