With a variety of acts, exhibitions and marches, an Argentina in the midst of crisis last week remembered Eva Duarte, universally known as Evita, wife of three-time president Juan Perón and mythical protector of the “descamisados”, on the 70th anniversary of her death.
In front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Social Development, whose facade is decorated with a giant profile of Evita.
There, on August 22, 1951, a demonstration of two million people asked him to support the presidential formula with Perón, who was seeking re-election.
But nine days later, already ill, she declined her candidacy in a famous message known as “the historical resignation”, which began a long farewell until her death on July 26, 1952.
Her image in the building was reproduced on Twitter by Peronist Vice President Cristina Kirchner with the caption “Eva Perón, an Argentine passion.”
President Alberto Fernández also evoked it in an act. Eva Perón “was encouraged to say a phrase that was engraved in our souls, that many do not forgive: Where there is a need there is a right,” he said.
She was Evita Peron
Born on May 7, 1919 in Los Toldos, a town 200 km from Buenos Aires, she came to the capital at the age of 15 to be a theater and film actress until 1944 when she met Perón and her life was transformed.
She was the second wife of President Juan Perón (1946-1951, 1951-1955 and 1973-1974) and died at the height of Peronism, the main Argentine political force of the 20th century.
Loved by the most humble and repudiated by the elites, Evita became an emblem of Peronism and a cult figure.
Marta Barros, 83, remembers that she was 12 when her family received help from the Evita Foundation.
“They were the first toys, the first sweet bread, the first aprons and those leather sandals,” this woman told AFP.
Emilse Portela, from the Militant Peronism movement, stressed that “women were able to vote thanks to her”, recalling that Eva Perón was, together with the socialist political leaders, the architect of the female vote law in 1951.
For Alma Gambi, a 14-year-old student with no political militancy, Eva Perón “was an important person for the help she gave to working people and women. An inspiration.”
Outside of Argentina it has also been widely recognized. Pop star Madonna played her in Alan Parker’s musical “Don’t cry for me Argentina” (1996) and the Nobel Prize winner for literature VS Naipaul dedicated an essay “The return of Eva Peron” to her.
Coinciding with the anniversary, the television series Santa Evita premiered on July 26, under the direction of Rodrigo García and based on the homonymous book by Tomás Eloy Martínez. This series is broadcast by the streaming service Star +.
Eve’s cause of death
Eva Perón died of cervical cancer at the age of 33, on July 26, 1952.
What happened to Eva Perón when she died?
His political imprint generated intrigues and a dramatic tour of his remains, which included the macabre kidnapping of the embalmed body, after the 1955 coup, which also banned Peronism for two decades.
The body was taken to Italy and was hidden for years in a Milan cemetery, under a fake tombstone. In 1970, the Peronist guerrilla Montoneros kidnapped former dictator Pedro Aramburu and demanded that Evita’s body be returned. Perón received him in his exile from Spain and Aramburu was executed after a “revolutionary trial”.
Her remains repatriated in 1974, Eva Perón was deposited in the Duarte crypt, one of the most visited tombs in the La Recoleta cemetery, where last Tuesday dozens of people filled her grave with light blue and white flowers, the colors of the flag Argentina.
“Evita is the standard-bearer of the humble, who looked out for the most needy people, who gave us women rights,” Luz Alvez, one of Eva’s devotees who went to the cemetery, told AFP.
With information from AFP