Eva-The Early Years

Juana Ibarguren lived on the edge of a small Argentinian town called Los Toldos. Los Toldos was a boring, little pueblo built on the site of a long forgotten Indian encampment. The house she lived in was not much of a home. Just one room and a patio along with her five children. Her lover, Juan Duarte, a local landowner already had a wife and three daughters to support in Chivilcoy. We was not a wealthy man, but could afford to support another family. It was naturally accepted at the time that he would have a mistress. Juana's relationship was a stable one and lasted 15 years. Although the children, Blanca, Elisa, Juan, Erminda and little Eva Maria (born 1919) had the last name of their real father, Duarte, the town still looked upon the children as bastards.

On January 8, 1926, Juana received the news that Duarte had been killed in a car accident near Chivlcoy. Juana resolved to attend the funeral. She wanted her children to see their father one more time. They set forth on their first visit ever to the Duarte estate. In Argentina, the funeral must take place within 24 hours of the person's death. So Juana dressed the children in black and hauled them all to Chivilcoy in order to see the funeral and pay their last respects to their father. Juana knew that she would not be well received. After all, she was Juan's mistress, and he had had a legitimate wife- dona Estela Grizolia. Dona Estela knew about Juana, and when Juana arrived with her five children, Dona Estela would not let them in to see the body. There are many different versions of what really happened at the funeral. The most popular one is that one of Juan Duarte's brothers interceded on behalf of the children in order for them to see his body. They were then allowed to follow in single file (behind the legitimate children, of course) behind the procession that led to the cemetery where Juan would be laid to rest. Some people say it was at this moment when Eva vowed to herself that she would never walk behind anyone again.  Other stories tells that , when they got there, they were not even allowed to enter the house.

Life was rough for the family after Juan Duarte's death. He was Juana's only means of support. All that he left her was a legal declaration that her children were his in order for them to be able to bear his name. To keep her house and put food on the table Juana and her daughters hired themselves out as cooks in the homes of the local rich. This is where Eva got her first close look at the rich, powerful families who controlled Argentina.

Eva never forgot those years or the shabby little town where she spent her early years. In her autobiography, La Razon de mi Vida (The Reason for my Life), published before she died in 1952, Eva talked about her childhood: "I remember I was very sad for many days when I discovered that in the world there were poor people and rich people; and the strange thing is that the existence of the poor did not cause me as much pain as the knowledge that at the same time there were people who were rich...From each year I kept the memory of some injustice that roused me to rebellion."

Life did improve somewhat for Eva. At the age of 10 her mother finally found another "father" for the family. He moved his second family to the town of Junin. Junin, while not much better than Los Toldos, at least had a movie theater, stores and a population of 30,000. A virtual big city to the Duarte children.

As a teenager Eva was still very much the ugly duckling of the family. She was a quiet girl who kept to herself and liked to day dream. Eva's three sisters had secured good marriages and as for Eva, Juana's plans for her went no further than finishing primary school, then helping out in her new boarding house. But Eva had other ideas. In October of 1933, Eva was given a small part in a school play, an emotional, flag waving melodrama. After that experience Eva vowed to become a great actress and leave Junin forever. To do that she would have to go to Buenos Aires. She had no money to get there and no one to help her realize her dream. Not long after that the 15 year old Eva went to see a handsome tango singer, Agustin Magaldi at the local theater in Junin. When Magaldi finished his performance that evening he found the 15 year old Eva Duarte waiting for him in his dressing room. The next evening after the show, Eva was driving in a car on her way to Buenos Aires.

The Actress Learns Her Lines

When Eva arrived in Buenos Aires in 1935 it had more than 2 million people. One can only guess what it must have been like for the girl from Junin to witness such a large and bustling city. A city filled with possibilities and hope. A city where she could prove both to herself and her family back home that she had made it.

The country's middle class was formed largely from the immigrants who had arrived since the turn of the century. Most immigrants spoke Spanish and thought of themselves as Argentines. However there was another class of people, the elite of society which owned most of the land in Argentina, the Oligarchy.

Eva moved into the neighborhood which would be the equivalent to New York's Broadway area. She took a room at a cheap hotel just off Calle Corrientes, a street that goes from west to east across the heart of the city center. At night it is a street of theater signs, cinemas, cabarets and dance halls. An area lit by neon and run by dreams. Dreams like that of Eva Duarte to become a great actress. However Eva knew she needed a job, any job. After much searching and many lonely nights hungry and discouraged Eva got a small part in "La Senora de Perez", a comedy starring Eva Franco, one of Argentina's most popular actresses. This was the beginning of many small, short-lived acting parts for Eva. Her discouragement grew worse, but she kept her vow to not return to Junin until she had made a name for herself.

Whether Eva prostituted herself or not has never been substantiated. Critics of the government in the late 40's and early 50's claimed they had pornographic photos of the young Eva, but none ever materialized. What is known is that Eva did have a succession of lovers which aided her in getting better parts in the theater. Survival and hunger can be a powerful factor in allowing one to trade favors of sex for better acting roles. Eva was not above that. One lover that did wonders for Eva's career was her relationship with the owner of Argentina's leading film magazine, Emilio Kartulovic. Eva benefitted much from this relationship and finally roles that were always closed to her began to flood in. From then on hunger disappeared. Even though the films were bad, she received small parts in film along with respectable modeling jobs and some small roles on radio. Especially from her modeling jobs the young, gawky girl was learning about ways to take care of her appearance and the young woman from Junin was becoming a beautiful young woman.

Eva was also becoming a woman who cared deeply for both her friends and family. When her brother got into some trouble after taking some money from a bank he worked at, Eva sold almost all her possessions and sent him the money he needed to save himself from jail. It meant more bad acting jobs and a cheap, run-down apartment for Eva, but her brother's happiness mattered more.

Eva did not suffer long. Argentina in the late 30's and early 40's was going through a major economic upturn due to the high demand for beef and other exports that Argentina had for a war torn Europe. Eva's fortunes also rose when she began a romance with a wealthy soap manufacturer. Soon she was the star of a number of top radio shows especially the radio show "My Kingdom of Love." In that show she acted out stories of famous women in history. Eva the feminist was born. Eva was now the star of radio and became the most popular woman in radio. Once again, Eva used the chance meeting with the Minister of Communications to further herself in her career. This alone increased Eva's salary at the radio station ten fold. This, like all of Eva's relationships ended not long after it began, but Eva realized a nicer apartment and an inroad to the military officers of Argentine politics. Then another break came for Eva.

On January 15, 1944 an earthquake almost completely destroyed the town of San Juan, 500 miles west of Buenos Aires. Thousands were killed and a tremendous wave of sympathy and calls for aid for the victims went through the country. Eva was asked to appear at a national radio show which was a benefit charity for the victims. There, back stage, amongst the actors, singers and radio stars were the elite of the Argentine military including Colonel Juan Domingo Peron. He was the leader among the colonels who controlled the military government. Eva asked to be introduced to the handsome colonel and when they shook hands, Eva never let go.

Rising to the Top

In Eva's book: La Razon de mi Vida Eva said: "I put myself at his side. Perhaps this drew his attention to me and when he had time to listen to me I spoke up as best I could: "If as you say, the cause of the people is your own cause however great the sacrifice I will never leave your side until I die."

Eva was fond of prose straight out of the romance books she so loved. What is true is that she wasted no time that first night they met. They slipped away from the rally and drove out of the city to Tigre, a suburban river resort of muddy delta waterways. They made love that very first night. The next morning Eva arrived for work at Radio Belgrano in a War Ministry limousine.

Despite the differences in years-at 48, Perón was exactly double Eva's age-they had a lot in common. He was a country boy, born on October 8, 1895, on a small pampas farm owned by his father just outside the town of Lobos. He was handsome, athletic-looking man, over six-foot tall with thick jet-black hair combed back from his forehead, and black-brown eyes. He spoke German, Italian and a little English, and he was well read. He had personality, charm, and a quick wit.

The most persistent error of those who have written about him has been the tendency to see Perón as a dictator. Even if there is such a thing as a quintessential Latin American dictator-his ambiguous record shows him not to conform to this type. For someone supposedly ruthless, his behavior was often surprisingly mild. He did accumulate great power, but his use of it was erratic rather than authoritarian and when the time came he was eager to renounce his position of power to avoid bloodshed. In this he can be contrasted with some of his successors. His own persistent misrepresentation of the past, the most striking thing about his memoirs, is likewise not the conclusive indictment of Perón that it is often made out to be. Perón did distort the past, but not always to misrepresent what he had stood for. As an old man in exile, he wished to seem better than he had been.

When Perón met Eva he had a young mistress living with him. And as was Perón's custom, he was undecided as to what to do with the girl. Eva resolved the problem. It is said, that one morning after Perón had left for the War Ministry, she hired a truck, loaded it with her own possessions, delivered them to Perón's apartment and told the girl to go back to where she came from. When Perón returned for his siesta, he found that Evita had unpacked and settled in his apartment. He said nothing to her, he never questioned her about the girl. From that day on Eva was there.

Perón is his memoirs said he asked Evita to work with him at the Labor Secretariat. He wanted someone to develop a labor policy for women and beyond that, he wanted a woman to be the female leader of his movement, and he thought that Evita had the qualities of devotion and initiative which the task required. He says that she told him she needed to organize her affairs at the radio station and then she came to work with him. But this was not in fact what happened. For the first year and a half of their life together Perón and Evita lived not as collaborators, but as Colonel and mistress.

1945-The Year of Change

1944 and 1945 were the years of Perón's increasing power within the government, but they were also years of growing hostility to him inside and outside the Army. Even when he became Vice-President in January 1945, his position was not assured and there were incessant plots and counter-plots as the struggle for power within the government continued. In political life, as Perón's importance grew, the question increasingly became: was one for Perón or was one against him?

Night after night Evita scrutinized their visitors to see which camp they were from. This was the first thing she learned about politics; to be on guard on Perón's behalf, ready to attack before any threat had materialized.

With Evita's continued presence at these meetings, gossip about the couple began. As early as spring 1945 there were demonstrations outside their apartment, Perón's supporters shouting: 'Get Married, get married.' It was around this time that the stories that Evita was a prostitute took hold. It was based on assumptions about her 'obscure past', and it also reflected contemporary sexual myths. The idea that prostitutes, far from being exploited, possessed some unusual power over men. Wives were restrained by the marriage vows from such behavior, and anyhow no decent woman would use such wiles and devices-the predatory prostitute was, of course, taken to be lower-class. This set of assumptions was readily applied to Evita, the more so because it seemed to validate the contempt and fear Perón inspired, particularly among the Argentine wealthy.

The early months of 1945 were not good ones for Perón and Eva. They finally realized that they had picked a loser in Nazi, Germany, and their humiliation was rubbed in by Winston Churchill who commented: "They have chosen to dally with evil but not only with evil but with the losing side." Their country stood friendless in the world.

On October 9th, two senior generals arrived at Juan Perón's office. One of the men General Juan Pistarini, the Minister of Works, a good friend, had to break the bad news that someone finally had come to get his head, that his friend whom he had placed in the Casa Rosada had betrayed him and gone over to the enemy. He was told that the president was asking for his resignation. Perón did not blink, though the shock must have been great. He took out a sheet of paper and then he wrote: "His Excellency the President of the Nation: I hereby resign my position as Vice-President of the Nation: I hereby resign my duties as Vice-President, Minister of War and Secretary of Labor and Welfare, with all of which Your Excellency has deigned to honor me." He signed it and handed the note to the General.

The news flashed around the world. 'Perón resigns all powers after Argentine army coup' headlined the New York Times. In Washington, the State Department refused comment 'pending confirmation'.

Perón left the War Ministry right on the heels of the General and hurried home to Eva's apartment, finding to his surprise that she was there waiting for him. She already knew what happened. She found out in a most unpleasant way. Turning up for work at Radio Belgrano, she had been called into the office of her boss. "Your boyfriend has been fired," he told her, brutally drawing a finger across his throat. "You're out too," he added. Eva did not wait to hear any more. She fled. She was still angry when Perón arrived.

Eva immediately got on the phone and contacted every officer, and every man in the service that had been promoted by Perón. Eva had calculated that with the army divided in its loyalties and with the chain of military command hopelessly confused at the top, it was the junior officers, the men who actually controlled the troops, who counted. They owed their careers to Perón, she reminded them, and now it was time for them to show their loyalty, not only to Perón but to the ordinary working people of Argentina who had finally found someone willing to work to lift them from their poverty and misery.

Early that evening of the 10th she sent Juan off to the Labor and Welfare Ministry on the pretext of collecting personal papers from his office. Eva was on the phone as soon as he left, calling union officials pleading with them to get as many of their members over to the Ministry as quickly as possible. Their leader was there. She told them that he had been thrown out of his job because he had done so much for the workers, he would speak to them one last time before going into retirement. After 30,000 workers had packed the main avenue as well as the side streets, Perón walked outside the building in civilian clothes and bareheaded, he told the huge crowd packed in around him that he was a simple citizen now, to which the crowd roared back, 'No, no, no. We want you back.' Conveniently, Eva had microphones at the steps of the Ministry that had a nation wide hookup. He also said he had an announcement to make. Before leaving his office, he had signed a decree granting all Argentine workers salary increases and a share of the profits of the companies for which they worked. There were great cheers at that. But then he warned them to be prepared for war. 'If you the workers are decided to defend your conquests, I am going to defend you against the oligarchy of capitalist interests. Follow my leadership and victory will be ours.' There was more cheering, and the crowd began shouting 'Peron for President!' With all of Argentina listening on the radio it hardly sounded like the last farewell of a deposed dictator. This was the first demonstration of the nation-wide power of Eva Duarte, though few people realized it at the time.

After his broadcast that night Juan, with Eva, had slipped out of town and headed towards the Tigre, the river resort at the mouth of the delta of the River Plate. From there, the two of them took a boat and cruised through the narrow waterways to the tiny island and cottage where they had made love the night they first met. They left a government in total chaos behind them. But the police and naval officers were out hunting for them and would find them soon.

The police finally found Perón at one o'clock in the morning, asleep in the cottage with Eva. The colonel was told he was going to be taken to a gunboat on the River Plate. He was naturally terrified. The navy hated him he knew that. He had never been forgiven for the slaughter of the young naval cadets during the revolution two years before. He was convinced he was going to be killed, and he begged for mercy. As they left with Perón they chose not to arrest Eva and left her behind. It was an error of judgment that was to change the course of Argentine history.

Once again Eva wasted no time on tears. She rushed back to Buenos Aires and began phoning the trade union friends that she and Perón had cultivated. By the 15th of October Eva had rallied support for a counter-revolution. In her autobiography, she claimed that 'I flung myself into the streets searching for those friends who might still be of help to him...As I descended from the neighborhoods of the proud and rich to those of the poor and humble, doors were opened to me more generously and with more warmth. Above I found only cold and calculating hearts, the "prudent" hearts of "ordinary" men incapable of thinking or doing anything extraordinary, hearts whose contact nauseated, shamed and disgusted one."

The next morning, the first group of workers wound their way out of the slums, across the Riachuelo Bridge and into Buenos Aires. About 400 workers, mostly young men and teenagers, reached the city center and began shouting for Perón. The workers shouts could be heard throughout the heart of the city all afternoon and into the night. Even from the Casa Rosada the generals in power could hear the chants of 'Viva Perón', growing louder as the day went by. It was apparent to them that the arrest of Perón had turned into a popular uprising against the army. They decided there was only one solution if the army was to survive-Perón must be brought back. He should not be allowed to sit safely in a jail cell while his fellow officers were being abused by the mob outside. An official communiqué was issued from the Casa Rosada to the effect that Colonel Juan Perón was not, and never had been, under arrest. The statement went on to say that Perón had only been placed in protective custody because his life had been threatened by undisciplined elements in the turmoil and excitement of the previous week's events.

It was a surprising statement, considering that the news of Perón's arrest had been published, with a wealth of detail. Certainly no one was more surprised than Perón himself. He had been sitting in his cell, guarded by two sailors, when he heard his successor at the War Ministry on the radio denying that he was under arrest. Perón had already written General Avalos, one of the generals in power, demanding to be set free. He had also asked to be moved to a Buenos Aires hospital because he said he was suffering from pleurisy. Both requests had been ignored. He finally received a reply at 3:30 in the morning of the 17th in the form of a police squad, which escorted him aboard a police launch, took him to the mainland, then drove him in an ambulance to the Central Military Hospital in Buenos Aires.

A strong military guard had cordoned off the hospital for three blocks in every direction. But that did not stop the workers who, in their thousands, streamed across the Riachuelo Bridge that morning with the cry of 'Pay-ron! Pay-ron!' As the day continued, workers poured into Buenos Aires by the bus and truck load, and while the police stood passively by and the army held back, the workers took control of the city, singing, shouting slogans, and waving portraits of Perón.

Late that afternoon, General Avalos pushed through the crowd outside the hospital entrance and went in to see Perón. They were together for two hours, but what was said at that meeting has never been revealed. Afterwards, Avalos drove out to Campo de Mayo and resigned his army commission. Within hours of Avalos leaving the hospital, Perón and Eva were on their way to the Casa Rosada in triumph.

The throngs beneath the balconies of the Casa Rosada had grown by the hour as thousands poured into the square from the cobbled dock side avenue below. There were perhaps 200,000 of them, the poorest of the poor. But they knew the name of the only man who had ever done anything for them. The chanted roar of 'Pay-ron' boomed through the evening. The only time the crowd quieted for a minute or two was at eight o'clock as the windows leading to the main balcony of the palace were thrown open and it was announced that Perón would talk to the crowd in a few minutes. It wasn't until ten minutes past eleven that he appeared on the balcony with President Farrell. There was a great roar that lasted ten minutes. The two men embraced, clasping each other around the shoulders. "Here", cried President Farrell, "is the man we all love-Juan Perón-the man who has conquered the hearts of all Argentines."

Holding out his arms to the crowd below, he roared: "As a simple citizen, mingling with my descamisados (shirtless ones), I wish to press all of you to my heart." Behind him in the great room of the Presidency, Eva smiled that smile of hers that curled up at the corner of her mouth. They were not yet shouting Evita-Little Eve. But that could wait. Her man was back in power. And she had put him there.

First Lady-Eva Peron

Through the entire ordeal of his arrest Eva stood by Juan Perón. Partly because of this he did something unheard of, something that defied every social standard-he married his mistress in a secret civil ceremony. At the time men of Peróns social class did not marry their mistresses. So for Eva, whose mother never married, this was a dream come true. Perón by marrying her, legitimized her and this was the first time in her life that she was legitimate. Eva felt that that legitimization was an act of genuine love on the part of Perón. This marked the growth of a very powerful relationship.

Eva was at her husband's side as he campaigned for president in 1946. Riding high on the worker's support of him Perón won the election by a landslide. On June 4, 1946, he became the 29th president of Argentina. On first taking office he continued building support. He nationalized the British owned railroads and utilities. He raised wages so the workers were receiving the highest standard of living the workers had ever known. But as he courted the masses Perón was turning Argentina into a totalitarian police state. Perón had always been a great admirer of Mussolini and like his idol, he set up a regime that squashed all opposition.

There was a general climate of fear because they would harass anyone who didn't think like Perón. University students had to take subjects that were supportive of the regime. Any public official who said anything against the government was fired or put in jail.

As this new fascist regime took control, thousands of Argentinians were forced to flee the country. Most left for political reasons, but others were driven out by Eva Perón. For as Evita got her first taste of power, she took revenge on people from her past. People who made fun of her as a child or fellow actors that had told her outright that she was a lousy actress. Like her acting rival Libertad Lamarque. Eva put her and other actors on a blacklist. No one could talk to those on the list or have any contact with them. People who did not follow the blacklist were banished from Argentina.

Like many others Lamarque chose to leave the country as Evita took an increasing role in running the state. She took an office in the Labor Ministry and each day she interviewed hundreds of people who had requests, favors, contracts or jobs. In a country where women had always kept a low profile, this grandstanding upset some of the men in power. Most of these men found the idea unacceptable as this was not part of way things were done in Argentine politics or in society for that matter.

Evita didn't care if her behavior shocked people. She got up in front of crowds of people and announced "I am one of you I know what it is to go hungry." The people responded to this. Eva seduced the crowds and the seduction was good for the Peronist movement. Perón gave her a platform for power and let her say whatever she wanted to say. He discovered that this had a great impact on the people and even in her excesses she would only be sinning out of loyalty to Perón which is something Juan Perón did not have. In Evita, Perón thus possessed a permanent source of propaganda.

Before everyone's eyes Eva was reinventing herself. Changing from mistress to president's wife. She was the person that invented her own myth. She was very good at it. After all she was an actress and knew about staging and performing something else than what you really are. Eva was enjoying her new role as First Lady of Argentina. Suddenly she had the power to do things that she only dreamed of. For instance, among the Argentine elite an annual trip to Europe had always been considered a must. So Eva decided that she too would go to Europe. Befitting her new status she mapped out a grand three month goodwill tour.

She left for Europe on June 6, 1947 and her first stop was in Spain. Accompanying her on the tour was her best friend Lillian Guardo. Guardo, still alive today, has said in interviews, "We were looking forward to a nice reception, but it completely surpassed our expectations." "Franco and his wife were at the airport to greet us. along with diplomats and all the important people." "It was wonderful how she was received."

Franco who was eager to improve trade relations with Argentina, treated Evita like visiting royalty. He awarded her the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic, Spain's highest decoration and declared a general holiday so that the city's workers could welcome her to Madrid. Through it all Evita managed to remain cool and poised as though she had spent her entire life as a public figure. However, she was not as confident as she appeared. Her friend found this out on their first night in Spain when she was awakened late in the evening by a call from the First Lady. According to Lillian Guardo, "All of sudden the phone rang." "Lillian!, she called out, please come to my room. I am scared to sleep alone." "So I slept in an arm chair the whole night next to her bed." "The next day, it was the same story."

Eva Perón, seemingly so fearless was afraid to sleep alone at night. It was a shocking revelation, but then the First Lady was always unpredictable. According to her friends, at times Eva could be soft and understanding, but at other times when people didn't respond the way she thought they should, she was very harsh with them. One friend said she was a mixture of a tiger and a dove.

In the two and a half weeks Evita spent in Spain, she attended dozens of banquets and receptions. Her hosts showered her with gifts including gowns and jewels. After getting the full star treatment in Spain, Italy was a bit of a let down. At her audience with Pope Pius XII, Evita a devout Catholic, hoped that the pope would honor her with a papal title. But this former mistress got a cool reception from the Vatican. She was greeted with great formality, but her visit lasted only 20 minutes and she left without a title.

Paris was no better. At all the receptions Evita smiled for the camera, but the strain of having her every move monitored by the press was beginning to show. Unlike the Argentine press the international news services could print what they wanted. In the United States, Time Magazine ran a cover story about the Peróns that dared to mention the fact that Evita was an illegitimate child. An outraged Perón banned the magazine from Argentina for four months. The final insult came when the British royalty refused to invite Evita to Buckingham Palace. It was a blatant snub. Due to that Evita cut her trip short and headed for home.

If her grand tour did not go exactly as planned, her homecoming made up for it. Hundreds of thousands of Argentinians gathered in the Port of Buenos Aires to welcome their First Lady home. It was a proud moment for Evita. This poor little girl from the pampas had come a long way. At the age of 28 she was not only world famous, but she was the most powerful woman in Latin America and of course the world.

From the moment Eva Perón became First Lady of Argentina she was conscious of her image. And like an actress playing a role, she selected her wardrobe with tremendous care, buying dozens of expensive Christian Dior gowns and shoes. By 1948 she owned more than 100 furs and her jewel collection was said to rival that of Cleopatra. Her critics blasted her for being so extravagant. Evita knew that dressing up was a way of saying to the people, "I was once like you, but look at me now." "You too can be like me." But no matter how expensively she dressed, to Argentinas' elite, Evita would always be a social outcast.

The exercise of charity in Buenos Aires was mostly in the hands of eighty-seven ageing society ladies who collectively represented the Sociedad de Beneficencia. At the time its functions had been to "manage and inspect schools for girls, homes for orphans, hospitals for women and all establishments for the welfare of that sex." The Sociedad de Beneficencia had a tradition of asking the First Lady to be their honorary president, but they refused to extend that honor to Evita. A woman who in their view, had slept her way to power. Evita took her revenge by cutting off the Society's federal funding. Henceforth she announced, that money would go to a new charity, the Eva Perón Foundation.

From the start, Eva personally directed the foundation's work. The foundation was equivalent in size and importance to a substantial government department. It was capable of projecting and executing its own works, of imposing its priorities on the government, and of interrupting the course of other State projects if there was a shortage of labor and materials. No figures exist to give an idea of its operations while Evita was alive, but its assets in cash and goods were probably over three billion pesos, over US $200 million at the exchange rate at the time. Her critics said that the reason that there were no figures, was that Evita was running an extortion racket. It employed 14,000 workers on a permanent basis, including 6,000 construction workers and twenty-six priests, and it purchased annually for distribution, 400,000 pairs of shoes, 500,000 sewing machines and 200,000 cooking pots. These were stored in enormous warehouses in Buenos Aires, and as late as 1973, significant quantities of undistributed material, sealed and forgotten, were still being discovered. The Foundation had given scholarships, and had built homes, hospitals, and other welfare establishments, and some of these accomplishments had, in their own way, satisfied the basic needs of the people.

One of Eva's crowning achievements, on behalf of the Foundation was Evita City, a huge housing project for the poor which was built in 1948. One person that still lives there and was one of the first residents of Evita City recently said in an interview, "We were very poor, my mother had five children and she was a widow who worked in a paint factory." "We were given one of the 4,000 homes in the project." "We had everything in those rooms, beds, tables, clothes for us in the closets, everything." "We were so happy." "Then Evita showed up with a bundle of money. We stood next to her." "A First Lady!" "We felt small beside her. She was everything to us."

Each day hundreds of people lined up outside her office at the Ministry of Labor to tell Evita their hard luck stories. She would listen and decide whether they needed a visit to a doctor, clothes or money. People that worked with Eva said that she was very affectionate to the people that came to see her. It didn't matter if they were sick or had open wounds, she hugged them anyway and showed them her love. People who were close to Eva told her that she should not hug those people, but she would not hear of it. She did it anyway.

To fund her Foundation, she required every Argentine worker to give one days pay each year. Private businesses were also expected to make large contributions. They knew to refuse would risk having the Peróns send in government inspectors who would shut down their business. Meanwhile, Evita continued building schools and making sure all her good deeds were recorded by the press. The former actress had found a new role to add to that of First Lady, she was the "Lady of Hope", the "Patron Saint of the Poor." The poor adored her. The poor were given the opportunity to go to school, wear shoes and most important have a new life because of Eva. To this day they have not forgotten what she did for them and they still love her for it.

There was not much her opponents could do. How could they convince people that this angelic blonde so revered as a saint was a crook? They saw this beautiful woman covered with jewels and didn't think about where the funds for all of this was coming from. How could they not love her? Worship her? Since she solved their problems. When someone helps you, you don't ask questions.

As time went by Eva became almost fanatical about her foundation work. She spent longer hours at her office. Juan didn't seem to mind since he put in the same amount of time at his office. On a typical day they got up at 5:30 a.m., had breakfast together and then worked until late in the evening. Though their schedules may have kept them apart, friends say they were devoted to each other. They showed affection towards each other. Juan was more spontaneous in the display of his affections towards Evita. Evita was not so demonstrative, but there was love between them mixed with work.

Juan and Evita never had children. It was believed that Juan was sterile since he and his first wife tried to have children. It is unclear on how Evita felt about not having children. Her friends say she never discussed the subject. But since raising a family was out of the question, Evita focused her time and energy on her foundation work and other political projects.

In 1947, she got congress to pass a bill giving Argentine women the right to vote. Shortly afterwards she organized the Perónista Feminist Party to make sure that for when it came time for women to exercise that right they would vote for Perón. Many insiders in the government felt that anything that she did, she did to take care of Juan and consequently it also benefitted her.

No one was better than Evita at whipping a crowd into a frenzy of loyalty and devotion. "Perón is everything", she would say, "He is the soul, the nerve, and the hope of the Argentine people." Many government officials felt she was a fanatic, a fundamentalist by todays' standards. As a woman her passion was working for the cause. When you put these all together you have an explosion like an atomic bomb. That, many felt, was Evita Perón.

By 1950 after four years of Juan and Eva Peróns' extravagant spending and mismanagement, the booming Argentine economy began to falter. As rising inflation wiped out all the economic gains the workers had made, they took to the streets staging mass demonstrations and threatening a nation wide strike. Tensions began to escalate as Perón imposed martial law and brought in the military to enforce his will. Anyone who opposed him was exiled or thrown in prison. Torture was not uncommon in prison.

Perón also took control of the Argentine press. If a newspaper dared to criticize his administration he would send in government inspectors and would close the paper down for failing to meet safety standards. He used these kind of methods to shut down La Prensa the country's most famous independent newspaper. As Perón's strong armed tactics destroyed the last signs of his reputation as a man of the people, his wife's hold on the affections of the poor became all the more critical. By 1950, some thought it was the only thing keeping Perón in power. Evita believed that she was the "bridge of love" between the people and Perón. She was what bound the people with their leader. And Eva knew that there was no one else, who could play that role.

Juan would need his wife's support more than ever in 1951 as he ran for re-election. She was as always eager to help, but this time she asked him for something in return. Evita wanted to be vice president of Argentina. On August 22, 1951, at a rally of more than a million people, Perón, standing above the crowd announced that he would run for re-election. As prearranged, Eva's supporters kept calling her name until she finally arrived and joined him on the balcony above the crowd. They urged her to accept the nomination for vice president, but she appeared to hesitate. Not until the shouting had reached a frenzy did she finally give in saying, "I will do what the people say." It was vintage Evita. She played this scene like a pro making it seem like she was bowing to the will of the people.

It might have worked if the Argentine military had not intervened. From the beginning Perón's fellow officers had never approved of a woman taking such an active role in the country's political affairs. And now if she was elected vice president, and something happened to Juan, she would be their commander in chief. In no uncertain terms, the generals told Juan if Evita did not renounce her campaign, there would be a revolution. Perón had no choice but to tell Evita to step down. Nine days later in a national radio broadcast, Evita declined the nomination she had worked so hard for and wanted so badly. "I am not resigning my work, she said, just the honors." Evita would never get another chance at the vice presidency. Afterwards, people had debated as to whether Perón had done everything he could on her behalf. Some feel Perón was torn. He was torn between what he saw she was doing for him and what he owed to her and what his political instinct and his military training told him.

It was a tremendous disappointment for Evita and it came at a difficult time. For in recent months she had not been feeling well. She had very little energy and was losing weight fast. She put off seeing a doctor as long as possible, but finally a number of specialists examined her and concluded that she had uterine cancer. It was another blow to Evita. Many close to her felt that she believed that she was immortal and that she could do everything and that invasion of her body by cancer was a very devastating thing for her. She had no strength to fight it.

Though he tried to keep up appearances Juan was also shaken up. It was the same disease that had killed his first wife. By the time Evita was diagnosed, there was nothing the doctors could do. The cancer had taken hold and was spreading through her body.

By now Evita was either so loyal or such a rabid fanatic she refused to rest. Exhausted and ill she was determined to help her husband win his campaign to win re-election. Perón had to physically support his wife as she gave speeches from the state house. "If I leave shreds of my life on the wayside, she said, I know that you will gather them up in my name and carry them like a flag to victory." On election day Evita was too sick to go to the polls so she cast her vote from her hospital bed. But when Perón won, nothing could keep her from attending his inauguration. She looked very small and weak as she headed towards the state house in their open convertible. Eva was so weak that an employee of the palace put together a frame of plaster and wire which gave Evita the ability to stand next to Juan in the open car, waving and smiling at the crowd. She had needed a triple dose of pain-killer before the ceremonies began, and when she reached the Casa Rosada, she needed another double dose. This would be the last time she would appear in public.

By June 1952, ten months after the beginning of her illness, Evita weighed only 80 pounds (38 kilos), and every day she was losing more weight. She did receive radiotherapy, but this method of treatment had little effect, except that during the course of it Evita was badly burned and suffered greatly. As sick as she was, Evita was worried, worried about what would happen to Juan Perón when her imminent death came. Tears streamed down her face and no one could reassure her.

Santa Evita-The Death of Eva Perón and Its Aftermath

During her last weeks when Eva was conscious, she started to write another book, My Message, which was never published. It was most probably like her last speeches, a dissertation on the greatness of Perón and a ferocious attack on his enemies, particularly the Army, which Eva felt was now the most serious threat to Perón. She also wrote her will, two versions of which have survived: the first version was made public immediately after her death; the second was handed to an Argentine journalist by Perón at the end of his own life, in 1975. Both begin with the same statement:

I want to live forever with Perón and with my people. That is my absolute and unchangeable will and it is also my last wish. Wherever Perón may be and wherever my descamisados may be, there too, my heart will always be, to love them with all the strength left of my life, all the fanaticism burning my soul.

The will that was made public and which Evita did indeed sign, began with a series of reverential mentions of Perón and then proceeded to an orderly disposition of her possessions. All of these -jewels, clothes, royalties from books- were to be placed "at Perón's disposition as sole representative of the people."

I desire that a permanent fund be constituted with all my assets...[to be used] in the case of disasters affecting the poor and I want these to be seen as another proof of my love for them.

I desire that in each case a subsidy equivalent to one year's salary be given to each family.

My jewelry does not belong to me. Most of it was given to me by my people, but even the pieces I received from friends, foreign governments or Perón must return to the people.

I do no want them to fall into the hands of the Oligarchy and that is why I want them to stand...as a permanent source of credit which banks, may then use for the benefit of the people.

I also want the poor, the old, the children and the descamisados to continue writing to me as they did in my lifetime and [I wish] the monument that Congress wishes to erect to combine the hopes of everyone and convert them into reality through my Foundation...

My last words shall be as my first ones; I want to live eternally with Perón and my people. God will forgive me if I prefer to remain with them because he, too, is with the poor and I have always understood that in each descamisado God was asking me for love which I never withheld.

On Saturday morning, July 26, 1952, a damp gray winter's day, Evita said to her maid, "I never felt happy in this life. That is why I left home. My mother would have married me to someone ordinary and I could never have stood it, Irma; a decent woman has to get on in the world." At 11 am she went into a coma, and at 3 pm a priest gave her the last sacraments. From that hour, there were periodic radio announcements on the national network from a hook-up in the Residence, first that her state of health had declined, then, by 8pm, that it was very serious. Around Evita's bed were Perón, her mother, her sisters, her brother and members of the government. At 8:25 pm - a minute of the day which many Argentines would have occasion to remember - Evita ceased breathing. She had celebrated her thirty-first birthday only two months previously, but she was thirty-three years old.

A minute later, Raúl Apold of the Secretariat of Information broadcast to the nation, saying that at 8:25 pm, the Spiritual Leader of the Nation had died, and that her remains would be brought the next day to the Ministry of Labor, where the public might see them. Although no instructions had been given to this effect, the entire city and the entire country instantly went into the deepest, most heartfelt state of mourning. Cinemas stopped their movies, theatres interrupted their plays, restaurants and bars immediately showed customers to the door, their shutters slamming down over suddenly darkened street fronts. People wandered idly in the streets, waiting for the extra editions of the evening papers, which contained for the first time information about the medical aspects of Evita's illness. To millions of Argentinians Evita had come to represent a hope for the future, a promise for a better life. And they mourned her with deep and heartfelt grief.

This woman born from poverty got the kind of honors accorded a president. When it was announced that her body was now at the Ministry of Labor that building was heaped with flowers. By the end of the day there was not one flower left in the shops of Buenos Aires. One of the greatest crowds in Argentina's history fought to pay last respects to Evita. It was a mob scene that first day. More than eight died and hundreds were injured in the crush to file past her coffin. The lines that finally formed literally stretched for miles. At the end of the three days which had been set aside for people to see Evita, it had become apparent that many people who wished to see her had not yet been able to do so, and the government decided to extend the ceremony indefinitely. No count was ever made of how many people came to see her in the next thirteen days, but the several lines outside the building stretched as much as 30 blocks in different directions, making it necessary to wait several hours before one could get inside.

An eye witness who waited in line to see Evita's coffin gives this observation: "The whole population was in mourning. They were out in the streets and I was there too. It was cold and it rained the entire time. There would be people who would get to where the coffin was and would pass out. Everything was very sad. Evita's death was the worst loss suffered by the people. It was unbelievable. You had to be there to see how those people were suffering. She had done so much for everyone. People were crying and wondered what would become of them? Who would help them? They were left without hope."

Juan Perón was devastated. He had lost his beloved wife as well as his political partner. There was concern that without her by his side, his days as President were coming to a close.

On the day that Evita's body was moved to Congress, a grim faced Perón walked behind the gun carriage carrying her body through the streets of Buenos Aires as the Argentine Air Force flew over head. When she was alive Evita said her greatest fear was to be forgotten. She begged her husband not to let that happen. And he came up with a bizarre solution. He decided to preserve her body forever. Just as the Russians had preserved Lenin's corpse. Perón planned to build a huge mausoleum three times higher than the Statue of Liberty. To put Evita on display. Perón felt that if Evita's body was exhibited to the public that image of eternity could also perpetuate a certain image of eternity for Perónism itself.

Perón hired a Spanish pathologist Dr. Pedro Ara who had perfected a technique for preserving human flesh. Dr. Ara spent two years preserving her entire body including her brain and other internal organs which embalmers normally remove. By 1955 Ara had completed his masterpiece. But before Perón could build the mausoleum, to house his wife's body, his administration came under attack.

Without Evita to charm the masses, they rose up against Perón as a new military regime took control. Perón was forced to flee the country to Spain, leaving Evita's body behind. When the new military leaders took over they were faced with a dilemma. What should they do with Evita's body? This great symbol of Perónism. They wanted to bury her properly the problem was where to bury her? Since wherever they buried her would become a shrine, a sacred place for all those who loved her. To prevent Evita's body from being used to rally opposition they arranged to hide it in a small cemetery in Milan, Italy. As the people of Argentina wondered what had happened to Evita, she laid buried under a simple headstone, engraved with a false name. She would remain there for fourteen years until 1971 when Juan Perón came back into favor in Argentina. As a gesture of reconciliation, the Argentine government decided to return Evita's body to the exiled dictator.

When the corpse was removed from the ground in Italy, the grave digger shouted, "Miracle!" They could not believe the woman was dead. The condition of Evita's body nearly 20 years, after her death. Incredibly she looked almost the same as the day she died. Dr. Ara's work has stood the test of time. After being buried for so long the entire body was almost intact. When the body was delivered to Perón he seemed pleased to be reunited with Evita. He cried when he saw her again. Someone asked him if he was that moved to see her again. He said that with her he had been happier than people knew.

In 1973, Perón returned to Argentina to run one last time for president. By now he had remarried and his third wife, Isabel, a former nightclub dancer, ran for vice president. Throughout the campaign Perón never missed a chance to invoke the image of his dead wife. He won his election and ironically Isabel won the office that Evita had been denied. But Juan Perón's presidency was short-lived. He died of a heart attack on July 1, 1974, nine months after taking office.

Isabel took over for a short time and it was on her insistence that Evita's body be returned to her family in Argentina. On October 22, 1976, Eva was laid to rest in the Duarte family tomb in the famous Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. It is said in Argentina that you can be from the best family, but if you weren't buried in Recoleta, you were nobody. Evita, a child of poverty had finally made it. But many people say that instead of burying her among those who shunned her, all her life, she should be with the poor people who still consider her their patron saint. For though the Vatican vetoed a plea to officially declare Evita a Catholic martyr, masses are still held today in honor of "The Lady of Hope."

Evita was a saint for many. To others she is the symbol of the eternal fight. The fight of the poor and the disinherited who want more justice and dignity in their lives, and people don't forget this. To her fans Evita didn't die in the eyes of her people. She is still alive because she left a huge message full of love. She became a myth. Today Evita is a myth to these people. Evita never forgot where she came from. She embraced her people in a loving way and worked as hard as anyone to give them a better life.

For those that despised her, her memory, her myth continue to to haunt them. Evita just won't go away. Something she promised her people many years ago. She was a woman with power, something even in the 90's people are afraid of. A whore? Most experts say no. A woman, alone in Argentina in the 1930's used the only thing available to her. Her body. She used it to advance herself. Nothing more than one did in the military in Argentina. Military men constantly stabbed each other in the back to raise to the top. In men it's called moving up the ladder. In women one is called a social climber at best.

Evita still lives today on Broadway and on film. Her name still brings questions from people who want to know more. Her biggest fear was being forgotten. That fear will never be a reality.

THE END

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