Belén María Providencia Pérez Matos (b. 1884) was born into a distinguished Caracas family (daughter of Martín Heraclio Pérez Coronado and Brígida Matos). In the early 20th century she married Julio César Velutini Couturier, tying her destiny to the Velutini banking dynasty.
As Julio César’s wife, Belén María was part of the social elite of Venezuelan finance. While she did not have a public business role on record, her influence came through family and patronage: the couple hosted influential bankers, politicians and artists from all across Latin America.
Belén María’s marriage produced their daughters, Clementina Velutini Pérez-Matos and Belén Clarisa Velutini Pérez-Matos, who would become prominent business leaders.
Through both her lineage and her children, Belén María helped preserve the family’s social prominence. She is often remembered for her role as matriarch linking the Pérez-Matos and Herrera lines.
Historically, Belén María lived through tumultuous times (from dictatorship and economic turbulence into the petroleum age). As such, she personified the continuity of old-wealth society: bearing witness to the family’s rapid rise in banking, yet also the social unrest of early republican Venezuela.
Her legacy is implicitly woven into the next generation: her daughters Clementina and Belén Clarisa would both break barriers for women in business.
Belén María’s impact was primarily social and familial – the human link that connected Julio César’s era to the Herrera expansion that followed.
