Herminio Iglesias was an Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

.

The son of Galician

Galician people

The Galicians are an ethnic group, a nationality whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.-Political and administrative divisions:...

 immigrants, at the age of 13, Iglesias began to work in a factory

Factory

A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

, where, at age 21, he was appointed as a union shop steward.

Henceforward a supporter of the Peronist Party, Iglesias was elected as the Mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Avellaneda

Avellaneda

Avellaneda is a port city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the seat of the Avellaneda Partido, whose population was 328,980 as per the ....

 in the Province of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires Province

The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...

 upon Juan Domingo Perón's 1973 return from exile and subsequent election

Argentine general election, September 1973

The second Argentine general election of 1973 was held on 23 September. Turnout was 85.5%, and it produced the following results:-Background:...

 to his final turn at the Argentine Presidency. Aligning himself with Perón's most right-wing adviser, José López Rega

José López Rega

José López Rega was Argentina's Minister of Social Welfare during the Peronist government started in 1973 by Juan Perón and continued after Perón's death in 1974 by his third wife and vice-president, Isabel Martínez de Perón , until the coup d'etat of 1976 that initiated the so-called National...

, during the internal strife that followed Perón's 1974 passing, he was dismissed from this post following the 1976 military coup

National Reorganization Process

The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...

 headed by General Jorge Videla.

In 1983, Iglesias was the Peronist candidate for Governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 of the Province of Buenos Aires. However, at a "victory rally" towards the end of the election campaign, his followers burned a coffin that represented their main opposition, the centrist Radical Civic Union

Radical Civic Union

The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...

 (UCR). For many observers, this act was decisive in the victory of the UCR in the general elections and in his own loss to UCR gubernatorial candidate Alejandro Armendáriz

Alejandro Armendáriz

Alejandro Armendáriz was an Argentine physician and politician.-Early career:Armendáriz was born in Saladillo, a pampas town in the Province of Buenos Aires, in 1923. His family relocated to the city of Buenos Aires in 1940, where he graduated from the Marist College of San José , the following year...

. After this incident, he significantly lost his political prestige.

Between 1985 and 1989, Iglesias occupied a seat in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Argentine Chamber of Deputies

The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Argentine National Congress. This Chamber holds exclusive rights to create taxes, to draft troops, and to accuse the President, the ministers and the members of the Supreme Court before the Senate....

. In the 1990s, he was a Councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...

in the Municipality of Avellaneda. The lived his final years largely in seclusion, partly because of his health problems.