Eva Perón
|
During her 1947 "Rainbow Tour" of Europe, Eva Perón was featured on the cover of Time Magazine. She remains the only South American first lady in history to grace the periodical's cover. |
Eva MarÃa Duarte de Perón (also known as
Evita) (
May 7,
1919 â€"
July 26,
1952) was the second wife of
Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón (1895â€"1974) and the
First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. Though she was never an officially elected political figure, most scholars agree that by her husband's second term in office she had come to exercise more power and influence within the government than anyone but her own husband
[Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron by Nicholas Fraser and Maryssa Navarro][The Woman with the Whip by Mary Main]. This power derived from her leadership roles within the
Pro-Peronist trade unions, the
Eva Perón Foundation, and the
Female Peronist Party[Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron by Nicholas Fraser and Maryssa Navarro]. Many scholars agree that Evita was the most powerful woman in the history of her nation, while some claim that at the time of her death she was one of the most powerful women on earth
[Evita: The Woman Behind the Myth A&E Biography on Evita: "Born in poverty, Eva Peron rose to become the most powerful woman in Latin America and one of the most powerful women in the world." ][Evita: A guide to Eva Perón resources Created by Richard A. Murray, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: "In her time, Eva Perón was the most powerful woman in the world."][My Century: The Story of the Twentieth Century -- Told by Those who Made It article by the BBC: "Christina Alvarez Rodriguez, Eva Peron's grand niece tells of the childhood and rise to power of one of the world's richest and most powerful women."].
In
1951, Evita launched a campaign to be allowed to run for the office of Vice-President of Argentina. The nation's
military,
elite, and
Juan Perón himself all opposed and ultimately prevented Evita's candidacy. In
1952, Evita was given the official title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation".
[A nation seeks salvation in Evita By Scottsman.com: "On 26 July, 1952, a hushed Argentina heard Eva Peron, the 'spiritual leader of the nation', had died, aged 33."] Today, Eva Perón is perhaps best known to the world as the subject of the
Andrew Lloyd Webber and
Tim Rice musical
Evita, which was later adapted as a
movie starring
Madonna.
Early life
Eva MarÃa Duarte's birth certificate places her birth at the city of
JunÃn,
Buenos Aires Province, but some questions still remain as to the true location of her birth. Her mother lived with her brothers at "La Unión" farm, some 60 kilometers south of JunÃn, near the village of
Los Toldos. Most biographers agree that Eva was born in Los Toldos. There is evidence, however, that Eva may have been born in JunÃn. All biographers agree that Eva spent her childhood and early teen years living with her mother, three sisters, and one brother, in JunÃn.
At age 15, Eva Duarte traveled to
Buenos Aires. There is some disagreement about how she arrived, with the most popular version being that she was brought to the big city by a traveling singer (named
AgustÃn Magaldi in the version put forth in the
Tim Rice and
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "
Evita"), and with others saying that there is indication that she arrived in Buenos Aires by aid of her mother.
Upon arrival in Buenos Aires, Eva Duarte was faced with the difficulties of surviving without formal education and without connections. After years of struggle, she eventually found work as a
radio and
film actress, being credited as Eva Duarte, to make it appear that she was not an illegitimate child, eventually starring in
B-grade movie melodramas and Radio El Mundo
soap operas. She eventually came to co-own the radio company and she was considered to be a talented radio actress. She regularly appeared on a popular historical-drama programme
Great Women of History in which she played
Elizabeth I of England,
Sarah Bernhardt and
the last Tsarina of Russia. Her personal favorite movie was the 1938 epic
Marie Antoinette, starring
Norma Shearer. It is said she dyed her naturally brunette hair to blonde to look more like the queen, as played by Shearer.
Relationship with Juan Perón
Eva Duarte met Colonel
Juan Perón at a charity event to raise funds for the victims of the
San Juan earthquake. She and Perón married on
21 October 1945. On her marriage license, she stated her maiden name as Eva MarÃa Duarte, so it would appear that she had her father's last name; she also put that she was several years younger, and had her birth certificate altered. After her marriage to Juan Perón, all of Eva's movies were
banned from being shown in Argentina. During this period in Argentine history, politicians were expected to not socialize with entertainers — particularly entertainers born out-of-wedlock and who worked in soap operas.
Shortly before his marriage to Eva, Juan Perón was arrested by his opponents within the government who feared that due to the strong support of the
descamisados, the workers and the poor of the nation, Perón's popularity might eclipse that of the sitting president.
Eva has often been credited with organizing the rally of thousands that freed Juan Perón from prison on
17 October 1945. This version of events was popularized in the movie version of the
Tim Rice and
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "
Evita". Most historians, however, agree that this is not likely. At the time of Perón's imprisonment, Eva was still merely an actress; she had no political clout with the various
labor unions that supported Perón, and she was not well liked within Perón's inner circle, nor was she liked by many within the film and radio business at this point. When Juan Perón was imprisoned, Eva Duarte was suddenly disenfranchised.
Letters between the two during Juan Perón's imprisonment indicate that the two actually considered leaving the country after Perón's release, if indeed he were to be released at all. The two feared that Perón might actually be killed while in prison.
In reality, the massive rally that freed Perón from prison was organized by the various unions, such as
General Labor Confederation, or
CGT as they came to be known. To this day, the date of October 17th is something of a holiday for the
Justicialist Party in Argentina (celebrated as
DÃa de la Lealtad, or "Loyalty Day").
Juan Perón's campaign for presidency
Eva Perón campaigned heavily for her husband during his 1946 presidential bid. Using her weekly radio show she delivered powerful speeches with heavy
populist rhetoric urging the poor to align themselves with Perón's movement. Although she had become wealthy from her radio and modeling successes, she would highlight her own humble upbringing as a way of showing solidarity with the impoverished classes.
Eva visited every corner of the country, becoming the first woman in Argentine history to appear in public on the campaign trail with her husband. (Incidentally, she was also the first woman in Argentine public life to wear trousers.) Eva's appearance alongside her husband often offended the establishment of the wealthy, the military, and those in political life. However, she was very popular with the public, who knew her from her radio and motion picture appearances, and was therefore an excellent means of getting attention from the poor and working class voters of Argentina. It was during this phase of her life that she first encouraged the Argentine population to refer to her not as "Eva Perón" but simply as "Evita", which is a Spanish
diminutive or
nickname roughly equivalent to "Little Eva".
Juan Perón elected president, Evita becomes politically active
 |
Eva and Juan Perón with a crowd of supporters (note their portraits in the background). |
After Juan Perón's first election to the presidency on March 28, 1946, Evita gradually took a prominent political role in the government, eventually overshadowing even the vice-president of the nation in all but military affairs. It has often been said that she became more powerful than her husband, but this is an exaggeration. Nor did she ever truly become more popular than her husband. Only for a brief time, the last few months of her life and the public mourning of her death, did Evita's popularity match her husband's.
In reality, Evita's main role within the Peronist government was to create a
personality cult around her husband, whom she
elevated to nearly divine status, often comparing him to
Christ and saying that all Peronists must be ready to die for Perón. Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro say that this apotheosis was what ultimately corrupted Perón and debased the Peronist movement. In light of Evita's often verbose praise for her husband, the slightest criticism of Juan Perón was easily interpreted as
unpatriotic. Evita even stated explicitly that only the Peronists were truly Argentine, and anyone who was anti-Peronist was not truly Argentine.
"Perón is the heart, the soul, the nerve, and the reality of the Argentine people. We all know that there is only one man in our movement with his own source of light. We all feed off of that light. And that man is Perón!" — 1951 speech by Eva Perón
In 1947, Evita embarked on a much-publicized "Rainbow Tour" of Europe, meeting with numerous heads of state, including
Francisco Franco. It was aimed at being a massive
public relations coup for the Perón regime, which in the post-
World War II world was increasingly being viewed as
fascist. She was well-received in
Spain, where she visited the tombs of Spain's first
absolutist monarchs,
Ferdinand and
Isabella.
Francoist Spain had not recovered from the
Spanish Civil War; the
autarkic economy and the UN embargo meant that the country could not feed its people.
During her visit to Spain, Evita handed out 100-
peseta notes to every poor child she met on her journey. She later met the
Pope in
Rome, and then travelled to
Paris. Only in Spain was Evita welcomed with an overwhelmingly positive response. In France and Italy she received mixed reactions.
The tour was originally intended to include a trip to
England to visit the
royal family. When it was announced that the royal family was not able to meet Evita when she wanted, and that Evita's visit would not be treated by the royal family as being as important as the official state visit of
United States First Lady
Eleanor Roosevelt, Evita called off the trip to England, citing exhaustion.
After returning to Argentina from Europe, Evita would never again appear in public with the complicated
hairdos of her movie star days. She would henceforth appear with her hair pulled back into a bun.
[Portrait, 1948?] Additionally, her style of clothing became more simple after the tour. No longer would she wear the elaborate
couture of the European fashion houses. Perhaps in an attempt to make herself appear as more of a serious political figure, Evita would henceforth appear in public wearing modest
business dress suit combinations.
|
Evita, circa 1947. Archivo Grafico de la Nación |
The change of image coincided with a focus on charity work, or "social aid", as Evita called it. She eventually created the Eva Perón Foundation, an institution to assist the poor. It was incredibly popular and made valuable contributions to Argentine life. The
hospitals and
orphanages that the Foundation established endured long after Evita's own premature death. The Foundation also increased her political power within Argentina and soon she organized the women's branch of the Justicialist Party. By 1949, Evita was the second most influential figure in Argentina.
Eventually, Evita became the center of her own vast personality cult and her image and name soon appeared everywhere, with
train stations, a city ("Ciudad Evita"), and even a star in the sky being named after her. Despite her dominance and political power, Evita was always careful to never undermine the important symbolic role of her husband. Evita was always careful to justify her actions by claiming they were "inspired" or "encouraged" by the wisdom and passion of Perón. And though she has often been interpreted as having been singularly ambitious in her own right, Navarro and Fraser claim (
op. cit.) that everything Evita did was ultimately subordinate to the larger goals and aims of her husband's political agenda.
Though Evita was worshipped by her working-class followers, she was bitterly hated by a vast number of Argentina's
middle class and also by the wealthy Anglophile elite. They detested her humble roots and lack of formal education. Many felt that as a woman she was far too active in politics. Evita herself referred to them disparagingly as "the
Oligarchs". She was known to be vengeful as well, often expelling from the Peronist inner circle anyone who had shown the slightest indication of not being completely loyal to the mandates Evita and her husband set forth. The slightest act of "disloyalty" was grounds for dismissal from the inner circle.
It has often been said that Evita
blacklisted the artists
Libertad Lamarque and
Nini Marshall, but this is unlikely. Lamarque, who had starred in the movie "Cabalgata del Circo" ("The Circus Cavalcade") with Evita, moved to
Mexico shortly after Juan Perón was elected president. It is more likely that, rather than moving because of a blacklisting, Lamarque moved to Mexico because the Mexican cinema was in better condition during this period than was the Argentine cinema. Additionally, Lamarque often returned to Argentina to visit her family during Perón's rule.
Campaign for vice-presidency
|
A crowd of an estimated two million gathers in front of the Casa Rosada in 1951 to show support for the Perón-Perón ticket. |
In 1951, Evita set her sights on earning a place on the ballot as candidate for vice-president. This move angered many military leaders who despised Evita and her increasing powers within the government.
On August 22, 1951 the unions held a mass rally of two million people called "Cabildo Abierto". (Incidentally, the name "Cabildo Abierto" was a reference and tribute to the first local Argentine government of the
May Revolution, in 1810). The Peróns addressed the crowd from the balcony of a huge
scaffolding set up near the
Casa Rosada, the official government house of Argentina. Overhead were two large portraits of Eva and Juan Perón. It has been claimed that "Cabildo Abierto" was the largest public display of support in history for a female political figure
[Evita : An Intimate Portrait of Eva Peron by Juan Pablo Queiroz, Tomas De Elia (Editors)]. At the mass rally, the crowd demanded that Evita publicly announce her official candidacy as vice president. Evita pleaded for more time to make her decision. The exchange between Evita and the crowd of two million became, for a time, a genuine and spontaneous dialogue, with the crowd chanting, "¡Evita, Vice-Presidente!". When Evita asked for more time so she could make up her mind, the crowd demanded, "¡Ahora, Evita, ahora!" ("Now, Evita, now!"). Eventually, they came to a compromise. Evita told the audience that she would announce her decision over the radio a few days later.
Eventually, Evita declined the invitation to run for vice-president, saying her only ambition was that in the large chapter of history that would be written about her husband, she hoped that in the footnotes there would be mention of a woman who brought the "hopes and dreams of the people to the president", who eventually turned those hopes and dreams into "glorious reality". In Peronist rhetoric, this event has come to be referred to as "The Renouncement", portraying Evita as having been a selfless woman in line with the Hispanic myth of
marianismo. Most biographers, however, now agree that Evita did not so much renounce her ambition but rather caved to pressure from her husband, the military, and the wealthy, who would not have liked her to run. (There is evidence that the military said they would overthrow the government if Evita were elected vice-president, as the thought of being under the command of a woman in case of the president's death would not be acceptable to them.) By this stage in her life it had also become evident that her health was rapidly worsening and a bid for the vice-presidency was not ultimately practical in light of her condition.
|
The Peróns take part in Buenos Aires parade to celebrate Juan Perón's second inauguration on June 4, 1952. |
On
June 4,
1952 Evita rode with Juan Perón in parade through Buenos Aires in celebration of his re-election as President of Argentina. (This was the first election Argentine women had been
allowed to vote in. Evita had organized women voters into the first truly powerful female political party in the country's history.) Evita was by this point so ill that she was unable to stand without support. Underneath her oversized fur coat was a frame made of plaster and wire that allowed her to stand. She took a triple dose of
painkillers before the parade, and took another two doses when she returned home.
In an official ceremony a few days after Juan Perón's second inauguration, Evita was given the official title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation".
Death at age 33
|
The public procession of Evita's coffin through downtown Buenos Aires |
Like her husband's first wife, Eva Perón developed
uterine cancer. Dr. George T. Pack, a
New York surgeon, performed a
hysterectomy on Eva in November 1951 and found that the
cancer had spread to adjacent
pelvic organs and could not be completely removed. Evita died at the age of 33, at 8:23 p.m. on
July 26,
1952. The news was immediately broadcast throughout the country Argentina went into
mourning: all activity in Argentina stopped: movies stopped playing, restaurants were closed and patrons were shown to the door. A radio broadcast interrupted the broadcasting schedule, with the announcer reading, "It is my sad duty to inform you that at 8:25 p.m. Eva Perón, Spiritual Leader of the Nation, entered immortality".
[Eva Peron by Alicia Dujovne Ortiz]Evita's time of her death was announced as 8:25 because it was felt that this time would be easier to remember. Upon her death, the Argentine public was told that Evita was only 30. The discrepancy was meant to dovetail with Evita's earlier tampering with her birth certificate. After becoming the first lady in 1946, Evita had her birth records altered to read that she had been born to married parents, and placed her birth date three years forward, making herself younger.
[Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron by Nicholas Fraser and Maryssa Navarro]Evita's body was
embalmed by Dr. Pedro Ara.
Shortly after her death, plans were made to construct a monument in Evita's honor. The monument, which was to be a statue of a man representing the "
Descamisados", was projected to be larger than the
Statue of Liberty. Evita's body was to be stored in the base of the monument and, in the tradition of
Lenin's corpse, to be displayed for the public. Before the monument to Evita was completed, Juan Perón was overthrown in a military
coup, the
Revolución Libertadora, in 1955. Perón hurriedly fled the country and did not make arrangements to secure Evita's body.
A military dictatorship took power in Argentina. The new authorities removed Evita's body from display and its whereabouts remained a mystery for years. From 1955 until 1971, the military dictatorship of Argentina issued a ban on Peronism. It became illegal not only to possess pictures of Juan and Eva Perón even in one's home, but to even speak their names. After sixteen years, the military finally revealed the location of Evita's body. It had been buried in a crypt in
Milan, Italy, under the name "MarÃa Maggi". In 1995,
Tomás Eloy MartÃnez published "
Santa Evita", which detailed many previously unknown facts about the escapades of Evita's corpse, such as the fact that many wax copies were made of the corpse. MartÃnez claimed that the corpse was damaged with a hammer and that some men even committed
necrophiliac acts on the corpse.
In 1971, Evita's body was exhumed and flown to
Spain, where Juan Perón maintained the corpse in his home. In 1973, Juan Perón came out of exile and returned to Argentina, becoming president for the third time. Perón died in office in 1974.
Isabel Perón, who had been elected vice-president, thus became the first female president in the world. It was Isabel who had Evita's body returned to Argentina and (briefly) displayed beside Juan Perón's. The body was later buried in the Duarte family tomb in
La Recoleta Cemetery,
Buenos Aires. Extra measures were taken by the government to secure Evita's tomb. There is a trapdoor in the tomb's marble floor, which leads to a compartment that contains two coffins. Under the first compartment is a second trapdoor and a second compartment. That is where Evita's coffin rests. Maryssa Navarro and Nicholas Fraser have written that the tomb is secured enough to withstand a nuclear bomb.
Of all the myths that have circled around Evita in the more than 50 years since her death, perhaps the most notorious myth is that she was a Nazi sympathizer.
[Evita Peron, made-for-TV, wherein Evita is portrayed as a Nazi conspirator] It has been alleged that this perception of Evita as a Nazi sympathizer is largely responsible for the negative portrayal of Eva Perón in the
Broadway version of the musical "
Evita"
[Broadway: The American Musical]. When the musical debuted in
London on June 21, 1978, the portrayal of Evita was comparatively sympathetic. By the time of the musical's debut in
New York City in 1979, the structure of the production had been reworked considerably, with some songs being omitted entirely, and what resulted was a far more unsympathetic depiction of Eva Perón.
In literature about the production of the musical it has been speculated that this reworking of the musical to portray Evita as a villain was in large part done in response to the fear of reprimand, perhaps even boycotts, by the large Jewish population of New York City. The producers were likely fearful that if they portrayed Evita too kindly in the musical, all the while the public viewed Evita as a Nazi sympathizer and therefore anti-Semitic, then the producers and writers themselves would also be viewed in that context. Even after the musical was reworked to depict Evita in a more negative light, the writers and producers were
still met with criticism for creating a musical that was viewed by some as glorifying a Nazi and Fascist sympathizer
[Evita by Roger Ebert].
Early versions of this myth of Nazi sympathizing emerged during Juan Perón's first term as president. Some detractors forged documents that were circulated around Argentina and England during Peron's first term
[Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron by Nicholas Fraser and Maryssa Navarro]. These documents made it appear that Evita, who at the time was still an actress and Perón's mistress, had met with Nazis in
Patagonia to arrange for the smuggle of Nazi loot into the country. Other opponents of Peronism circulated the idea that Peronism was simply a South American version of Nazism and Fascism. In recent years, books such as
The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought Nazi War Criminals to Argentina have portrayed Eva Perón as playing a significant role in helping Nazi criminals escape justice. The authors of this book capitalized on Evita's image recognition by publishing a picture of Evita on the book's cover
[The Real Odessa: How Peron Brought Nazi War Criminals to Argetina by Uki Goni].
The truth, according to many scholars, is that Juan and Eva Perón, and the movement they founded, known as
Peronism, had no official ties to Nazism or fascism, and there was no official
anti-Semitism in Perón's Argentina. As a nationalist, Juan Perón had indeed sided with Axis powers during
World War II, but it was regarding matters of nationalism and not anti-Semitism. Further, this was at a point before he had known Evita, and before Evita herself had become politically active. Therefore, many scholars agree that Eva Perón herself cannot in any true sense be described as having sympathized or identified with Nazi or fascist ideology.
Many Jewish scholars have pointed out that Juan Perón's Argentina was a relatively comfortable place for Jewish people to live. In his dissertation titled "The Jews and Perón: Communal Politics and National Identity in Peronist Argentina, 1946-1955" Lawrence D. Bell writes, "Despite the claims of Perón's detractors in the United States and elsewhere that he was anti-Semitic and in sympathy with European Fascism, Perón in fact demonstrated a considerable amount of pragmatism in his dealings with Argentina's 250,000 strong Jewish population."
"In her own country, her story is at last part of history, arousing the sort of peaceful controversy one might expect from so astonishing a career. In the rest of the world, however, she has attained the condition of apotheosis," Nicholas Frasier, biographer of Evita.
Shortly before her death, Evita said, "Volveré y seré millones," which translates into, "I will return and I will be millions." Evita herself would perhaps be surprised by how prophetic her words turned out to be. By the late 20th century, Evita had been transformed into a popular culture icon that had transcended Argentine politics. She was made the subject of numerous articles, books, stage plays, and musicals, ranging from the gossipy biography by Mary Main called
The Woman with the Whip, to the B-grade film "Little Mother" and a 1981
TV movie called "Evita Peron" with
Faye Dunaway in the title role.
But none of the other renderings of Evita's life were nearly as successful as the
musical Evita. The musical began as a
concept album co-produced by
Tim Rice and
Andrew Lloyd Webber, with
Julie Covington in the title role.
Elaine Paige would later be cast in the title role when the concept album was adapted into a musical stage production on
London's West End. But it was
Patti LuPone's 1978
Tony Award-winning Broadway performance that ultimately fulfilled the historical Eva Perón's desire for immortality. To date, the stage production has been performed on every continent (except
Antarctica) and has generated over $2 billion in revenue.
As early as 1978, the Broadway musical was considered as the basis for a movie, with everyone from Patti LuPone, to
Liza Minnelli, to
Michelle Pfeiffer, to
Meryl Streep, being considered for the title role. After a nearly 20-year production delay,
Madonna was cast in the title role for
the film version of the musical. Madonna would later win the
Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy."
In response to the movie starring Madonna, and in an alleged attempt to offer a more politically accurate depiction of Evita's life, an Argentine film company released "Eva Perón: The True Story" starring Argentine actress Esther Goris in the title role. This movie was the 1996 Argentine submission for the
Oscar in the category of "Best Foreign Film".
In a 1996 essay, English author Nicholas Fraser wrote that Evita was the perfect popular culture icon for our times. Fraser wrote that during her reign as First Lady of Argentina, Evita was often criticized by her detractors for turning national political life into show business. During Evita's time it was virtually unheard-of for a former actress to take part in political life. In our current age this is not the case. Former actors and entertainers, from
Ronald Reagan, to
Sonny Bono, to
Arnold Schwarzenegger, have often taken public political offices. Fraser wrote that in this way Evita was ahead of her time and is therefore perhaps "the perfect minor deity" for our age of "electric celebrity".
"She was far from being a saint, despite the veneration of millions of Argentines, but she was not a villain either. Human beings are full of contradictions and labyrinthine complexities. Rarely do they resemble their portrayal in the musicals of Hollywood and Broadway." --
Tomas Eloy Martinez, author of "Santa Evita" and Director of the Latin American program at
Rutgers University, in an online article for
Time Magazine.
References
*Guareschi, Roberto (Nov. 5, 2005). "Not quite the Evita of Argentine legend".
New Straits Times, p. 21.
*
Tobar, Hector (Los Angeles Times, 2003)]
*
Heath, Nick (People's History, UK)
*
Benitez, Marcelo Manuel (Icarodigital, AR)
*
Nudelman,Santiago (Buenos Aires, 1960; Chiefly draft resolutions and declarations presented by Nudelman as a member of the Cámara de Diputados of the Argentine Republic during the Perón administration)
*
casahistoria pages on Perón Les Fearns site, also links to Eva Perón pages
*
Extracts (in English) from Juan Domingo Perón, Peronist Doctrine Edited by the Peronist Party. (Buenos Aires, 1952). Modern History Sourcebook
*
The Twenty Truths of the Peronist Movement (1940s) The Justicialist movement's core tenets.
*
Juan Domingo Perón Argentine Presidential Messages Well indexed dating from 1946 onwards. The actual documents are shown as photocopied images. Note: Downloading can be slow! University of Texas.
*
Ciudad Eva Peron (La Plata temporarily renamed after her)
*
Delia Parodi, one of the first women to serve in Argentine Congress, was a close associate of Eva Perón and a founding member of the Female Peronist Party.
*
Eva Perón Historical Foundation*
The Evita Megasite *
First ladies.*
Eva Perón at Imdb.com*
Eva Peron's Gravesite
