María Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as a Eva or Evita. Was a global representation of class, charm and charisma, she was an activist who championed for Women’s rights and for the poor, she was a beacon of hope for the masses.
Eva touched many people in her native Argentina and the world over with her style and tenacity. She was a larger then life figure, who lived large but dies young. Her memory left a legacy that is still alive to this day. She was Argentina’s first lady and a global icon.
Perón was born May 7, 1919, in the village of Los Toldos, Argentina, the youngest of five children. Her parents were not married, and her father abandoned the family when Perón was one year old, leaving them in poverty.
Perón’s legal and societal status as an illegitimate child followed her throughout her life. At age 15, she moved to Buenos Aires to pursue a career as an actress, eventually becoming co-owner of a radio company and one of the highest-paid radio actresses in the country.
She also became a film actress and starred in the following movies: Circus Cavalcade (1945), La pródiga (1945), Una novia en apuros (1942), The Unhappiest Man in Town (1941), Only the Valiant (1940) and ¡Segundos afuera!, (1940).
In 1943, she became one of the founders of the Argentine Radio Syndicate. She married Juan Perón, a colonel and government official, in 1945, and in 1946 Juan Perón was elected President of Argentina.
During the next six years, Eva Perón became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labor rights.
She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women’s suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation’s first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.
In 1951, Eva Perón announced her candidacy for the Peronist nomination for the office of Vice President of Argentina, receiving great support from the Peronist political base, low-income and working-class Argentines who were referred to as descamisados or “shirtless ones”.
Opposition from the nation’s military and the country’s oligarchs coupled with her declining health, ultimately forced her to withdraw her candidacy.
In 1952, shortly before her death from cancer at 33, Eva Perón was given the title of “Spiritual Leader of the Nation” by the Argentine Congress. She was given a state funeral upon her death, a prerogative generally reserved for heads of state.
Eva Perón has become a part of international popular culture, most famously as the subject of the musical Evita (1976).
Cristina Álvarez Rodríguez claims that Evita has never left the collective consciousness of Argentines. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first woman elected president of Argentina, claims that women of her generation owe a debt to Eva for “her example of passion and combativeness”.
Perón lived in a dual existence as she grew, never satisfied with her poor upbringing, but never truly fitting in with the upper classes.
As a young actress she bleached her hair bright blonde, and as she rose to fame in the political sphere, her fashion became more and more ornate.
Born and raised in Argentina but descended from French and Spanish Basque ancestry, Eva chose looks that evoked the spirit of her homeland, but much like Argentina itself, she was largely influenced by international aesthetics.
“She rarely did anything on a small scale when it came to her fashion. Her hair was large and coiffed, she wore plenty of expensive jewelry, and she was draped in mink as often as possible.
Even though her influences were from Europe and Hollywood, she had a unique Argentinian style.” –said an Argentine reporter
Eva often expressed that she owed it to her country to look glamorous. In her constant fight for the rights of women and the oppressed, she felt her beauty inspired even the poorest in Argentina.
She famously owned rooms full of hats and shoes, and legend held it that she once wore 306 different custom-designed dresses in one calendar year.
On her famous European tour in 1947, she was accompanied by a full staff of personal maids, a hairdresser, and a dressmaker.
She was both loved and loathed for her appearance and political views. Many of the upper class pointed to the hypocrisy of her indulgence while advocating for the poor, while others admired her romanticized Cinderella story and her passionate political acumen.
In his essay titled “Latin America” published in The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, John McManners claims that the appeal and success of Eva Perón are related to Latin American mythology and concepts of divinity.
McManners claims that Eva Perón consciously incorporated aspects of the theology of the Virgin and of Mary Magdalene into her public persona.
Historian Hubert Herring has described Eva Perón as “perhaps the shrewdest woman yet to appear in public life in Latin America”.
In a 1996 interview, Tomás Eloy Martínez referred to Eva Perón as “the Cinderella of the tango and the Sleeping Beauty of Latin America”.
Martínez suggested she has remained an important cultural icon for the same reasons as fellow Argentine Che Guevara:
“Latin American myths are more resistant than they seem to be. Not even the mass exodus of the Cuban raft people or the rapid decomposition and isolation of Fidel Castro’s regime have eroded the triumphal myth of Che Guevara, which remains alive in the dreams of countless youth in Latin America and most of the world.
Che as well as Evita symbolize certain naive, but effective, beliefs: the hope for a better world; a life sacrificed on the altar of the disinherited, the humiliated, and the poor.
They are myths which somehow reproduce the image of Christ”.
Although not a government holiday, the anniversary of Eva Perón’s death is marked by many Argentines each year. Additionally, Eva Perón has been featured on Argentine coins, and a form of Argentine currency called “Evitas” was named in her honor.
Ciudad Evita (Evita City), which was established by the Eva Perón Foundation in 1947, is located just outside Buenos Aires.
Evita –The Movie
Evita is a 1996 musical historical drama film based on the 1976 concept album of the same name produced by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, which also inspired a 1978 musical.
The film depicts the life of Eva Perón, detailing her beginnings, rise to fame, political career and death at the age of 33. Directed by Alan Parker, and written by Parker and Oliver Stone, Evita stars Madonna as Eva, Jonathan Pryce as Eva’s husband Juan Perón, and Antonio Banderas as Ché,
Cristina Kirchner, the first elected female president in Argentine history, is a Peronist who has occasionally been referred to as “The New Evita”.
Kirchner says she does not want to compare herself to Evita, claiming she was a unique phenomenon in Argentine history.
Kirchner has stated that women of her generation, who came of age in the 1970s during the military dictatorships in Argentina, owe a debt to Evita for offering an example of passion and combativeness.
On 26 July 2002, the 50th anniversary of Eva Perón’s death, a museum opened in her honour called Museo Evita.
The museum, created by her great-niece Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, houses many of Eva Perón’s clothes, portraits, and artistic renderings of her life, and has become a popular tourist attraction. The museum was opened in a building that was once used by the Eva Perón Foundation.
In the book Eva Perón: The Myths of a Woman, cultural anthropologist Julie M. Taylor claims that Evita has remained important in Argentina due to the combination of three unique factors:
In the images examined, the three elements consistently linked femininity, mystical or spirituality power, and revolutionary leadership, display an underlying common theme.
She was by any standard a very extraordinary woman; when you think of Argentina and indeed Latin America as a men-dominated part of the world, there was this woman who was playing an extremely important role and because of this, Eva had many adoring followers, but for the very same reason she has those that were not fond of her, in fact they feared her growing influence and power. Basically because her being Eva challenged the status quo.
The oligarchs, as she called the well-to-do and privileged people, hated her. They looked upon her as a ruthless woman. The masses of the people on the other hand worshipped her.
In 2011, two giant murals of Evita were unveiled on the building facades of the current Ministry of Social Development, located in Buenos Aires. The works were painted by Argentine artist Alejandro Marmo.
On 26 July 2012, to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Evita’s death, notes were issued in a value of 100 pesos. The controversial effigy of Julio Argentino Roca was replaced by that of Eva Duarte, making her the first actual woman to be featured on the currency of Argentina.
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