You are probably familiar with the musical
‘Evita,’ by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, which tells the story of Eva Duarte
and her relationship with Argentinian President Juan Perón. In the most famous number, ‘Don’t Cry
for Me, Argentina’, Evita addresses the crowds after orchestrating an insurrection
to free her husband, prisoner to a military Junta. A young Che Guevara witnesses the events,
providing some commentary – in song form, of course. How much of this famed musical scene is true,
and how much is just dramatized rumours? We’ll find out together in todays’ Biographics,
which covers the lives of Evita and Juan Perón, two illegitimate children who rose from obscurity
to ultimate power. Evita Discovers Her Talent
Maria Eva Duarte, later known simply as Eva or Evita, was born on May 7, 1919, in the
town of Los Toldos, in the Argentine pampas, or fertile lowlands. She was the youngest of five children born
to Juana Ibarguren and Juan Duarte. Juan and Juana were not married; in fact,
he had a second, ‘official’ family in the town of Chivilcoy. Juan was a wealthy and successful farm manager,
with close ties to rich land owners and the elite members of the Conservative party. After Eva’s birth, this party started losing
ground to the Radicals, which caused a decline in Juan’s fortunes. The Duartes, accustomed to relative wealth,
had to tighten the belt. A few years later, they had to punch some
extra holes in the belt altogether, when Juan died in a car accident on January 8, 1926. Juan Duarte had never recognised the children
he had with Juana, meaning they would receive no inheritance. This humiliation was compounded by the treatment
received at Juan’s funeral: his lawful widow and her wealthy family physically prevented
Evita and her siblings from attending the service. This was a watershed moment in Evita’s upbringing:
the knowledge that she was an explicit part of the lower rungs of Argentinian society,
ostracised by the rich elite. By the time Eva started first grade, her older
siblings Juan Jr and Elisa were already working as clerks, while mom Juana spent hours on
her sewing machine as a self-employed seamstress. Eva was not yet burdened with these responsibilities
and would spend her school-free hours climbing trees and exploring the countryside. Perhaps most importantly, she enjoyed dressing
up and improvising plays for her friends and siblings. Her co-star was second-youngest sister Erminda,
and they could count on Juan Jr as a stage designer. The boy even built a miniature circus for
them. In 1930, the Duartes moved to the town of
Junín. It was here that Eva’s penchant for dress-up
games evolved into a full-blown passion for acting, with a rich diet of films watched
at the village cinema and radio dramas. She also joined a school drama group and performed
for the first time on stage. By 1934, at age 15, Eva made her choice: she
would move to Buenos Aires and become a professional actress. Her mother Juana was not sold on the idea. How could a girl so young face the dangers
of the big capital? According to some accounts, it was celebrity
Tango singer Augustín Magaldi who convinced Juana to let Eva follow her dreams. In the Rice/Webber musical, the much older
Magaldi is portrayed as Eva’s lover, and the two elope to Buenos Aires. A less dramatic but more likely vision of
events comes courtesy of Eva’s older sister, Erminda: it was the headmaster of Eva’s
school who had noticed the girl’s talent and convinced mom Juana to let the girl press
her fortune with acting. And before you start gossiping, no, Eva did
not elope with the headmaster. There was no eloping here. It was Juana who took Evita to Buenos Aires
and arranged for her to move in with some family friends. The adventure had begun. Big Break in the Big City
Argentina in the mid-1930s was a nation struggling under the weight of poverty, unemployment
and hunger – just as much of the world did, following the financial collapse of 1929. Tens of thousands of Argentines moved from
the farms and countryside into Buenos Aires, looking for work and better living conditions. Year after year, the social gap widened between
the urban middle and upper classes, and the desperately poor. This was the backdrop for Eva’s first steps
in professional acting, as she, too, struggled to make a living amidst fierce competition. But she clearly had talent, brains and beauty,
which is always a powerful combination. Eva was soon hired by the Compania Argentina
de Comedias, a professional troupe, and made her debut in March 1935. In 1937, Eva turned 18 and her career was
taking off: she first appeared on the silver screen and then on the radio. While her roles on stage and in cinema were
mainly bit parts or supporting characters, it was radio where Eva could get her best
parts and progress her career. And it was radio, not cinema, that made her
a household name to Argentinians. A co-star in one of her many radio dramas
complimented Eva, labeling her as professional, dependable, and talented. But Eva also picked up a reputation as, well,
not exactly the nicest person to be around. It seems that Eva was generally not liked
many of her colleagues. It may have been these same colleagues who
later spread rumours that Eva’s career was accelerated by a propensity to sleep with
the right people. It is more likely, though, that these rumours
were circulated after she had become Mrs Perón, in order to undermine the President. Neither him, nor Evita, would ever lack enemies. Whatever the truth, Eva Duarte surely did
not lack in talent, as she was routinely signed up for one radio drama after the other. In 1943, Eva reached the peak of her popularity
as the star of - I am not joking here - a biography show! Yes! That’s why I do what I do:
Step 1 – host a biography show Step 2 – get to run a country
Step 3 – have a musical named after me. [Editing note: a poster in the style of a
1970s musical show appears on screen. The title is
‘Simonito’ By Tim Shell and Andrew Lloyd Shell. If this doesn’t take me to hell, I don’t
know what else.] Jokes aside, Eva’s show was a collection
of dramatizations in which she played the role of women who had made history, like Elizabeth
I, Catherine the Great, Isadora Duncan, and Sarah Bernhardt, among others. I wonder if she could imagine that one day,
her own life story could have been dramatized in such a show …
1943 was a year of importance, not just to Eva, but to all Argentinians. On June 4, a military coup led by General
Pedro Ramirez seized power from President Ramón Castillo. Within the group of conspirators, there was
an ambitious Colonel, who was put in charge of the Ministry of Labour and Welfare. His name was Colonel Juan Perón. The Boxing Minister
Juan Domingo Perón was born in Los Lobos, province of Buenos Aires, on October 8, 1895. Like Eva, Juan was born out of wedlock, the
child of wealthy farmer Mario Tomás Perón and Juana Sosa. Juan spent most of his childhood and early
teenage years in the pampas in the south of the country. He always wished to return to the capital
to study medicine, but when he did return to Buenos Aires, it was to enter the military
academy in 1911. He graduated in 1913, barely eighteen, with
the rank of second lieutenant in the infantry. Juan was amongst the first of his class, and
he gained a reputation as a hard-working student. He also excelled in physical training: standing
at 6-foot-tall and solidly built, the young, athletic Juan became an Army champion in boxing,
skiing, and fencing. He almost made it onto the Argentine Olympic
fencing team! As Argentina never entered a war during his
early military career, Perón only knew about peace-time deployment. He progressed through the ranks thanks to
his academic endeavours, as well as the publication of several books on military morals and hygiene. In 1925, Juan first met with 17-year old Aurelia
Tizón. After a four-year engagement, the two married
on January 5, 1929. Aurelia was a teacher, intelligent and academically
minded. A valuable companion for Perón, Aurelia dedicated
much of her time to translating military theory textbooks from English for her husband. In 1930, the now-Captain Perón was a member
of the Army Staff, as well as a Professor of Military History at the Higher Institute
for War Studies. He continued publishing military textbooks
and expanded his field of knowledge into linguistics, with a book on the language of the Araucanos,
an indigenous people from in and around Patagonia. In 1936, Perón had become a Major and was
tasked with a delicate assignment. Officially, he was detached as a military
attaché to the Argentinian Embassy in Chile; unofficially, Juan was actually spying on
the Chilean Army, in search of potential plans for an invasion of Argentina, which was an
event feared to be likely at that time. Perón was a skilled agent, reporting on Chile’s
military capabilities without ever blowing his cover. This success may have earned him his next
promotion, to Lieutenant-Colonel, at the end of the same year. On September 10, 1938, after a prolonged period
of illness, Aurelia died young, at the age of 30. The diagnosis was cervical cancer. This was a devastating blow to the officer. A valued asset to Argentina’s military,
Perón’s state of depression worried his superiors, to the point that they offered
him another post abroad to get his mind off the tragedy. From 1939 to the beginning of 1940, Perón
was attached to the army’s European Mission of Foreign Studies. This involved him touring Italy, Spain, Germany,
Hungary, and France to study and observe those countries’ militaries. He spent most of his time in Italy: here,
Perón focused on mountain warfare, but he also had the chance to study closely the policies
and authoritarian methods of Benito Mussolini. While never fully adhering to Fascist ideology,
Perón came to appreciate the dictatorial methods in use in Italy and other European
countries. He started to appreciate the notion of strong,
direct, authoritarian rule as the only means to impose effective reforms in his home country. During this period Perón also had the opportunity
to experience the early German victories in Western and Northern Europe. This convinced him that the Axis would eventually
emerge victorious from the conflict and shaped his future policies. Juan Perón returned to Argentina in 1941,
having risen to the rank of Colonel. The country at that time was ruled by President
Ramón Castillo, whose term had become unpopular due to widespread corruption, fraud, economic
stagnation, and an increasing divide between the upper and lower classes. This is when Perón started getting involved
in politics. He joined a secret outfit called GOU – Grupo
Oficiales Unidos, or Group of United Officers – which had a nationalist agenda. In July 1943 the GOU seized power in an almost
bloodless coup. General Arturo Rawson took power, in roughly
the amount of time needed to choose the colour scheme for his office curtains. Rawson was favourable to the Allied cause
in WWII and was open to civilians in his cabinet, but his fellow conspirators disagreed with
both ideas. Rawson was promptly replaced with General
Pedro Ramirez, whose agenda and methods were much more closely aligned to the Axis Powers
-- firmly anti-Leftist and totalitarian. Ramirez appointed a General Farrell as Minister
of War, who brought along Perón as his personal secretary. This was not enough for the ambitious Colonel,
who volunteered for a post nobody wanted: that of Minister of the National Labour Department. It wasn’t just a move to get a seat in the cabinet, but a calculated first step in a long-term plan. Earthquake
Minister Perón delivered an astounding amount of reform in the span of two years, all of
which gained him the support of the masses of industrial workers. For example, he introduced paid holidays for
all workers; he also limited work hours and mandated better working conditions. Perón also established a system of government-affiliated
trade unions to defend workers’ rights and always intervened on their side against industry
owners. He did not refrain from using government funds
to pay for worker salaries or pensions when factory owners threatened to suspend payments. These progressive policies certainly benefitted
the lower classes, which made Perón increasingly popular. This was his strategy: bolster the status
of the workers, the majority of the population, which would grant him support and even devotion
in return. Perón referred to his supporters as the ‘descamisados’,
or the ‘shirtless.’ No Argentinian was under the illusion that
Perón operated within a democracy. This was a military, authoritarian, government. But unlike previous democratic cabinets, Perón
delivered. On the January 15, 1944, a national emergency
put Perón to the test: an earthquake completely obliterated the province of San Juan, killing
7000 inhabitants and injuring another 12,000. Perón organised a nationwide campaign to
raise funds in aid of the wounded and the displaced. For this effort, he drafted national celebrities
to assist him, including popular actors from the stage, cinema, and radio. Some days later, Eva set up a meeting with
Juan in his office, during which she asked for more opportunities to raise funds for
the earthquake victims. It was then that Perón felt an immediate
attraction for the young actress. He later recalled:
“As I looked at her, I felt that her words were taking over me: I was almost subjugated
by the warmth in her voice and in her eyes” And just like that, an expert of coups de
theatre and a veteran of a coup d’état, were brought together by a coup de foudre
– if you’ll pardon my French. The two initially kept their relationship
a secret. Why? The age difference may have played a part,
as he was 49 and she was 25. It was their own damn business after all. Besides their romantic lives, also their careers
were fluorishing. In early 1944, Perón’s patron Gen Farrell
became President, and he appointed his protegé as Vice President and Minister of War, on
top of his Labour duties. Eva was no less overworked, hosting three
daily radio shows: one on biographies, one on geography and one on lists of 10 interesting
items. Okay, fine. It was actually two radio dramas and a propaganda
broadcast in support of the regime. On the July 9, 1944, the two lovebirds decided
to go public with their relationship by showing up together at a gala event. Perón had become the most popular member
of the regime, enjoying great visibility with the press, and so did Evita, appearing by
his side in public. Don’t Cry for Me
In March of 1945, President Farrell opportunistically declared war on the Axis powers, securing
a place in the United Nations for Argentina. In August, he decided to soften his regime,
even promising free elections by the end of the year. In the meantime, Perón had fallen out of
favour with the political establishment. His populist reforms had alienated the support
of the more traditional elements of the ruling classes, the military, and the church. Evita had also come under attack, accused
of being only a power hungry social climber, no more than a prostitute. The Power Couple’s downward descent was
prologue to Perón’s appointment of a friend of Evita’s as head of the Department of
Posts and Telegraph. Perón was forced to resign on October 10,
1945; by the 13th, he was arrested on the Island of Martín García. Years later, Perón recalled how Evita immediately
organised a general labor strike, followed by a massive demonstration of the descamisados. She marched at the head of hundreds of thousands
of workers, occupying Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, the square in front of the seat of
government. Evita then addressed the crowds from a balcony. A young Che Guevara was among them. This was remembered as the Foundation Day
of Peronismo. Or not. Juan Perón is the only source to ever circulate
this version of the events, which was later incorporated in the musical. In reality, Evita likely did not play a role
in the uprising at all. The strike was spontaneous, as were the mass
demonstrations. The descamisados rallied in Plaza de Mayo,
demanding for Perón to be released. The authorities, hoping to prevent bloodshed,
complied with their demands, asking Perón to step onto the balcony to calm down the
mob. And how about Guevara? He was 17 at that time, still attending secondary
school, and did not move to Buenos Aires until 1947. He never met Evita; their only recorded contact
is a letter he wrote to her, asking if she could buy him a jeep. As soon as Perón was released from prison,
he did two things: he resigned from the military, leaving with the rank of General, and he married
Evita in a registry office, on the 22nd of October, followed by a religious ceremony
on the 10th of December. With Eva by his side, Perón set off to organise
his candidature in the new general elections. He ran as a candidate from the Partido Laborista,
or Labour Party. His opposition, the Democratic Union, was
a disparate coalition that included both conservatives and communists, with the open backing US Ambassador
Spruille Braden. His influence was so extensive that the electoral
choice was often presented as ‘Perón vs Braden’. Juan and Evita organised an intense campaign
trail with a chartered train, called “El Descamisado”. This was the first time in the history of
Argentina that a presidential candidate was accompanied by his wife. On February 8, 1946, she pioneered another
‘first’: at a party rally, she replaced Juan on the speaker’s podium, as he was
too ill to speak. Unfortunately, that was a total disaster. While workers loved Perón thanks to his earlier
reforms, they were still mistrustful of his wife. The crowd would not let her speak, drowning
her out with cries of “We want Perón!” But little by little, Evita grew in popularity. Her acting talent, trained voice, and overall
good looks helped in no small measure. On June 4, 1946, the couple found their victory:
Juan Perón had been democratically elected the new President of Argentina, and Evita
had become first lady at 27 years of age. Justicialismo
Juan Perón’s Presidency is not easily defined, if not as a labyrinth of contradictions. Let’s begin with his ideology, known as
‘justicialismo’, or ‘justicialism’: it was founded on social justice and heavy
state intervention in the form of welfare programs to support the lower classes. But it was also known as ‘Perónismo’,
an indication that this movement was a unique way of running a country, centred around the
cult of Juan Perón’s personality and strong leadership. Juan Perón introduced several progressive
reforms, mainly to the benefit of his electoral base, the working classes. He made social security, education, and healthcare
totally free and universal. He introduced paid maternity leave and the
right to vote for women, with Evita’s key contribution. Perón also boosted the Argentine economy
by developing hydroelectric power plants, launching a local iron and steel industry,
and expanding shipbuilding by 500 percent. But to achieve all this, he implemented rash
authoritarian measures, including censorship of the press and incarceration of dissenters. In terms of foreign policy, Perón’s strategy
for Argentina was to become a neutral country along a ‘third position,’ aligned with
neither capitalism nor communism during the Cold War. In practice, Perón did not hide his hostility
towards American and British presence or influence over Argentina. Was he secretly considering a drift towards
Moscow? Not exactly. After becoming President, Juan Perón made
Argentina a well-known haven for former Nazis. Adolph Eichmann, Josef Mengele, Erich Priebke,
Otto Skorzeny, and many, many other war criminals all found refuge there. Skorzeny even became a bodyguard to the Peróns,
and may have had a liaison with Evita – a rumour that was never confirmed. All of these Nazi officials, except for Skorzeny,
had been sentenced in absentia at the Nuremberg trials and were wanted for crimes against
humanity. Perón was doing more than just accepting
them into his country, here -- he actively invited them, offering money, houses, and
jobs. What was his plan then? Perón had estimated that a new World War
would break out by 1949, fought by blocs led by the US and the Soviet Union. His end strategy was to bargain for Argentina’s
participation on the Western side. And that’s when the expertise of ex-Nazis
would have come handy, as trained officers adept at fighting the Soviets. No Sleep for Evita
In June 1947 Evita had her first official trip abroad, the ‘Rainbow Tour’ across
Europe and South America. Her first leg of the tour was in Spain, where
she met Generalisimo Francisco Franco, considered to be one of the last vestiges of Fascism
in Europe. This did not help the image of the Peróns. In subsequent visits to Italy and Switzerland,
Evita was accused of being the representative of a Fascist country and was booed, or even
pelted with eggs and rotten fruit. During her official visit to London, she was
snubbed by the King. Upon returning from Europe, Evita dedicated
herself to the cause of women’s suffrage. She had already supported a bill to that effect
in 1946, and now she wanted things to change, and fast. Evita launched an appeal to Argentinian women,
who staged two massive rallies in September of 1947 and plastered Buenos Aires with posters. On the September 23, Parliament ratified the
bill: suffrage was truly universal in Argentina. Evita capped the achievement two years later
by founding the first all-female Party in Argentina, to ensure that women would be on
the ballot, instead of just at the ballot. Evita understood her feminist victory would
not have been possible without the backing and active participation of her husband. In her writing, she made it clear that in
order to bring about progress, both male and female action were necessary. She summarised this as:
“A man of action triumphs over everyone else. A woman of action triumphs for everyone else”
In other words: ‘male action’ was needed to overcome opposition when imposing new ideas,
but ‘female action’ was a constructive energy, the one to really bring those new
ideas to the benefit of others. Inspired by these ideals, Evita threw herself
into Welfare work: by the end of 1947 she had become a sort of unofficial Minister of
Labour, committing to a gruelling work schedule of up to 22 hours a day, meeting trade union
delegations and addressing welfare issues. Examples of her work included organising State-funded
holiday camps for workers’ children, building hospitals for textile industry employees,
and distributing aid to the poorest families in the country. And because she had two hours left each day,
Evita put that time to good use. To complement her aid efforts, she created
the Foundation Eva Perón, focused on helping women, children and the elderly. she collected funds mainly as donations from
Trade Unions and channelled them into several initiatives, such as the construction of schools
and hospitals. The Foundation continued to finance and develop
major works in the field of education and healthcare during the early 1950s, with Evita
supervising most of them. At this stage, even Perón supporters could
not help wondering where the required funds came from. Officially, these came from voluntary donations
by Trade Unions, as well private enterprises. But there was strong suspicion that these
donations were enforced by threats: either donate, or face the consequences. Take, for example, the candy factory called
‘Mu-mu’. The company was forcibly shut down by the
Government, with all its employees losing their job. Allegedly, it was because of poor hygienic
conditions inside the factory, but Evita’s direct involvement in a subsequent meeting
between factory management and trade unions led to suspicions that Mu-mu was being punished
for failing to donate to the Foundation. No stops for Juan
In 1949, Juan Perón succeeded in having a new Constitution ratified by parliament. This new text included a new round of reforms,
such as universal suffrage, and even a declaration of the rights of the elderly, drafted by Evita’s
foundation. But the main aim of the constitution was to
allow for Juan to run for a second term in future elections. As was often the case, Evita would play a
key role by his side. This time, it would have been a more explicit,
institutionalized one: in August 1951, the trade unions formally asked Juan Perón to
run again for President, this time with Evita as his Vice-President. Despite popular enthusiasm for the idea, Evita
eventually declined. This may have been due to pressure from military
leadership, who always disliked the First Lady. Another reason may have been Evita’s own
poor health. She had been suffering from fatigue, frequent
fainting, and vaginal bleeding. Today, we know that all these symptoms pointed
to a diagnosis of cervical cancer – the same illness that had killed Perón’s first
wife. But the President had decided to hide the
truth from Evita, for reasons that are still unclear. Perhaps it was to shield her from a devastating
diagnosis, or perhaps he just wanted to hide the truth from the public. In a cynical electoral move, Perón did not
want to reveal that Evita -- perhaps the biggest source of his presidential popularity -- may
not even be alive during his second term in office. Juan Perón won the elections in November
of 1951, with a 62 percent majority. Evita appeared by his side as he was sworn
in. It was one of her last public appearances. The Death of Evita
Evita Perón’s last months on Earth were painful. The official version of her death, on the
26th of July 1952, is that this was caused by late-stage cervical cancer. It may not be a coincidence that Perón’s
first wife Aurelia had suffered the same fate. One of the causes of cervical cancer is infection
by HPV – the human papilloma virus. It is likely that Juan Perón was a carrier
of such virus and had thus infected both of his wives. In 2015, a new explanation for Evita’s demise
was put forward by Dr Daniel Nijensohn, a neurosurgeon at Yale University Medical School. Nijensohn had obtained scans of Evita’s
skull after her death, which showed signs of being drilled into. This was evidence that the First Lady had
received a lobotomy -- an operation that involves cutting the neural connections between the
prefrontal lobes and the rest of the brain in order to numb emotional responses. One possibility is that the lobotomy had been
a radical measure to manage the pain of her cancer; a more sinister one is that Juan had
ordered the lobotomy to curb Evita’s increasingly unpredictable behaviour. As she succumbed to her cancer, Evita’s
actions were becoming more and more extreme. In her last months of life, Evita called for
violent action against her enemies and the enemies of the people, which she identified
as the oligarchs in traditional Argentinian society. It appears that she even ordered from her
sick bed a consignment of 5,000 automatic pistols and 1,500 machine guns to arm the
trade unions. She was seriously risking the onset of a civil
war. The news would have been enough to tear apart
the factions of Juan Peron’s allies, who already objected to Evita’s power and popularity. The country could have soon descended into
conflict. According to Dr Nijensohn, the lobotomy was
performed by an American surgeon, James Poppen, within the Presidential palace. Poppen’s nurse, Manena Riquelme, reported
that Poppen had first practiced the operation on convicts taken from Buenos Aires’ prisons. Medically, the intervention was at least a
partial success, as Evita did not die immediately. It also succeeded in silencing her for good. The lobotomy put her in a catatonic state,
and she stopped eating. Her health quickly deteriorated, until her
death in July -- eight month after Perón had been reelected -- at age 33. The masses mobilised one last time for her
funeral, with thousands of citizens following the procession. Evita’s body was placed at the headquarters
of the General Labour Confederation, while a publicly funded mausoleum was being built. Juan Perón had ordered that her body be perfectly
embalmed. Her body thus became a sort of relic, to be
adored by the masses – a fitting end, considering that the Pope immediately started receiving
requests for Evita to become a saint. Life After Evita
By late 1952, Juan Perón realised that he could not continue his policies of public
spending forever. The country’s finances were sluggish, and
the economy was stagnating. Moreover, the death of Evita had dealt a hard
blow to his popularity, exacerbated by rumours that he had started dating a 14 year old girl. Catholic authorities, and the military, were
not happy. Perón changed his foreign policy in an effort
to revive the economy. Traditionally anti-American, he made a U-turn
and looked for a rapprochement with Washington, a move that should have revived Argentina’s
exports to the US. But it was only a matter of time before a
new conspiracy ended his tenure in office. This happened on the 16th of September 1955:
a coup led by the more traditionalist echelons of the Navy and the Air Force took power,
after shelling Plaza de Mayo and causing 400 casualties. Perón was forced into exile by the new military
Junta. He first moved to Paraguay and, five years
later, landed in Madrid. By the time he was in Spain, he’d taken
a third wife, Maria Estela Martinez, who was an Argentinian dancer better known as “Isabel.” In the meantime, the Junta had forbidden all
aspects of Perón’s policies of Justicialismo and Peronismo. Displaying images of Juan Perón and Evita
was also forbidden. This ban extended to Evita’s body -- in
1955, it was removed from its mausoleum. No one can account for her body in the ensuing
16 years. Some cynical soul once said that the ex you
can’t compete with is a dead one. Isabel Martinez certainly must have felt that
way. As she and Juan led a life of luxury in Madrid,
former president Perón never stopped looking for Evita’s embalmed remains. In 1971, out of nowhere, came the revelation
that Evita had been secretly buried in a cemetery in Milan, under a headstone bearing a different
name. Juan Perón recovered her body, had it restored
by a mortician and kept it for some days in his Madrid home. Not just anywhere -- laying on a table in
his living room. And Isabel would be asked to brush Evita’s
hair every day, to make sure it did not tangle. I will not comment on this, though I’m sure
you will. Back to normality. In 1973, public pressure in Argentina demanded
for Perón to return from his exile. The President in charge, General Lanusse,
complied, and invited Juan to return to the homeland, so Juan and Isabel moved back to
Buenos Aires on June 20, 1973. Lanusse had also called for general elections
to take place in March – but had made a point that Perón should not be allowed to
run. This was not a problem, as he participated
and won by proxy! A revived Justicialist Party put forward another
candidate, Mr Cámpora, who won with a thin majority of 49.59 percent. After taking power, Cámpora immediately resigned,
initiating new elections in September … which, of course, allowed for Perón to participate. Sly old fox. Juan and Isabel Perón campaigned together
as President and Vice-President, respectively, scoring a 60 percent victory by the end of
the year. Juan had become President of Argentina for
the third time, with his wife as second-in-command. Isabel had succeeded in gaining the vice presidency,
a post that would have perfectly suited Evita if it weren’t for her illness. Perón’s third term was short-lived, though,
as he died of a heart attack on July 1, 1974, at the age of 78. Isabel succeeded him as President, the first
female head of government in the Western Hemisphere. Legacies
The legacy of Evita and Juan Perón still live on today. Argentina’s power couple have been at turns
described as genuine champions of the descamisados, or as cynical, selfish and opportunistic power
grabbers. Whatever their intentions, the results are
undeniable: according to political scientist Peter H. Smith it was Peronism who gave the
Argentine lower classes a feeling of significance and strength, a sense of identity. Perón may have brought the powerless into
politics simply to build a power base, but the working class, women and unions remained
important political actors. After the Peróns, various regimes came to
power, some of them violently authoritarian. Regardless of their policies, the Peróns’
legacy is what allowed the mobilized masses to remain active and assert their rights,
even in the most turbulent of times … but that’s another story, for another day. Well I hoped you liked today’s super long
video, the story of this couple was so interesting that it deserved some extra time. Feel free to share like etc etc … and a
final question from me: is there any other historical character from a musical show that
you would like us to cover?
