Evita — The Icon of Argentina

★★★ Eva "Evita" Perón (1919–1952) — Don't Cry for Me Argentina

Evita is not just a historical figure — she is an icon, a myth, a religion. No other person has divided Argentina so deeply and moved it so passionately. Even today, over 70 years after her death, people weep at her grave, and the debate about her is as heated as on the day of her death.

The Life:

• 1919: Eva María Duarte is born as an illegitimate child in Los Toldos, a village in the Pampas, in bitter poverty. Five siblings, the father an Estanciero who leaves the family
• 1935: At 15, she flees to Buenos Aires to become an actress. Years of hunger and small roles follow
• 1944: She meets Colonel Juan Domingo Perón — at a benefit concert for earthquake victims. From this encounter emerges the most powerful love story in Argentine politics
• 1945: Perón is arrested and exiled to an island. Evita mobilizes the unions. On October 17, 1945, hundreds of thousands of workers (the "Descamisados" — shirtless ones) march on the Plaza de Mayo and force Perón's release. It is the founding moment of Peronism
• 1946: Perón becomes president. Evita becomes — without an official position — the most powerful woman on the continent. She establishes the Fundación Eva Perón, which builds hospitals, schools, and social housing. She fights for women's suffrage (1947). She personally receives the poor and distributes sewing machines, houses, toys — often late into the night
• 1951: The most famous moment: From the balcony of the Casa Rosada, Evita tearfully announces to the hundreds of thousands on the Plaza that she is withdrawing from the vice-presidential candidacy — she is already terminally ill. The crowd pleads with her to stay. The scene was immortalized in the musical "Evita" (Andrew Lloyd Webber) and the film with Madonna
• July 26, 1952: Evita dies of cervical cancer. She is 33 years old. The country sinks into mourning: 3 million people line up at the funeral. 8 people are crushed to death in the crowd. Evita becomes a legend

The Corpse: The story after her death is almost more dramatic: The body was so perfectly embalmed by Spanish embalmer Pedro Ara that she looked as if she were sleeping. When Perón was overthrown in 1955, the military government stole the body — fearing it would become a political weapon. The body was hidden for 16 years: first in a military camp, then in a truck, finally under a false name in a cemetery in Milan, Italy. It was not until 1974 that it was returned to Argentina. Today, Evita rests in the Duarte family mausoleum at the Cementerio de la Recoleta — in a bomb-proof underground vault, so that no one can ever steal her body again.

The Division: For one half of Argentina, Evita is a saint — the voice of the poor, the mother of the nation, the woman who did the impossible. For the other half, she is a demagogue — a populist seductress who drove the country into dependence on the state. This division defines Argentina to this day.