Eva Peron: a biographical essay.....

{I've returned to writing for my blog for the minute, anyone who vaugely followed my blog has probably stopped looking long ago, but I will continue to write politicaly related articales - I wish I could change the title from 'red neews' to somethine else as it implies that I'm still a Marxist....Which I'm not! Anyway I thought I'd share with you an essay I've writen on and off for over the last 2 and a half months. About a historical/political figure I admire, the first lady of Argentina from 1946-1952, Eva Maria Durate de Peron aka "Evita"....Enjoy}.

Source 1: Eva Peron. By Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro
Source 2: Eva Peron: the myths of a woman by J. M. Taylor.
Source 3: Evita: in my own words. By Eva Peron (debatable) introduction by Professor Joseph A. Page.

Eva Peron the woman who had several myths built around her such as “the lady of hope” (2) and “the woman of the black myth.” (2). Who had many titles such as “spiritual leader of the nation” (1) and “the myth of Eva Peron.”(2) (the title for all these myths, according to Argentineans) was one of the leading figures in twenty centaury Argentina, along with her husband, she managed to shape Argentina’s modern day political future…This is her story.......

“On May 7, 1919, an Indian midwife helped an unwed mother give birth to a child on the Argentina pampas near the small town of Los Toldos, in the province of Buenos Aires. This child was to be Eva Peron, first lady of her country and at the height of her career perhaps the most powerful woman anywhere in the world.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman” by J. M. Taylor, p. 34, the university of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979.) (2).

The Plaza were Eva was born was dirty and narrow with two rose of houses on each-side also decorated with statues of Argentinean war hero’s. To show what poverty Eva was born into none of the houses that were found on either side of the Plaza had porches. However the region where Eva was born itself (The Pampa) is one of the wealthiest provinces in Argentina just been a few miles away from Buenos Aires, Argentina’s very rich and very advanced capital. Eva was the daughter of Juan Duarte who by the time he conceived Evita already had another family in which he had three daughters. Eva’s mother was named Juana Ibarguren (although after she met Juan Duarte she adopted the name Duarte.) Eva was the fifth and youngest child of Juan and Juana Duarte…She was born as and referred to in her childhood, “Eva Maria.” Due to a legal argument between her parents it became confusing to what the five children’s full names would be either Ibarguren or Duarte…..Eva’s birth certificate says Ibarguren but she preferred to use the name Duarte along with her other siblings (1). Because Eva was born as an ilageitament child (which was a ‘crime’ akin to a curse in that time in Argentine society) she was forced to endure social ostraisatiozn espically among the upper-classes, because the events that led to her birth were totally out of her control, this could only have made her slightly bitter (3).

Because of the poverty Eva and her siblings lived in Eva’s mother had to take a job at washing clothes for the local villagers in Los Toldos…It was rumored that while she had this job she was also intimate with a lot of men who subsequently ‘protected’ her and her family. When Eva was only a year old her father Juan Duarte left Los Toldos never to return to Eva or the rest of her family.
His departure caused the impovishment of the Duarte’s and that is why Juana had to take the job of local cleaner in the village. Local gossip soon spread against the Duarte’s and Eva and her sibling’s recvied a lot of abuse from locals about her mother’s rumored love affairs. Juan, Eva’s brother and the only boy of the siblings became the protector of the family threatening anyone who dare insult his or his family’s reputation. (1). On the 8th of January 1926 news reached Juana Ibarguren and her children of the death of Juan Duarte who had been killed in a car accisident….Juana decided that she would attend the funeral along with his other family…. “Though legally she and her family did not exist for the dead man’s family and their presence according to the conventions of the time could only be interrupted as an affront.” (“Eva Peron.” By Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st 1996.) (1) They arrived for the funeral but Duarte’s wife refused to let them in and it was only after Juana Ibarguren had pleaded with her brother who was the mayor of the town were Duarte had been killed (Chivilcoy) and after her brother spoke with her that Duarte’s other wife permitted them to attend the funeral (1). The society of Chivilcoy also made an appearance at the wedding to pay respects to the Mayor of their town for losing his brother-in-law. (2) by this time Eva-Maria was six years old and her and her siblings were forced to watch a bitter confrontation between Juana Ibarguren and Duarte’s other wife at the funeral-wake (2).
This finally ended when the Mayor intervened and allowed Juana Ibarguren and her children to accompany the coffin to the cemetery (2).

Eva started school at eight years old according to her marks she was a good student although she did not attend school much…All her teacher can rember about her is her big large silent eyes. Eva was present when a member of the Argentinean radical-party gave a speech at her school in her second year about democracy and the national progress of Argentina as an entire country, this was Eva-Maria’s first encounter with politics. (1). At the age of twelve Eva Maria, her mother, her three sisters and her brother moved to the town of Junín a larger town then that of Los Toldos, inhabited by over 20,000 people which was still relatively close to Los Toldos (geographically.) It seemed that Eva wanted to leave Junín but not only Junín the entire pampas area itself…. “Here the towns, which in their formability and sobriety seem minute cities, also seem even more peculiarly lifeless than the slowest most rustic villages elsewhere.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman” by J. M. Taylor, p. 35, the university of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979) (2) However not all was bad in this town as Eva’s mother was now able to host guests in her house….Eva and her sister’s sometimes attended the parties and talked with the men after they had eaten the meals that Juana Ibarguren cooked for them. (1)

Social life in Junín was routine with Eva and her friends from school (Eva went to a local school in the town) going to the centre of the town every Sunday afternoon and looking in shop window’s which they had looked in every single Sunday…They would then get candy and eat it in front of the boy’s from the town before heading home…This routine was only broken when a funfair came to the town and the girl’s “could forget that they were too big or too small, too skinny or too fat and that they lived in Junín a small lost town in the middle of the Pampas.” (“Eva Peron.” By Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st, 1996.) (1)

By the age of fifteen Eva Maria was ready to leave Junín and move to the wealthy capital of Argentina Buenos Aries. Eva’s goal at that stage of her life was to become an actress…Except she had no means of getting to Buenos Aires or did she? It is said by some that she made herself well equanted with a local tango singer named Agustín Magaldi who she either fell in love with or seduced…And that he took her to Buenos Aires. However there is no record of Magaldi visiting Junín in the year 1935 (the year Eva left for Buenos Aries.) Another more plausible theory according to one of Eva’s sisters is that Eva’s mother brought her to Buenos Aries by train and stayed with her until she found a small role at a radio station (1)….On a side note, Eva’s three sister’s would all marry into the middle classes (3) and Eva’s brother Juan would show up again later to help Eva in her political career. (1)

Buenos Aires as a city itself in the 1930’s was largely developed…It was the third largest city in the world only trailing behind those of New York and Tel Aviv with “a highly Italianized culture,” (2) according to J. M Taylor, and the home of many immigrants from Russia, France, Ireland and other places…These immigrants came by boat however eventually they would come from rural more agricultural or poorer parts of Argentina by train (like Evita did.) It had a parliamentary system and an able burrocray…It’s arcatecture and style was molded on that of Paris…This was the modern face of Buenos Aries at the time. However there was an older face which arguably had influence over the modern one…That was the face of the landowners or “oligarchy” they owned several plots of land in the cites sometimes working it themselves or else renting it out to tenants and sub-tenants. Buenos Aires had wonderful theatre’s and opera houses to entertain its people. The rich of Buenos Aries would retire to the country or go on a tour around Europe with their wives, children and maids when they had time for a holiday. Although the city had a constitutional system with two political houses and an elected president, elections were often flawed with either the votes been rigged or people been intimated at gunpoint when they came to vote. This is the backround of the city that Eva Maria Duarte would grow to become famous in…. (1).

By the time Eva Maria was twenty she hand managed to get a few contracts at radio shows in the city. Radio show’s healed promising positions for those who got them as they could lead to long term contracts or even a role in the cinema which is where Eva wanted to go (2)… other actors would mock Eva for her lack of acting talent, lack of vocabulary and lack of diction (3).She finally managed to get two small parts in films in 1940 and beforehand she managed to get some cameo roles in theatre plays (1). Her first big break came when she signed on to play a role in the radio series “famous women.” (2). this was in the year 1943 one year before she moved closer towards the political circle of Argentine society (2). She was at this stage twenty-four years old and played many roles including those of Elizabeth the 1st, Catharine the great and Alexandria of Russia (2). At the sametime that Eva was rising through the ranks of Argentinean acting society….A new military government was rising in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires….(1).

On Friday the 4th of June of that year the rumors were spread that a revolution was taking place to overthrow the conservative government which had been elected (by voting fraud) in 1939…The military was opposed to the hand picked presidential successor Robustiano Patrón Costas who was likely to take over the government and was notorious for been an extremely rich but corrupt businessman…Over 6,000 military officers marched into the capital and by 2:30pm had captured the Casa Rosado (presidential palace.) by Saturday, Argentina had a new president the leader of the coup Arturo Rawson who straight away promised an end to corruption and voting fraud which had plagued Argentina “democracy” throughout the 1930’s (1). The next day Rawson resigned as president and was replaced by General Pedro Pablo Ramírez, that same day the banks and business (which had closed on the day of the coup) re-opened. Eva was not interested in politics at this stage, trying to shy away from it but even she would eventually have an opion on the military government….The government aimed to modernize Argentina and advance in places the old government had failed to do so in…….They heavily encouraged radio-regulation, foreign musicians were not allowed speak on the radio in their own lanagues and any theatrical expressions that appeared to be damaging moral were banned (1).

Scripts for soap-operas which the government did not approve off were no longer to be run on a day to day basis and all scripts had to be submitted for approval, at least ten days before they were broadcast. Like the previous government the military junta was divided over the question of neutrality during WWII and despite increasing pressure to enter the war on the side of the allies from the United States, they remained neutral. The government made no commitment to hold a free, democratic election and this made some people feel that they were living in a totalitarian state... (1).

On the 16th of January 1944 the city of San Juan was hit by a devastating earthquake, the junta eventually launched a major charity collection for the victims of the quake and for the families of the 6,000 people who had died in the disaster. The San Juan fund was raised by the minister of Labor in the new military junta, Colonel Juan Domingo Peron, he deiced upon an artistic festival to collect funds for the victims, actors and actress would go through the streets collecting funds and at the end of the week there would be a great gala performance night, Peron himself attended and personally collected money from passersby (1).
It was on this night that “the dashing Peron at frothy-nine met and formed a liaison with an actress of half his age.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman.” By J. M. Taylor, p. 36, the University of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979 ) (2). – This actress was non-other then Eva Duarte……In Peron’s memoirs which “are not a reliable source” according to Nicolas Fraser and Marysa Navarro; (1) Peron mentions that Eva met him at the gala and suggested a fund raising campaign in the upper-class area of Buenos Aries as that is where all the rich lived…Peron was impressed with this suggestion and told her to organize it, and according to him that is what she did……However in reality she did not organize anything, she did attend the event and did walk down the street collecting money. Then Peron and other politicians made several speeches and Eva and a group of actress went to talk with him and meet him…At two in the morning Eva and Peron left the event together (1). …Near the end of her life, Eva would later say the following, which she claimed attracted her to Peron:

“From the first moment I saw his heart…..and on the top of the pedestal of his heart the mast of his ideals holding the flag of his nation and his people close to the sky….I saw his immense solitude, like the solitude of the condor, like that of the highest peaks, like the solitude of stars in the in the immenseness of infinity. And despite my smallness I decided to accompany him.” (“In my own words.” By Eva Peron, p, 52. The New press, July 14th 2005.) (3).

Peron healed two positions in the military junta…In the morning he was secretary of war, which was only answerable to the minister of war directly above him…And in the afternoon he was secretary of labor and social security a position he himself created. He rose at six and took a brief break at noon, after this break he haled informal meetings with civilian politicians, to some of these meetings he would bring a girl he referred to as his “daughter” however she was not his daughter but his mistress. A few days before he met Eva he brought his mistress to the radio station where Eva Maria worked, but now that he had acquainted Eva he did not exactly know what to do with his mistress. One morning after Peron had risen to go to work, Eva arrived at his house via truck with all her positions and told Peron’s mistress to leave, and then subsequently settled into Peron’s house – Peron returned for his afternoon siesta and found Eva had moved in which he didn’t question at all (1). The secretariat of labor and social security soon confirmed Eva in her first union activates, giving her the place as head of the “Asocacion Radial Argentina.” This tried to gain rights for radio employees, she also kept up her radio career. Eva also took at Peron’s request a place in the secretariat of labor, without salary or conditions of any kind (2).

By February of 1944, Peron’s popularity had grown greatly in the military Junta, he now had influence over the president of the government and had the support of several other leading military generals. Peron was influenced by Mussolini’s fascist state and had visited Italy….Where he claimed to have met the Italian dictator in person (however he later claimed that he only saw him once when he was in a crowd watching him make a speech.) Peron and other Argentinean nationalists wanted to see the Axis powers win the war…As his influence grew in the Junta, he tried to impose fascist ideals on his colleagues, however several of them did not like this and demanded he resign his posts, however at this stage it was too late, Peron had powerful support on his side and he sent guards to protect his house incase of arrest.
On the 24th of February 1944 President Pedro Pablo Ramírez resigned, with a farewell speech that was drafted by Peron, in his place stepped in General Edelmiro Julián Farrell, who Peron had quite a bit of influence over (despite the fact he was Peron’s boss.) Peron now returned to his normal posts as secretary for war and secretary for labor and social security, “he was now in name, as well as in fact the strongest man in the government.” (“Eva Peron.” By Nicolas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st 1996.) (1). As secretary for labor Peron had the task of reforming the unions….He first of all came to the conclusion that unions were either to weak with no rights or power whatsoever or to extreme and controlled by socialists and communists, to combat this he encouraged the creation of “new unions” in which workers had greater rights and influence but were still answerable to the Argentinean state (1).

Eva meanwhile had landed in a new staring film role and dyed her hair blonde for the film…
She would keep this blonde hair for the rest of her life. On the set of the film, Eva tried to convert the cast and director into Peron’s belief system and made her relationship with Peron clear to the cast and crew.
A rival actress of Evita’s apparently slapped her across the face after a trivial argument broke out between the two, then the actress stormed out of the room slamming the door behind her (1). According to Professor Joseph A. Page; Eva was pregnant on the set of one of her films called “la prodiga.” (The Prodigal.) Unnamed worker’s on the film set have been quoted says Page, as saying that Eva would tap her stomach and say “I have a little Peron here.” Eva left the production of “la prodiga” in September and Page says that the film’s ending does seem incomplete…This coincides says Page with when she was supposedly hospitalized and then had a miscarriage…However Page admits that a lot more evidence is needed before this claim can become a fact (3).

Peron at this time was busied with meetings between doctors and politicians and lawyers and the like, he often brought Eva to these meetings although this was a huge breach of social-conventions…And could essaly damage his political career because actress and politicians were seen as two completely different classes in that day and age….It seems that not only this action could have damaged his reputation but it did, especially with other members of the army who disliked the fact Peron was giving Eva slightly larger roles in political life all the time (1).
Eva also began to write and broadcast a series of pro-Peron propaganda radio shows which were laid out in soap-opera like form and mainly talked about Peron and all his current achievements, whilst doing these broadcasts Eva was referred to as “the woman” soon the military coup of 1943 had been re-written as a pro-Peron propaganda rally….Eva’s broadcasts made it sound like Peron alone had orchestrated the military coup and that he was the only man who knew how to lead the country, soon her shows started to speak of what Peron’s election policy’s would be…Despite the fact that the military junta had never mentioned elections….At the sametime, Eva’s presence in the Argentine press went up, she was now doing three radio shows a week and healed frequent interviews, she attended trade union meetings sometimes even without Peron. It was around this time period that the rumor that Eva was a prostitute started, with satirical drawings and cartoons appearing in magazines, like one were a maid turns a wealthy gentleman away from the door telling him that Eva “doesn’t need” him anymore as she has found another, more powerful man. Of course these numerous are not very well backed up and are mainly drawn out of uncertainty over Eva’s past, and were often branded about by the nobility in Argentina who considered girls from Eva’s class to be prostitutes (1).

By 1945 things were looking up for both Eva and Peron; the latter had now added the political title of vice-president to his posts in the military junta, along with minister for labor and security and minister for war (2). However there was still growing opposition to Peron, a military coup was attempted and the military junta launched a state of emergency, closing down all papers and arresting all opposition leaders, students occupied universities and were only removed after a brutal crackdown by the police which killed saw the arrest of 16,000 people and the death of one student. On the 19th of September 1945 a large anti-Peron protest took place, around 250,000 or possibly even 500,000 as different newspapers of the time vary on the exact figures, the Argentinean police say it was 65,000…..People took part in the protest speeches were made and the crowd left peacefully at the end, all the opposition parties (Conservatives, communists, socialists and liberals) took part in the protests…If this wasn’t enough for Peron, the international community was also against his rising power in the military Junta (which it didn’t like in the first place), it was convinced that Peron and Eva were trying to establish a “fourth rich” in Argentina and false documents were drafted up to try and prove this fact, it was a genuine belief at the time…And even later in Peron’s third term as president (1973-1974) this theory would still be around (1).

On the 9th of October 1945 all seemed to apparently go wrong, growing opposition to the military junta and to Peron himself as mentioned before from within the army forced Peron to give up all of these three positions, it wasn’t only Peron’s growing power which caused the soldiers to act like this, they were also equally afraid of Eva’s power they did not like the fact that she was president of a union and felt that a woman with any political presents whatsoever (even though Eva still knew little about politics apart from what Peron told her) was dangerous, so as soon as Peron was stripped of his positions, Eva was fired from her small post in the government and with no Peron to protect her, she could not do anything about this. The couple then fled Buenos Aires in fear of their lives but they were caught on the 12th of October 1945, Peron was immediately arrested and was forced upon a gunship which took him towards the remote “Martian Garcia Island.” This was to all intensive purposes a prison. Meanwhile abandoned in the middle of Buenos Aires, Eva took refuge in the house of a fellow actress….Peron sent her several love letters while he was incarcerated and promised that if all turned out well he would give up political life for good….
Meanwhile the head’s of the Pro-Peron unions decided they would hold a protest to demand the release of Peron on the 18th of October 1945…..However the worker’s themselves inside the unions decided to ignore the command and protest on the 17th of October….(2).A popular myth is that Eva herself led the protest that took place on the 17th of October however there is no evidence behind this claim….as Nicolas Frasier, Marysa Navarro & J. M. Taylor all seem to agree that, as stated above, Eva was abandoned and deselect in Buenos Aires (1 & 2). There was a small incident were a woman from a well off family spat on Eva’s doorstep (1) and another incident when a local gang spotted her in a taxi, dragged her out of it and started to beat her (2). She could have chosen this minute to walk out on Peron, this would fit the general view of anti-Peronist’s that Evita was selfish but instead she stayed because she loved him (1).

On the 17th of October worker’s started to march from their various factories marching towards the capital of Buenos Aires…The Argentina upper-classes stood horrified on their balconies as workers started to get on boats, cross cannels or walk down pavements to get to the city with pro-Peron banners in their hands and some even with the slogan “Peron for president!” on them ( 1 & 2). Eva was not involved in this protest as she had previously met with Peron (who had been flown into Buenos Aires under the false pretext that he was ill, but he was then put into a special military sell in a hospital so he was still virtually imprisoned.) Who told her to stay calm and stay out of danger, so on the day of this large protest she was at home (1). The worker’s appeared in work uniforms not the suits that were usually deemed nessacery by Buenos Aires society (2).
They marched towards the Plaza de Mayo’s formal fountains and lawns and towards the Pink house of government (2). Worker’s got on trams and disconnected tram wires and then re-connected them forcing the driver’s of the trams to move towards Buenos Aires…Some went to the military hospital shouting Peron’s name and others sang songs about Peron. …..Peron spent the day in his military cell at the military hospital and was visited by messengers from his former friend President Farwell, who freely admitted that they did not know what was going, and that the government had no control over the worker’s in the capital.
Peron told the labor minister who succeed him and who came to see him in his sell “ it has happened because your all idiots, the people are going to the streets because you wanted to get rid of me…What did that achieve? An upheaval of the entire country!” (“Eva Peron.” By Nicolas Frasier and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st 1996.) That night Peron went to the Casa Rosado and spoke with President Farwell and shortly after 11pm he walked out onto the balcony of the Casa Rosado a free man.
He stood there in front of thousands of Argentina’s who shouted his name and one asked “where were you?”
Peron did not answer this question directly but instead announced that he had retired from the military and instead wanted to the serve the people of Argentina (1).

After his speech on the balcony of the Casa Rosado, Peron returned to where Eva was staying and had dinner with her (1). Five days later Juan Domingo Peron and Eva Maria Duarte were married (2) with only Eva’s brother Juan (who had helped to try and get Peron and Eva out of the city before Peron’s arrest) and one of Peron’s military friends Colonel Domingo Mercante in attendance (1). – Mercante had been the one who instructed Peron to fane sickness while he was imprisoned so that he could be flown back to Buenos Aires, and from there on be freed as a result of the worker’s protest (1). Five weeks later Peron and Eva were married again in what they thought was a private church ceremony with only Eva’s mother and a few of Peron’s military comrades in attendants…However they were amazed to see a large crowd of supporter’s outside the church. A marriage document was drawn up in haste and Eva claimed to be 23 years of age instead of 26 years of age, this way she would have a legal claim to the name Duarte under which Peron knew her as well as attaining the name Peron for her last name. In the next few days Eva began to leave her acting career, she asked for a copy of her last film which was shown to her and Peron in private and then given to her as a present and then she took back the stills and other photo’s of her on various sets (1).

Contrary to his promise to give up political life Juan Peron, found himself now at the head of a coalition government that was mainly supported by the CGT (pro-Peron) unions, labor party and a few members of the Argentina radical party and conservative party who had lent their support to him from an early stage.
Peron went into the general election with very little funding while the opposition had large amounts of funding and also had the banner “for freedom against Nazism.” To increase his support among the middle classes, Peron said that he was for democracy and believed in capitalism. Both groups took trains around the country with the oppositions train called the “train of liberty.” Been subject to violent attacks from pro-Peron supporters, and three people dying as a result of these attacks.
Because of this Peron and his supporters had to be put under heavy guard upon their train, and were obliged to leave the train before it stopped at stations. Eva’s role in Peron’s election campaign is conflicting, Frasier and Navarro suggest that she did not make any speeches herself but instead stood beside her husband as Peron made the exact same speech about taking land of the oligarchy through land-reform (1).
While J. M. Taylor asserts that Eva made speeches on Peron’s behalf before he was elected and then on her own behalf weather this is a reference to simply speeches or general election speeches is unclear (2).
Eva would soon take up the name “Evita” according to Joseph A. Page, she used the name “Eva Peron” as wife of the president and “Evita” to draw a line between her and the desire’s of the masses who she had pledged to serve, this name would become a popular title for her when she fully became first lady (3).
Peron wrote his own speeches during the campaign and therefore Eva had to tie up some of the campaign details herself which Peron did not object to (1).

On the 24th of February 1946 the voting began in what was to be one of Argentina’s fairest elections in years. The opposition was confident of victory but when things started to turn against them they accused Peron and his side of election fraud, despite the fact that it was confirmed and agreed that the votes were clean and fair. Peron won 52% of the vote and had obtained victories in all but one of the provinces in Argentina. He also claimed victory over 28 out of 30 seats in the Argentina senate and also a 2/3rd majority in the house of deputies…..Thus Juan Domingo Peron was elected president of Argentina with Eva Maria Duarte de Peron as first lady. Straight away Peron chose a cabinet, it mainly reflected all the views left and right within the Peronist movement but he also chose some minister’s who were loyal to him such as Domingo Mercante and Eva’s brother Juan despite the fact that the latter had no experience in politics whatsoever and had spent the last decade as a soap salesman, he was chosen simply because he had helped Peron and Eva during October. This increased Eva’s position within the government as Juan effectively decided who could see or who could not see Peron on a day to day basis…..Thus Eva clearly had influence over him (1).

At Peron’s ingurgitation, a photo was taken of Eva seated beside a Cardinal with one of the shoulders of her dress been pulled down to reveal her shoulder….A few days later a popular stage actress wore the same dress Evita had worn, and was photographed with a bird called “the cardinal” on her shoulder for a magazine (1). At age 27 Evita set out to do a year of labor and welfare to try and prove that the title of First lady which had until then been mainly a ceremonial title actually meant something (2). She was soon named “Queen of labor” in Argentina and by 1947 she was meeting with twenty-six labor delegations in one day (2). Anti-Peronist opposition accused her of having to much power within the government and of effecting the Argentina economy and education system with her idea’s (2) .Although some of these claims could be excharagted as they were against Peron in the first place so a snub at his wife who was conveniently lower class aswell would never go amiss. Eva also visited factories and gave union leaders and other politicians instructions on how to run things (2). Peron meanwhile was busy with his scheme of “the new Argentina.” (1). He promised to give unions more rights, improve welfare and nationalize British railways in Argentina along with other industries effectively creating the first welfare state in Argentina.
Meanwhile Eva had met a new friend called Lillian Guardo; who Eva would require to sit in her office while she talked with union leaders, Lillian liked Evita but eventually got tired of having to be in her office every day that Evita worked (three days a week) and also having to have phone conversations with her each morning. Eventually she complained to Peron about this explaing that she had four children at home who she needed to take care of, and Peron asked Evita to do less work at the office so that Lillian could work at home, but Eva got board of this and once again would send for Lillian to entertain her. …Soon Lillian would work with Eva all but weekends which she would spend with her family (1). At the sametime, Eva was put in charge of a pro-Peronist newspaper called “Democracia” which relied on funding from the recently nationalized (by Peron) central-bank. However Eva did not have a lot of say over the contents of this newspaper, and by the time it had hired it’s editor’s and writers her role was mainly figurative.
Some of her speeches appeared in it along with those of her husbands and one or two of her suggestions were taken up by the paper but overall she had very little to do with the paper (1 & 2).
This was one of the few Pro-Peron media outlooks at that time with the majority of the press been set against Peron prior to, during and after the election (1). It was through this outlook that Evita acquired the title “the lady of hope” or in Spanish “La Dama de la Esperanza” (2). The opposition were so opposed to Evita’s increasing role in Peron’s government that they suggested the legalization of a bill which prohibited women from getting involved with their husband’s prerogatives and duties this could only bee seen as a reference to Eva’s apparent power (1) . Eva meanwhile was hoping that she would get an invitation from the aristocratic charity society the “sociedad de Benfcienca.” However this invitation never came, the society telling her that she was to young to become it’s president (most first lady’s became the president of the charity) Eva sarcastically replied to this that perhaps her mother would do instead. This society would later be closed in September of 1946……Eva’s detractor’s say she had it closed down out of bitterness for not been given an invitation to be it’s president…This would be a fair argument except the other reason is that Eva wanted a headquarters for what would eventually be her own charity plans, which will be referred to later (2).

Nicholas Frasier and Marysa Navarro suggest that, it was more out of political then personal reasons why Peron let Evita have all this power within his government in the first place….Peron did not have full control of his main supporters the labor movement who continued to strike and protest right through 1946 even after he was elected, in Evita, Peron had a constant source of propaganda that could be used to benefit him.
As a woman who was not expected to have much power, Eva could say what she liked and often act how she liked, while Peron while he was generally allowed a lot of freedom to say what he would, could not go past certain conventions and thus Eva was a useful tool for him (1).

In February of 1947 a rumor circulated in Evita’s newspaper that she would be going on a visit to Europe.
The next month Peron’s government excepted an invitation from General Franscio Franco, dictator of Spain for Evita to visit, the next month it was decided that she would go to Italy as well and after that France.
This tour originated when Franco sent an invitation to Peron to visit him in Spain, as Franco and Spain were politically isolated by the rest of the world after WWII and only had good relations with Argentina.
However Peron did not find it prudent to go as that year he had started to improve relations with the USSR and the US and get Argentina involved in the UN, so a visit to Fascist controlled Spain would put his government under a lot of pressure. When she realized her husband would not accept the invitation Eva decided that she would. To make the trip appear more innocent and not just related to Spain other countries as previously mentioned like Italy and France were added to the list of places for the tour. It was decided that Lillian Guardo would accompany Evita on the trip to Europe (1).
Lillian would later state that Evita telephoned Buenos Aires twice daily while in Europe.
One call to Peron and the other to the Argentina national congress “there she mobilized all the ministers and officials, who were waiting for her call, from whom she demanded details of the government and to whom she gave specific orders.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman.” By J. M. Taylor, p. 43, the university of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979.) (2). The tour would be referred to as the “rainbow tour.” (3).

On the 6th of June 1947, Eva left Buenos Aires for Spain along with Lillian Guardo, her brother Juan, a script writer named Franscio Munoz Azpiri (who had written the radio series “famous women” which Eva had stared in.) Some maids and two Spanish diplomats sent by Franco to Argentina to accompany Eva and her group to Madrid….(1) with 500,000 Argentines saying goodbye to Evita as she left for Europe (2). They took a plain to Madrid because the Argentine navy refused Eva one of their ships (2). That night on the plain to Spain, Eva wrote a letter to Peron confessing her truest love for him and warning him against those in government who might try and corrupt him, she also mentioned for the first time to Peron (in the letter) that she left Junín at the age of thirteen (although it was fifteen) and told him that encase of something happening to her abroad he must give 1,000 Paso’s (Argentine currency) to her mother. General Franco, his wife and his entire cabinet met Evita as she landed at the airport, he kissed her hand and brought her into Madrid with him in a limacine. The next day Eva made a speech in front of thousands of Spanish worker’s who had been given the day off as a public holiday by Franco, during the speech, Eva (rather carelessly) chose to wave one of her hands above her head which the mainstream press of the world described as a “fascist salute” however it was simply her waving her hand over her head.
Eva spent 15 days in Spain and during that time handed out notes of money to impovished children.
According to Joseph A. Page, in the notes section of his introduction to “in my own words” the people of Spain were also expressing gratitude to Peron who had sent shipments of food to Spain to help it through it’s post-WWII period as the rest of the world viewed it as having ties to the Axis power’s.
He does not mention if this “gratitude” was directly said to Evita or not while she was in Spain (3).
However it appears the Spanish people were pleased to see her after having to put up with Franco for years, to see the first lady of Argentina interning their country was welcomed. Even the American ambassador to Spain begrudging said of Eva’s visit that it was “something of a triumph.” He then added that “she carried out a difficult task with poise and intelligence.” (3) (“Evita: in my own words” by Eva Peron and Professor Joseph A. Page, p, 13, the new press, July 14th, 2005).
The best Franco got from the visit was a boat load of Argentina wheat, while he was hoping Eva would give him a financial lone for the Spanish economy….When he suggested to her that he had enough wheat already so much he didn’t know what to do with it, she apparently replied that he should use it to make bread (1).

Eva then left Spain and proceeded on her next leg of the European tour
Eva was already by this stage a controversial figure in Europe,
Socialist and communist groups in Italy and France protested her presents in their countries.
And the Labour government in charge in England was split down the middle, the moderates felt that she should be welcomed to England as a guest but the leftwing of the party, who remembered the Spanish civil-war felt that she shouldn’t be welcomed. In the end no descions was made about Eva going to England,
Because Eva had wanted to go to Buchannan palace to have tea with the Queen, which the British assured the Argentine government would happen. However Eva and her company intended to arrive two weeks later then expected and by this time the Queen was holidaying in Scotland, thus Eva got the view that she was not welcome and a trip to England fell off the cards, so she went to Italy (1).

One night while Eva was in Italy a group of Italian communists stood outside her window shouting “fascist!” And trying to discredit her presents in Italy, at the other side of the window a group of workers who called themselves socialists started to shout (in support of her) “Eva Peron!” 27 people were arrested, and the next day when Eva was asked by a reporter what she made of the demonstrations outside her window, she simply pointed to the window where a crowd had gathered and had started cheering her name.
She then insisted that she was still not interested in politics, but said that red was her favourite colour.
When a reporter suggested that this might show a small bit of a political slant, she appeared embarrassed and said it didn’t. She also met with Pope Pius XVI and was granted 20 minutes with him which is usually the time allocated to Queens (1). Eva’s next stop was in Lisbon despite the fact that she was warned it might look offensive to Franco, but she simply replied “I go where I like…And if Fatty doesn’t like it that’s too bad.” (“Eva Peron.” By Nicolas Frasier and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st 1996.) She next went to Paris and her arrival coincided with that of the Tour de France, she was shown around the city and took a ride in a car used by General De Gaul and Churchill when the latter came on trips to Paris. Her last stop in Europe was to Switzerland, the anti-Peronist opposition assumed that the entire point of the trip to Europe was to put money for her and her brother into a bank account in Switzerland (1) however as Professor Joseph A. Page; points out “no such funds have ever surfaced.” (“Evita: in my own words.” by Eva Peron and Professor Joseph A. Page p, 46, The New press, July 14th 2005.) (3). Besides if Eva intended to open these mythic bank accounts in Switzerland she probably wouldn’t have wanted that much attention over there, but got it, she was photographed with the Swiss minister for foreign affairs, so it’s probably safe to assume that there never was a bank account in the name of Eva Peron…..(1).

She then went to Brazil where she attended several banquets, was praised by the Brazilian crowd,
And healed a press conference that was much more successful then the one she healed in Rome.
She then met 200 Peronist official’s and Labor leaders who had come to Brazil to help welcome her home.
Then she boarded a ship to Buenos Aires, thus ending her tour. The trip to Europe failed to gain much sympathy from the Europeans (espically the leftwing) for Peronist Argentina, and many Europeans felt that Peron and Eva were merely trying to resurrect an ideology that had burnt it’s course in Europe (fascism), but in a farcical and theatrical manner. Whenever something positive was said it was usually a journalist or two trying to draw a distinct line between Eva and Peron’s “fascist” government, many journalists been attracted by the glimmer of Evita but been horrified of her husband’s operant belief system. At home the opposition to Peron criticized the cost of the trip and in response the government threatened to close their newspapers and indeed carried out these threats in two cases…..This probably did not help Peron shake off the image that he was another Mussolini or worse Hitler (1).

Eva is often accused of having so much political power (which started at around 1947-1948 when she returned from Europe) through her own selfish motivations and vindictiveness….However this is not the case according to Frasier and Navarro; who claim that she only worked within the margins that her husband had achieved in his “new Argentina.” She never went outside Peron’s rules and regulations so her power was not simply a personal and spiteful vendetta (1). Frasier and Navarro go on to say that to fully understand Eva’s political and social role in Argentina we must first understand that of her husbands and the new Argentina he had apparently created.

Peron’s Argentina was complex to say the least….
On the one hand Peron had managed to bring to Argentina a working democracy, as most of the governments from 1927 onwards were elected through voting fraud and could not be called democratic in the strictest sense of the word…There were no concentration camps in Peron’s Argentina, and leaders of the opposition could freely speak with foreign visitor’s to Argentina….However the opposition felt unessay.
They were constantly afraid that Peron was behind closed doors setting up a fascist dictatorship.
Congress was still allowed sit but it didn’t have any real power, with the real power of the regime lying elsewhere. Those members of congress who complained about this, would find themselves attacked in the streets. In early 1946, Peron broke up the Argentina Labor party and then created a party which he referred to as “the only legal party of the revolution” tecqnueilly rendering all other parties obsolete and creating a one party state. Peron next moved to control the CGT (Pro-Peron union), he told the head of this union named Gay, that his work would now have to be examined by a special government team, Gay refused this, and turned to a group of American union leaders from the IVO union who had come to visit Argentina, he attempted to win them over on his side, and visited them in their hotel room to discuss things, except Peron had the hotel room bugged…And the next morning was able to say to Gay “look you resign or else I’ll break your neck.” Gay resigned and after a series of threats on his life, he left Argentina. By 1948 most of the CGT staff were replaced, anarchists and socialists were no longer strong within the unions like they were in 1943 and the new heads of the CGT were all pro-Peron in nature……Newspapers that disagreed with the regime often found themselves been visited by “safety inspectors” who would complain about a lack of safety standards for the worker’s (this happened to a highly conservative newspaper which criticized Peron) and then would find their weekly columns disappearing. In 1948 the socialist party’s newspaper was shut down after it wrote an article accusing Peron’s social-reforms of just been “window dressing.” The pretext for its closure was that, it was keeping people awake at night by the noises of its printing presses and trucks. Interestingly enough the socialist party itself was never closed down. But in 1950 Peron could still claim to a group of foreign journalists that the Argentine media was free and that it had no censorship
This was partly true, there were no censors for the newspapers like there were before Peron took office, however he did not have the same defention of free journalism as western journalists did (1).

At the sametime that these limitations on freedom were been made, more democratic laws were been passed at the sametime. This gave people the view that Peron was at once a dictator and a democratic reformer.
In 1947 the Argentina congress passed a bill granting women for the first time in Argentine history the right to vote, Evita is often credited with been the mastermind behind this bill, but her role was minimum at the most, she made speeches in her paper about how women should have the right to vote, but she did not have a say on weather the bill was passed or not (1). There was then a celebration outside the Casa Rosado, and then Peron signed the bill in public, and then handed it to Evita making “hers” and she also gained a substantial amount of female supporters now. Peron’s next step at increasing his power was to try and amend the Argentine constitution; espically article 77, which prohibited a president from serving another six years in office after his first term, in protest of this the radical party (one of the opposition parties) stormed out of congress and left for an entire month, when they returned, Peron had won a 2/3rd congress majority to amend the constitution. Peron insisted in congress that he did not change the constitution espically for article 77 but no-one believed this as Evita started to speak against the article and what it meant in her speeches (1).

On the 20th of July 1949, 6,000 Peronist’s met in the Lunar Park stadium. After listing to a speech by Peron, the women of the Peronist movement went next door to the Cervantes theatre where they listened to a long speech by Eva who told them that she intended to make a female Peronist political party that would be headed by her. She spoke of the hardship of working of women, and then said that they must all show complete loyalty to Peron at all times. So it is that the first female political party in Argentine history was born, which was in the shadow of Peron but also separate from him, which Evita made perfectly clear (1).
There was very little room in the party for anyone who was not a complete loyalist to Peron, and some of the more intelligent people who realized this left (1). She also controlled several government organs which she gained influence over from mid 1948-1949 (2). Evita did not care much for women’s rights, and her views on feminism were those of her husbands, which were the standard views of an Argentine male. However, Evita did accomplish something with this female party, she for the first time in Argentine history, got women who had never had a chance in the political field before, into politics (1). Hardly any event went by that year without Evita been involved in it somehow, weather it be the opening of a new monument or a Swmming pool, she would be there. If a company tried to produce a new product it would require sponshership from Evita (thus government approval) Argentine sportsmen had to be photographed with her when they retuned to the country after sporting events. Evita was also written into the events of the 17th of October (1945) becoming a strong protagonist and loyalist who helped reunite Peron and the people of Argentina…..from 1946, onwards Argentina would celebrate the events of the 17th of October and there would be songs played about Peron and Evita, then the workers would reenact the taking of Buenos Aires.
While these events were to un-organized to be a fascist march, they were in part used to threaten and scare the enemies of the Peronist regime…..By 1948, Evita had acquired a good skill for emotional speech making, beforehand she had spoke in a dull matonatmus tone, but now her speeches were full of emotion, even her detractors would walk away from them feeling some of the emotion she had used during the speech (1). She often praised Peron in these speeches and spoke of him as the ‘only source of light’ in their political movement “we all feed from his light” she would go on to say (1). (“Eva Peron”. By Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st 1996.) Her opponents stated that her words were empty and she simply made these speeches for political gain, or because she was un-educated and could not think of anything articulate to say….But the truth is she worshiped Peron, and thus wanted to serve him, and thought that by saying these things, she was portraying a positive image of him….in return Peron was quoted of saying of Evita that she was “a product of mine.” (3) (“Evita: in my own words.” By Eva Peron and Professor Joseph A. Page, p, 15, the new press, July 14th, 2005.)
Within four days of the creation of the female Peronist party, the female members voted Eva as their president by popular demand (2). In the 1952 election, the female wing of the Peronist party would win Peron 63% of their vote (1) and for the first time in the world there was a female congressional president (2).

Evita then started to work on her charity work; she started to ship goods abroad to post-WWII Europe (2).
A process which started in November of 1947 (2). The “Eva Peron foundation.” Was not in the strictest sense a charity, and it was not a method of taking from the rich and giving to the poor, nor was it a covert method of despoting money in a “swiss bank account.” Though all of these theories/accusations have been suggested (1). What it was instead was a blueprint for the Peronist state, although this was not it’s original intention (1). The best way to think of it is, to consider it to be part of Evita’s personality and a response to the poverty she encountered everyday in her office, as it grew it’s needs changed and it grew into a welfare organization (1). Charity in Argentina up to Peron’s election in 1946 was mainly carried out by 87 ageing women who would inspect orphanages and look after the sick, Fraser and Navarro; say that the society was no doubt effective but by 1939 problems had started to emerge within it, workers were only granted one day off a week and had to work 12 to 14 hours a day (1). These 87 women were the leaders of the “sociedad de Benfcienca.” Which was previously mentioned (1 & 2). Another huge problem was that, children were forced to have their heads shaved and were blue frocks by the society, young women would earn their keep by knitting clothes for the oligarchy, at Christmas time each year, the children of the society would have their heads shaved and would be sent out into the streets to try and collect money from the public (out of pity – for they would also be wearing dark and worn clothing) for the society. Possibly the worst and most humiliating thing the society did to it’s children was, once every year it would bring them to the Argentine opera house and make them sit on the stage facing outwards in front of their “social betters” and benefactors
Then they would all individually be handed sheets of paper with encouraging and sometimes patronizing remarks on them and would be told to accept the consequences of fate (in other words, accept that they would remain poor.), in 1945 Peron attended one of these events and it is unlikely that he attained much pleasure from it, Evita did not go with him (it was not an event you could bring your mistress to – the two weren’t married at that stage.) and she most definitely would not get any pleasure from the event.
Thus it was decided in 1946, that there was no place for the society in “the new Argentina” and that it should be closed down, and then a new charity would be needed, this is where Evita stepped in (1). The anti-Peronist’s objected strongly to the suppression of the society, but the Peronist government said that it was closing it on the grounds, that it was nothing but an excuse for the upper-classes to ease their consincounes and that it was a good excuse to hold expensive ‘charity’ balls (2).
Evita’s work started with distributing gifts alongside her husband to the poor, then she realized the significant of this and started to do it more, she would use Peron’s personal chauffeur to help deliver food and other products and would also get him to help package material, according to him, in her enthusiasm to help she would often spill the sugar they intended in distributing (1).

By 1948, she was receiving 12,000 letters a day asking for help,
She had the means to assist some of these 12,000 people because the minister for finance in Peron’s government had now given her some funds for her work, but her only means of disturbing goods was Peron’s chauffer. On the 8th of July 1948 the Eva Peron foundation was created and signed into legality by Peron and another of his ministers (it was originally called the Maria, Eva Duarte Peron foundation, then changed) (1).
It started off with a substantial amount of money to work on (10,000 pesos) which came via a check made out by Eva herself to the foundation. Among it’s goals were to achieve houses for those who needed (and deserved) them, better hospitals and to provide people with tools for improving their own life’s should they request them (1). The unions eventually voted to give the foundation, two days worth of worker’s pay every year to help fund it, also a government decree gave it 20% of the national lottery as funding (3). The former Minister for finance and General agent and administrator of the foundation Ramon Cereijo later said of those who donated to the foundation “ the majority of those who personally brought an important donation came only to be photographed with the Senora (Evita) they did it purely to polish apples or to exploit their pretended connections with the government” (2). (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman”, by J. M. Taylor, p, 48, the university of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979).
It employed 14,000 workers, of which 6,000 of these were construction workers and 26 priests (1). Eva would insist that the foundations over all goal was not to achieve philanthropy status but was to achieve social justice which was one of the main goals of Peronism (3). In 1955 after Peron had been ousted from power, a commission was set up which offered to hear complains of corruption attributed to Evita’s foundation, during this time only one case was brought forward that of a carpenter, and the case was dismissed against him (1). However as Fraser and Navarro point out, this might not mean a lot in itself as there were other alleged cases, were the foundation forced business and factories to hand over goods to it (1) any organization that did not comply with this (like the sweet factory moomooo) was shut down (1), Fraser and Navarro; also point out that some of the people who may have had to by force give products to the foundation may have chose to forget that they had to do so, (as they received gifts in return for giving products away) this might explain why only one case was brought to the commission in 1955 (1). Evita never kept track of the accounts herself and said that money belonged to the cold world of capitalism and had no place in her organization, a co-worker of Evita’s in the foundation said that she had no experience with money whatsoever (1). However this is not to say that the foundation was badly organized or managed, as the minister for fiancé counter signed every check that passed through the foundation and monitored them, as he was required to do by law (1). Despite the above suggestion that some were forced into giving to the foundation, a lot of people (e.g. the unions) gave willingly to it (1). By now in Argentina the cult of personality had taken hold and Peron was referred to as the “great conductor” (3). Through the foundation Evita gained the title of “lady bountiful” (3).

One observer who saw Eva at work in her foundation said that she looked “too tin” and was working herself to death (1). Rich, poor, middle class, working class and refuges would visit the foundation to ask favors of Eva or to donate to her cause (1). She would listen to all sorts of requests, requests to make films, requests to become teachers, complaints against the abuse of power, requests for large homes, etc, etc. She would listen attentively for hours and often work till long after nightfall (1). According to some of those who asked for help from Evita, she would treat them as individuals and equals, not treat them in the cold burrocratic way of a burrocrat (1). The visit to Evita was actually unesscary as anything the poor wanted they could have requested from social-workers, this infact happened after they went to Evita. What Evita did was to make the experience a little more human then burrocratic (1). In her speeches Eva now spoke of her outrage against poverty and eventually became a fanatic who had no regard for herself and only lived to combat poverty (1). Evita’s foundation also created soccer tournaments for poor Argentine children, thanks to the foundation hundreds of thousands of children were able to participate in a tournament (that Evita’s foundation also created) called the “Juvenile championship tournament” (2). Eva also made a generous donation to the poor of Washington D.C. which infuriated Americans (2). A part of Eva’s charity work (which she decided to do voluntarily) was to kiss lepers and people with cephalous (1) once, a poet who was with her during her working hours saw her bend towards a woman with cephalous and he attempted to throw himself in the way, but Eva brushed him aside and later told him to never do that again, because this was the price she had to pay (3). Evita also oversaw the construction of 12 new hospitals the 2 main ones been named after Peron and herself and located in Buenos Aires (1), Argentine healthcare up till then was twofold with private healthcare been good for those who could afford it and public healthcare been less efficient for those who couldn’t afford it (1), Evita decided to improve the healthcare system and even go so far as to make it competitive with international healthcare (1). The best doctor’s worked at these hospitals and were highly paid (1), by 1951 the hospital that was named after Peron, was able to send a train around Argentina delivering free X-rays and free medical drugs (1). The foundation also helped out after a series of earthquakes in Colombia, Peru and even as far as Turkey (1). The foundation also built and operated 4 nursing homes and created over 1,000 schools in the poorest areas of Argentina (which it then handed over to the state) (1). It also built a city for children and one for university students which had a complete replica of the Casa Rosado (1).

In 1950 during the opening of a pro-Peronist taxi-drivers union, Evita fainted and had to be rushed to hospital wherein her appendix was removed (1). During her stay in the hospital a doctor (Oscar Evannisavich – who was also minister of education) performed a series of tests on her and discovered that she was suffering from cancer of the uranium (1). Evita had agreed to the tests, but when he suggested treatment for the cancer she snapped at him, and accused him of wanting her out of politics (1). Despite this revelation, Evita continued to work and took up a leading role in Argentinean foreign affairs (2).
However by now everyone knew Evita was sick (1) and Peron himself said that her sudden death in 1952 came after a desire to destroy herself due to overwork (1) – strange statements coming from a man who had married another woman in the 1930’s who died in 1938 of the same cancer that Eva would die of (1).
Peron; wrote of the years 1950-1951 “in every real sense I had lost my wife….We saw eachother only occasionally and then only very briefly as if we lived in different cites…..Eva would work all night for many nights and then come back at dawn, I used to leave the residence at 6;00 in the morning to go to the Casa Rosado, I met her at the front door, exhausted but satisfied with her work…One day I said to her ‘Eva get some rest! Remember you are my wife’ and she replied to me ‘doing this makes me feel that I am your wife.’ (“Eva Peron.” By Nicolas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st, 1996.)
Peron insisted at the behest of Evita’s doctor’s that Eva spend long weekends at their country villa, she did this and would spend time there cooking and riding horses with Peron, however she was reluctant to go there and would spend most of the time on the telephone (1). Peron tried to counter this by having the wires cut, but Eva had them reconnected and hid the phone under a cousin so he could not hear it ring (1).
Eva would also take union leaders back to her and Peron’s house in Buenos Aires, early in the morning for breakfast then she would go up and sleep but only for 2 hours according to a union leader….Before she again rose for work (1).

At some stage in 1950 work began on an autobiography of Evita, which would be ghost-written by Penella de Silva (3) however the first draft was gotten rid of because Peron disliked it (1). The second draft had very little to do with Evita (1) and was more a presentation of a few of Peron’s speeches presented by her (Evita) (1) and written into the book by one of Peron’s speech writers (1). The book was entitled “My mission in life” (1 & 3) despite the fact that Evita approved of the second draft’s publication (1) she would later write about it “ recently in the hours of my illness I have thought often of this message in my heart. Perhaps because I didn’t manage to say all that I feel and think in My mission in life I have to write again.” (“Evita: in my own words.” By Eva Peron and Professor Joseph A. Page, p, 49, the new press, July 2005.) (3).

In 1951 the railway workers went on strike, demanding higher wages (1), Evita herself went in person to plead with the workers to quit the strike, which was encouraged by Peron’s political opposition (mainly socialists) (1), but they did not listen to her, when this failed, Peron cracked-down on the union, arrested hundreds of workers and suspended over 2,000 worker’s from their jobs (1). The oligarchy red newspaper “La Pernsa” which was internationally known wrote about the strike in great detail, in response for the paper’s criticism of Peron’s actions….Peron shut the paper down (1). This would be a huge mistake for him in 1951 as it would give his opposition an excuse to highlight the apparent lack of press freedom in “the new Argentina” (1). For the 1951 election Eva intended to run as Peron’s running mate for the post of vice-president, however the army who still had a somewhat conservative outlook were vermentaly opposed to this (1). Also Eva was getting sicker by the day, she would often get fevers and was looking increasingly frail (1). On the day that Peron went to accept the nomination to run again for president, the crowd shouted him down instead calling for Evita, and demanding that she accept the position of vice-president (1). Evita begged for four days to consider this demand but the crowd threatened to go on strike if she didn’t accept the nomination (1). She then asked for one day to decide but they refused (1).
Then she asked for one night but they refused (1), and then finally asked for simply 2 hours (1).
The CGT leadership then told the crowd they would wait outside all night for her answer, when she finally returned she did not give an answer but simply said that, in accordance with “General Peron” she would do what the people asked (1). However on the 31st of August 1951 at eight o’clock in the evening Eva renounced her vice-presidency offer (2) saying:

“I realize that I must not change my battle position in the Peronist movement for any other place…..This decision comes from the most intimate part of my conscience and for that reason is totally free and has all the force of my definite will.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman.” By J. M. Taylor, p, 61, the University of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979.) (2). Later she said:

“I do not have in these moments more then one ambition, a single and great personal ambition: that of me it shall be said…..That there was at the side of Peron a woman, who dedicated herself to carrying the hopes of the people to the President and that the people affectingly called this woman ‘Evita.’ That is what I want to be.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman.” By J. M. Taylor, p, 61, the University of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979.) (2). and finally as a reason for not taking up the vice-presidency nomination she said:

“On October 17th {1945} I formulated my own permanent vow, before my own conscience: to place myself entirely at the service of the descamisado’s {rough English translation = “The shirtless ones”} who are the humble and the workers. I had an almost infinite debt to pay to them {the worker’s protest to free Peron from jail}. I believe that I have done all that was in my power, to fulfil that vow and to pay that debt.”
(“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman.” By J. M. Taylor, p, 61, the University of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979.) (2). However this has not satisfied many observes (2) and probably the real reason why Evita did not accept the vice-presidency was because the military was completely opposed to the idea of a woman – espically ‘that woman’ been their commander and chief (3).

That evening after her speech renouncing the vice-president nomination, Evita fainted out of pain and exhaustion (1). In the fallowing weeks she suffered acute pains in her admen and was unable to resume her work (1), Peron and her doctor’s pleaded with her to allow a series of tests to be made on her (1). In mid September she eventually agreed to this and on September the 24th Peron was taken aside by a doctor and told that Evita was suffering from advanced cancer of the uterus, which could have dangerous side effects (1).
Peron was affected by this greatly, and new that Eva would most likely die in a lot of pain (1).
Eva was never told what her illness exactly was but to get her permission for tests she was told that she either had the choice of medical drugs or an operation (1). She chose the first option.
On the 28th of September while Evita was undergoing a blood transfusion (1), a (small) section of the military and navy attempted to overthrow Peron (1). However it was soon apparent that most of the army still supported the president and the CGT union still supported him, the workers of the CGT gathered in front of the Casa Rosado and Peron rallied them with a violent speech (1). It was intended that a plain would bomb the Casa Rosado while Peron was making his speech (1), but the pilot decided against the act as it would probably cause a large massacre of CGT workers aswell, so instead he flew his plain into Uruguay (1). The crowd noticed that Evita was not on the balcony of the Casa Rosado during Peron’s speech and demanded that she appear (1). Thus the Argentine information office was forced for the first time to disclose news about Evita’s sickness which it called “intense anima.” (1). Later that night Evita transmitted a speech on the radio thanking the people for defending Peron against the uprising (1). And the next day she told three members of the executive commute of the CGT, to organize machine-pistols and other weapons encase another uprising would occur against Peron and his follower’s in the future (1).
Evita was able to get out of bed on the 8th of October to celebrate Peron’s birthday (1) but she could not attend the release of her autobiography on the same night (1).
The book was very popular and one bookstore alone sold 15,000 copies in one day (1).
On the 17th of October, she was again able to leave her bed to attend the celebration of the day, where Peron had been freed; however she was so weak that Peron had to hold her by the waist when she attempted to stand (2). She recvied two medal’s one from the CGT union for her annunciation of the vice-presidency and one from Peron for her role in the Peronist movement (1).
At the end of the event the day was changed from “San Peron day” to “Santa Evita day” (2).
Peron also gave a speech praising Evita for her loyalty and intelligence that she showed towards him in her work (1) Evita had never received such praise from Peron and at the end of his speech she fell towards him, hugging him and kissing him as the crowd watched in silence “with a lump in it’s throat” according to Fraser and Navarro (1). Evita took to her bed again after this speech, but shortly before Peron’s second term presidential election she made two speeches on the radio one in support of unions and the other’s urging female Peronist’s to vote in the election (1).

In the next two weeks, Eva underwent two operations one performed by the North-American cancer expert George Pack who’s intervention was secret and the other was supervised by Ricardo Finochietto world-famous Argentine surgeon (2). On the 9th of November the Argentine election council with support from the opposition parties, passed a decree permitting Evita to vote from her hospital bed (November 9th was the last day in the campaign for re-election) (1). On the 11th of November she voted from her hospital bed (1). On the day that Evita had entered the hospital (3rd of November) a bomb was thrown at some glass that surrounded a publishing house, the intended target of the bomb was a copy of “My mission in life” Eva’s autobiography (3). Eva had a well furnished room in the hospital (1) and a balcony which looked out into the grounds (1) where her supporters stood outside offering prayers to her (1). On day’s when she felt better she would go out and speak with them (1). Peron ate dinner in the hospital and sometimes watched films with Evita when she was physically able to (1). Peron was re-elected president and most of the votes for him came from the female section of the Peronist movement that Evita had created (1). By January Eva was able to get out of bed and even took a trip with Peron on the Peronist yott (1) but by February of 1952 she was complaing of pains again (1). This time there was little that could be done (1). Her speeches also became more violent in her last months and made references to the afterlife (1). She also picked up a strong hatred for the world of capitalism and imperialism (3). “Imperialism…! Peron and our people have happened upon the shame of capitalist imperialism. I have seen it’s miseries and it’s crimes up close. It calls itself a defender of justice as it extends its hawklike talons over the goods of all the people subjected to it’s omnipotence.
It proclaims itself the defender of freedom as it shackles the people who in good faith or bad must accept its unappeasable demands.” (“Evita: in my own words.” By Eva Peron and Professor Joseph A. Page, p, 62, the new press, July 14th 2005) (3). In May she managed to get out of bed and made two speeches, one addressed to her people from the balcony of Casa Rosado, attacking Peron’s enemies (1) and the other to a meeting of Peronist governors where she also attacked Peron’s enemies (1). On the 4th of June 1952 she attended Peron’s inauguration ceremony but she could only stand with the support of a wireframe that was attached to her, underneath her clothes, and also a triple dose of pain-killers (1).
Among anti-Peronist’s and the foreign press, Evita’s illness was seen as a physiological reaction to the fact that she had failed to become vice-president (1). However when this theory was proven wrong, (when they realized that she was not recovering) a new theory sprang up that said, that Peron was using Evita’s illness as a desperate attempt to cling onto political power and that if Evita died the Peronist dictatorship would crumble away (1). Meanwhile the pro-Peronist’s rallied around Evita like a saint and healed masses in her name (1). The Argentine congress in a special sitting gave Evita the title of “spiritual leader of the nation” as her health diminished even more (1). By now she knew that she had very little time to live, although those around her such as senators and union leaders tried to convince her otherwise, despite this she told them that she knew they were lying to her (1). During her last weeks (when she was conscious) she began to write a book called “My message” which was never completed (1 & 2), this book was thought lost but it would show up in 1987 (1 & 3) Fraser and Navarro speculate that the book is mainly a few of Evita’s speeches that attack the army and Peron’s enemies (1). Their partly right in this as Eva does attack the military or the “high circles” which is what she refers to them as but she also insists that she wants to “save” them and put them on the road of humanity which is the future of mankind (3). The book also attacks capitalism, and religion (3). Although Eva insists that she does not believe “like Lenin” that religion is the opium of the masses but instead should be used as a force for good (3) however it is constantly mixed with politics and becomes bad (3). She also wrote a will (1) which began in an aposiopetic tone talking about how Eva wanted to live forever with Peron and with her people (1) and then going on to discuss the donation of her possessions (1).

Her Jewelry was to be given back to the people, who Eva said gave it to her in the first place, and a fund was to be set up to help the poor in the case of emergency’s, where poor families would receive 1 year’s worth of income from the fund (1). She also asked the people to keep writing to her like they did in her lifetime (1), and wished that the monument that the Argentine congress was trying to build {a monument that was originally to highlight the worker’s role in the 17th of October, but when it was learent that Evita was dying, was going to be dedicated to her instead and possibly used as her tomb} to combine the hopes of all Argentine’s and convert them into a reality through her foundation (1). The foundation she requested was to become part of the CGT which would administer it’s assets among the people (1). If this wish had ever been obeyed after Evita’s death, it would have fulfilled her overall wish to continue to help the poor (1).
She also asked Peron to give 3,000 Paso’s to her mother and to look after her when she (Evita) was dead (1).
On the 18th of July at 3pm Evita went into a coma but at midnight she woke again and saw her family and doctor’s around her and said “what has happened to me? I have to get out of bed…If I don’t I will die!” (“Eva Peron”. By Nicolas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st, 1996.)
And she managed to get out of bed and walk a few steps, with support from Peron (1).
On the 25th of July two cancer specialists were flown in from Germany to Buenos Aires, but they simply told Peron that nothing could be done to help Evita (1). On the 26th of July at 11am she fell into another coma and at 3pm a priest gave her the last sacraments (1). Throughout the day, radio report’s updated on the first lady’s health, stating that it was slowly getting worse, and at 8pm that it was critical (1).
At her bedside were Peron, her family and members of Peron’s government (1). Eva Peron, spiritual leader of the nation passed into immortality at 8:25pm (1) at the age of 33 (1). One minute later the secretariat of information told the people of Argentina that Evita was dead (1), cinema’s, business and factories shut (although this was un-planned) and the nation fell into morning (1). Two hours later Dr. Pedro Ara a well known Spanish embalmer began work on the task of embalming Evita’s corpse (2). Something that had been decided upon by Peron and other CGT members before her death (1). The body was to be put on display the next day (1 & 2) and Peron had made arrangements for her body to be buried in the convent of San Franscio (2) however he was eventually persuaded by a CGT partition to let her body be put on display in the CGT headquarters until the monument that would be dedicated to her was completed (2). The government suspended all official activity for two days and the CGT called a two day general strike except in the most essential areas of work (1), Eva’s body was embalmed and placed in a coffin with an Argentine flag draped over it (1). When her body was moved from the residence to the ministry 8 people were killed in the crush (1). When the 3 day’s had passed, that the government had set aside for people to see the corpse of Evita, it became apparent that not everyone had wished to see the body had seen it (1) so the government extended the period indefinitely (1). Even the strongest critics of Peronism, admitted that, the intense morning after Evita’s death was not cohesion from Juan Peron but real grief for the death of the first lady (1).
On the 9th of August, Evita’s coffin was carried by union members to the house of congress where the blessing that were accustomed for heads of state were given to her (1). As the days went on Eva’s foundation and other healthcare services provided food, blankets and stretchers as people lined up to see Eva’s body (2) seeing the number of files Peron turned to Raúl Apold {a member of Peron’s government, who announced Eva’s death on July 26th } (1) and said “I never knew they loved her so much. I never knew they loved her so.” (“Eva Peron: the myths of a woman.” By J. M. Taylor, p, 65, the University of Chicago press, February 1981- paperback version/original 1979.) (2). While these public processions and tributes were going on Dr. Ara continued to work on the permanent preservation of Evita’s body (1).
His memoirs suggest according to Fraser and Navarro, that he was a man who was obsessed with his work and considered the preservation of Evita’s body to be his greatest achievement (1). He would often stay in his office in Buenos Aires, and make notes and consult books, and then go and check on his project (Eva’s corpse) (1). The entire process of preservation took a year (1). While this was going on, debates were been raised about the suggested monument, a committee was set up to try and organize it’s building, but they couldn’t decide weather a statue of a worker or a statue of Evita should be on top of it (1). Hence for the present Eva had no ‘final resting place’ so her body remained property of Dr. Ara and the CGT union (1).
A chapel like antechamber was created opposite Ara’s office (1) where Evita’s family and some of her closes associates could come and see the body and pray, Peron was given personal access to the chamber but he only saw the body three times (1). On his first visit to her body, he wished to touch her face but was afraid that doing so would ruin the embalmment (1) however Ara told him that it was perfectly safe to do so (1).

A month after Evita’s death a newspaper put forward the suggestion that she should be canonized (1) however this was not taken seriously by the Vatican (1). Someone then suggested that they saw Evita’s face in the moon (1) and after this several mysterious sightings were apparently seen of the first lady (1).
Or “the lady” as her supporters and opponents sometimes called her (3). Peron was effected by Evita’s death, he would often seem sad or grotesquely depressed (1) and once even took to riding through the Argentine streets on a motorbike wearing a baseball cap followed by a large procession of bikes (1).
His enemies also said {although this might be exaggerated or made up} that he converted his weekend villa into a children’s playground and spent his weekends stuffing his pockets with Argentine Paso’s and getting little girls to pull them out (1). In the 1940’s Argentina had not been a police state despite what the opposition claimed but by the mid 1950’s it was (1), Peron jailed his enemies without reason and his secret police practiced torture on descanters (1). Torture had been used in Argentine politics prior to Peron and would be used a lot more after him, his contribution to it was to make it a normal part of police proseeger (1). This only added to a rapid decrees in his popularity (inflation and corruption been two other key reasons) (1). In 1953 Eva’s brother, Juan Duarte was found dead in his office (3) he had apparently committed suicide (1 & 3) after it was rumored that was dealing beef on the Argentine black-market, and Peron had ordered an investigation into this (1).

Peron’s government was overthrown in 1955 in a military coup, after he had started to persecute the Catholic Church (the one institution which until then had escaped his clutches) (1), Peron went aboard a gunboat and escaped to Uruguay (1) Peron could have crushed the uprising if he wanted to with the remainder of the army who were loyal to him but he did not want to plunge Argentina into a civil-war (1).
Remarkably during the bombs that were dropped in the up-rising Evita’s body was not damaged (1), as the CGT healed onto it (1). Ara continued to supervise the body in the days following the anti-Peron revolt (1).
The new military junta that replaced Peron, soon jailed almost all of his followers (1) and placed the CGT and it’s leadership under the control of an army officer (1). The new government tried to insist that Evita’s body was a fake despite the documentary evidence produced by Ara (1) however he eventually convinced them it was real (1). Soon the Peronist party was outlawed and anyone seen with photo’s of Juan or Eva Peron was liable to be jailed (1), now that the Junta knew the body was real they had the problem of deciding what to do with it (1) they asked Ara about possibly destroying it but he insisted that he would not help them with this (1). Eventually they decided to get rid of the body, and instructed Ara to help them, they arrived at the CGT headquarters one midnight and put the body in a coffin with the help of four workers who happened to be in the building and then loaded the coffin onto a waiting truck (2). Then it was moved to the information service and stored secretly in a box saying “radio equipment.” (2). It was not discovered until June 8th 1956 by Colonel Mario Cabanillas the new director of the information service who was looking through the contents of the boxes in the edifice (2). In 1957 it was decided that the body should leave the country (1) and a bearded Italian priest showed up mysteriously in Argentina to take it away with him, (1) to disguise this plot several coffins were created and shipped off to Argentine embassy’s in Germany, Italy and Belgium (1) anyone who was obsessively curious about Evita’s body would then naturally assumes that one of these coffins contained it when infact it didn’t (1). The priest took poison of the body and six weeks later came back to Buenos Aires with instructions in a note giving details about the body’s actual whereabouts (1), this note was not to be opened until the current president had died (which would not be until 1970) and then the next president would receive the note and do whatever he wanted with it (1). On the 4th of July 1956, the military junta passed a decree which transferred all of Evita’s foundation’s assets into the government treasury effectively ending the foundation (1). This was done on the pretext that the foundation had been used for political corruption, despite the fact that a government commission was set up to find political corruption within the organization and it found none (1). Evita’s jewel’s were sold by the government and ended up in the hands of the oligarchy (1). The press now ‘liberated’ celebrated it’s freedom by writing several damming peaces about Peron but espically about Evita (1) they inverted all the ridicules virtues that had been attributed to her with just as ridicules vices (1). Anything Evita achieved was either not mentioned or it was thought that a robot did it instead (1) (first put forward by a socialist writer). In other accounts she was seen as a one dimensional third rate actress, who hated the rich because she was poor and sexually humiliated men to get revenge on them (for been illagiement) the only reason she had tolerated Peron was because he was ‘soft’ and had pandered to her every wish as she manipulated him to gain power (1).
Each year at the anniversary of her birthday, flowers would be left on the monument dedicated to Evita by Peronist’s (1), there was also a series act of violent sabotage against the military junta carried out by militant Peronist’s and civilian Peronist’s, which led to a series of executions and Jialing’s by the junta (1). The Junta intended to be democratic, however this proved hard when Peronist’s (at the instruction from Peron in exile) refused to vote in elections or else voted for candidates he suggested (1). Thus the military found themselves supporting a number of military and civilian governments that were far from democratic (1).
Leaders were constantly removed in military coups (1) and any civilian governed that tried to reinstate Peronism was toppled (1). At the sametime Argentine’s wanted a national identity something which only Peron (if only very briefly) had understood while he was in office (1). In 1970 Juan Peron recvied Eva’s corpse while he was in exile in Madrid (2) it had been up until then in Malian, Italy (2). For two years the body stayed in Peron’s mansion house in Spain, along with Peron and his third wife Isabel Martinez (2).
In 1972 Juan Peron returned to Argentina with Isabel and was elected President again (2). Evita played a large role in this return of Peronism, as Peronist’s used her violent last few month speeches to show that Peronism was a militant leftwing almost socialist like ideology, Peron didn’t discourage this belief and at one point in his political exile it seemed likely he would move to Castro’s Cuba (1). A popular saying about Evita at this stage was “If Evita was alive today, she would be a guerilla!” (2) Created by the Peronist guerilla movement (1 & 2). Isabel Peron; said in interviews that she hoped to follow in Evita’s footsteps and often led masses in Evita’s honor (1). Isabel lacked many of Evita’s qualities but the irony was, she would be granted the title Evita never had that of vice-president (1) as she ran in the election of 1973 as Peron’s running mate (1). Peron was elected with the largest majority he ever recvied however his presidency was short lived as he died in office on the 1st of July 1974 (1) this gave Isabel the title of president (1), the first female president (and vice-president) in Argentine History (1).
The bodies of Eva and Peron lay together in the presidential palace (1) a memorial was planned but Isabel’s government was overthrown in a military coup before this could happen (1).
The new president refused to occupy his office while the body’s of Evita and Peron where there so on the 22nd of November 1976 Evita’s remains returned to her family (1). It is now rumored that Evita resides in the cemetery “La Recoleta” --- Argentina’s aristocratic ceremony, Fraser and Navarro seem to suggest she does lie here in the middle of a marble tomb with a trapdoor in it which leads to a compartment that contains two coffins, under the first compartment is a second trapdoor and a second compartment that is where her coffin supposedly resides (1) Fraser and Navarro write: “It reflects a fear, a fear that the body will disappear from the tomb and that the woman, or rather the myth of the woman, will reappear.” (“Eva Peron.” By Nicolas Fraser and Marysa Navarro, Blackstone Audiobooks, January 1st, 1996.) Or does she lie in an iron volt in Buenos Aires? (2) Or in a humble cemetery in Junín? (2) Any of the coffins with Evita’s name on it could be one of the forged duplicates created by the military junta that preceded Peron (2). One thing is known though a corpse that seemed to be that of Eva’s re-appeared in Argentina shortly after Peron’s death, apparently flown in from Madrid (where Peron had kept it) at the request of Isabel Peron (1 & 2)…..However there is also the theory put forward by some Argentine’s that this corpse was simply a wax doll all along…… (2).

Despite her untimely death in July of 1952, Eva Peron continues to live on today
In means of a short lived Broadway play “The Diamond Orchid”, (3) a soft-porn movie called “little mother” (3), a farcical/satirical TV series called “Eva Peron”, another TV series that stared Faye Dunaway (3) and a brilliant but historically inaccurate musical called “Evita.” (3). “the global popularity of the latter and the widespread interest in the motion picture based on it attest to the enduring mystique of Eva Peron.” (“Evita: in my own words.” By Eva Peron and Professor Joseph A. Page, p, 4, the new press, 14th of July, 2005.) (3).