Eva Maria Duarte de Peron
Who doesn't know her? During the visit to the Evita Museum I quickly realized that I knew very little about this fascinating personality.
Eva grew up in modest circumstances as the last of five children. At the young age of only seven years, she lost her father. From now on her mother was solely responsible to support the children. It hit Eva's mother especially hard, since she had never been married to Eva's father and therefore was not entitled to receive help in form of widows pension.
In order to offer her children a future, she worked incredibly hard as a seamstress. At the young age of 15 Eva decided to become a Model and she started to pursue her carrier. The modelling career was not very successful and so she moved on to the radio to become a radio presenter.
Finally she discovered her love to the showbusiness and she wanted to become an actress. Again, luck was not on her side and she could not break through as an actress, she merely had supporting rolls.
Then an earthquake in San Juan changed her destiny forever. Juan Domingo Peron organized several fundraising activities with actors and celebrities to support the victims of the earthquake. Eva participated in the programs and so their paths of her and Juan Domingo Peron crossed. After a short time as his mistress, Eva got married to him in 1945 (being 26 years older then her).
She strongly supported her husband for the presidential elections, through populist radio speeches, where she asked the working class to stand up and ask for their rights.
Peron's figure was controversial, because he sympathized with Hitler and Mussolini, but at the same time he was very popular with the working class.
In 1946 Peron won the presidential election as the candidate of the "Partido Paulista laboratory" (Working class) with 52% of the votes.
Although Eva never held an official position, she immediately took on an important role in the government of her husband. She founded the Evita-Peron Foundation, an institution to help the poor and the organization to support the women of the Peronist Party.
Thanks to her influence on her husband and president of Argentina, the right for women to vote was introduced 1947. (I find the number of her identity card quite interesting, 0000001)
(Another interesting fact: Switzerland was one of the last countries in Europe, to introduce the right for its female citizens to vote and therefore acknowledge their full rights as citizens. The right for women to vote was introduced in Switzerland in 1971, but it took another 20 (!) years before women were allowed to vote throughout Switzerland. The Canton Apenzell Innerrhoden (hoden=testicale) ;-) had to be forced by a lawsuit that was filed by women, that they finally acknowledged the right for women to vote, as the last canton in Switzerland in 1990.
It is evident that the early years in Evita's life had an immense influence on her passion for the weaker, namely to support women and children.
Adored and loved by the common people, hated and despised by the elite society of Argentina.
The museum tour takes you on a wonderful journey to discover the eventful life of Evita Peron.
Her body was embalmed by the Spanish pathologist Dr. Pedro Ara and put on display in a glass coffin.
Her funeral is impressively shown at the museum through a video. Thousands of people lined up in the streets of Buenos Aires, many threw flowers from their balcony on the coffin that was carried through the streets. Thousands lined up patiently in the streets to wait their turn to pay Evita her respects.
In 1955 Peron was overthrown by the military and the new rulers wanted to fight the memory of Evita and Peron. As a consequence and to protect her remains they disappeared for 16 years from the public. They were secretly flown to Italy to be buried in Milan under the false name Maria Maggi de Magistris.
Peron's third wife arranged in 1974 to bring back Evita's remains to Argentina. In 1976 the remains were buried in the family grave of Duarte's in the cemetery of Recoleta in Buenos Aires.
