User:DaniloDaysOfOurLives/Natalia Rivera Aitoro

Natalia Rivera Aitoro is a fictional character from the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. She was portrayed by Jessica Leccia from April 25, 2007, to September 18, 2009, when the soap opera finished.

Casting
Jessica Leccia made her first appearance as Natalia on April 25, 2007.

Storylines
The mysterious Natalia has a buried history with Gus Aitoro, the love of her life. They were together in high school and shortly after he disappeared she gave birth to their son Rafe. She had been brought back into his life by Daisy in a bid to break up Harley and Gus. Even though her plan failed, Gus and Harley divorced in 2007 and it would be the following year that Gus and Natalia would marry. After Gus's death, only 3 months later, Natalia realized Gus had been in love with the now-dying Olivia Spencer. Natalia decided to do the noble thing and donate Gus's heart to Olivia and saved her life. In late August, she decided to have her own son arrested to protect him.

Natalia becomes deeply involved in a life with Olivia Spencer. First, she became Olivia's assistant. Then Natalia invited Olivia and Olivia's daughter, Emma Spencer, to live in her recently purchased farmhouse, so that she could afford it. Personal conflict arises when Emma writes a school presentation titled "My Two Mommies". Unable to verbally explain the lesbian inference to Natalia, Olivia kisses Natalia as a demonstration of the inference. After the kiss, Natalia struggles with her feelings for Olivia. Natalia stated that "perception is reality" and began dating Frank Cooper Jr. after Olivia's kiss. Natalia continued to struggle with her feelings for Olivia. Natalia and Olivia continue to grow closer but continued to dance around their feelings for each other. Frank proposes to Natalia. Natalia took weeks to give Frank an answer to the proposal but later agreed to marry him after Olivia tells her to live a normal life. Olivia and Natalia begin to plan Natalia's wedding. In mid April, Rafe is released from prison and wants to see Natalia get married while he is home before reporting to a halfway house. Natalia and Frank push up their wedding. Just hours before the wedding Olivia and Natalia separately arrive at Gus's grave to talk to him about the upcoming wedding. Olivia breaks down and confesses that she is in love with Natalia but pushes Natalia to go ahead with the wedding anyway. Natalia and Frank make as far as her vows before Natalia runs out of the church. Olivia goes after Natalia and soon finds her. Olivia pushes Natalia to return to the wedding. Natalia admits that she cannot marry Frank because she isn't in love with Frank, but is, in fact, in love with Olivia.

After breaking off the engagement to Frank Cooper, Natalia begins a relationship with the rich and powerful, self-described "man eater" Olivia Spencer. The two planned to inform their children, Rafe and Emma of their relationship but Rafe witnesses a close moment between the two and confronts them. Rafe didn't take the news well, and told his mother to go to hell for turning her back on her values before moving out. Shortly afterward, Natalia found out that she was pregnant with Frank's baby and left town for several weeks. When she returned Olivia would not reconcile with her due to the feelings of mistrust she developed when Natalia left town without a word. After encouragement from Phillip Spaulding, however, the two reconciled and shortly afterward Olivia moved with Emma back into the farmhouse. However, during this time they did not want to exclude Frank from his child's life and after discussing names for their daughter, Olivia and Natalia found a way to help by naming the girl Francesca. The last episode of Guiding Light shows them still together with Emma and Francesca.

Reception
Charlie Mason and Dustin Cushman from Soaps She Knows put Natalia and Olivia on their list of Daytime's Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Characters and Couples, writing that the couple "became very popular due to their chemistry". They also referred to Natalia as "naive" and "a devout Catholic" who did not "comprehend what was happening."