Eva Perón: life and political influence in Argentina

Evita Peron

The Cultural and Historical Significance of Eva Peron

Evita Peron is doubtlessly one of the greatest female personalities of the twentieth century. Needless to say, Evita Peron was much more than a mere political figure. The story of Argentina's first lady is so imbued with mystery and fiction that it can easily be argued that, in popular culture, her figure acquires almost mythical dimensions. We can speak thus of the 'Evita cult', which was inspired both by the first lady's passionate and ambitious personality and her devotedness to humanitarian causes and acts of charity for the poor. Arguably, the Evita cult was alimented by the imagination of the poor or disadvantaged social classes who, during the Peron regime, were made the center of attention for the first time. Moreover, the fact that Evita herself belong to the same social class and rose to the highest standing through her ambition, nobleness of spirit and dedication. Evita is thus a national symbol and not only a historical figure of Argentina. The fame that surrounded her during her life as well as after proves her to have been a remarkable personality, passionate and devoted to the causes and the principles she believed in. What is indeed outstanding is the fact that Evita emerged as a popular cult figure herself, instead of remaining in the shadow of her husband, who was himself a great and extremely popular figure. This demonstrates the extent of Eva's influence on the Argentinean culture, as almost a saintly figure. Passing the sphere of the political sphere, Evita Peron is thus a symbol of an ideal and just cause in favor of social equality and just distribution of rights.

Evita was thus one of the few female political figures in history to have attained such a high place in the culture of a people. Both she and Juan Peron were idealists, who were a perfect match in what regarded their political dreams and aspirations. Devoted to the people and attempting radical reforms in favor of the poor, the pair of leaders remained in the heart of the people as beneficial figures who struggled for social justice and a better political climate in Argentina. It is not surprising therefore that, after Evita's death, her body was close to being put in a mausoleum and preserved as a national symbol. It was only because the Peronist regime declined soon after her death that this intention was not completed after all, and she was finally interred in Buenos Aires.

A significant part of Evita's fame is probably due also to her humble origins, which made her belong to the same class as the people she dedicated her work and her life to. Moreover, her rapid and somewhat romantic ascension to fame and even to the highest political standing also contributed to her cult image. Her poor life as a young girl and her very early death at the age of thirty one, were also great factors in promoting Evita as a national symbol. She was born on May 7, 1919 in Los Toldos, a little village in the pampas (Crassweller, 125). The village was small and very modest, accoutered with just the very few necessary institutions and dwellings, and was separated by an endless one hundred and fifty miles from Buenos Aires. Evita's parents were Juana Ibarguren and Juan Duarte, a couple which lived together for more than fifteen years without being legally married. Juan Duarte, the father, was already married and his legal family lived in a town only twenty miles away from Los Toldos. This situation, which was hardly acceptable by the moral and social standards of the beginning of the twentieth century, marked Evita's beginnings and her later evolution. Arguably, her future ascension to political fame was hardened by her poor and moreover illegitimate origins. An event which was very significant in this respect took place in 1926, at her father's death. On this occasion, Evita's mother attempted to participate in the funeral, along with the rightful family of Juan Duarte, and, because of the standards and customs of the day, she and her children were curelessly rejected: "Juan Duarte died in Chivilcoy. Dona Juana, a determined and self-reliant woman, decided her family should attend the funeral, a presumption that ran counter to all the customs of the day, a minor scandal. They arrived late and were turned away at the door, being admitted only upon the intercession of the mayor. They were allowed to view the body briefly while the guests stood aside, and then they had to wait outside in the dusty heat until they were permitted to follow the hearse to the cemetery, at a respectable distance so as not to disgrace the legal family at the head of the procession."(Crassweller, 130) This rejection remained as a landmark point for Evita's later evolution: "All her life, Evita, like her siblings, was blighted by the issue of her illegitimacy, so dramatically highlighted by the cruelty of her family's rejection in the hour of death. It was her first venture into the world beyond Los Toldos."(Crassweller, 131) Thus, for the greatest part of her life, Evita encountered difficulties in making herself heard on account of her unlawful origins and sometimes even because she was a woman and implicitly, not fit for politics by the standards of the day.

Evita did not distinguish herself at school or in any other academic department. However, it was not long before Evita found her dream career as an actress. It was only after she became involved with Juan Peron that Eva got a few breakthroughs as an actress: "Evita's acting career changed, too, but more slowly. She continued with her radio work, now for Radio Belgrano. Her new contract broke all records in this field, doubtless due to her relationship with the powerful colonel. In a tradition so devoted to the use of influence, a palanca, a lever, as magnificent as this would open any door. A movie studio now announced a contract for Evita, and a role in a new production about to begin. Again the palanca revealed its power, for Peron had helped the studio obtain an allocation of scarce film stock."(Crassweller, 133) However, the turning point for Evita was certainly her encounter with her future husband, Juan Peron. In his documentary study of the Peron regime in Argentina, Robert Crassweller emphasized that it can be said that the meeting of the future couple after an earthquake was very symbolic: "It is symbolically appropriate that the first meeting of Peron and Evita should come as the direct result of an earthquake."(Crassweller, 128) the pair had an open and almost blatantly public relationship, something which constituted almost a scandal at the time. It can be argued that the two were a perfect match, in so much as they were not united by a sexual love but rather by a platonic ideal. Both of them struggled for the same political ideals: "Arturo Jauretche, who as writer, historian, and intellectual knew both Peron and Evita from a point-of-view more favorable to Peronism than was typical of his type, concluded, "Eva, in spite of her fancy for the theatre, was a very unsexual girl. She didn't have that much interest in it.... And that was her affinity with Juan Per-n, because he too was not a sexual type. In that marriage two wills were united, two passions for power. It was not a marriage of love."(Crassweller, 133) the most appropriate comment on this situation belongs to Peron himself, who argues that his wife absorbed the knowledge from him, took over his political ideas and imbued them with her feminine passion and sensibility: "She listened to Peron, absorbed everything he said, and then infused it with her own passionate emotion. Peron was not inaccurate in his recollection of her discipleship when he said, "Evita adopted my political and social ideas, imbuing them with a feminine sensibility, to the point of creating within herself a second 'I'."(Crassweller, 135) Herein lies the secret of Evita's great historical and cultural significance: her political talent and her unlimited ambition were paired by her feminine sensibility and passion, which made her even more devoted to the cause of the poor.

According to Schneider, Evita was certainly adored and loathed by the different classes of people in society. The upper class member thus became her enemies since they resented her attempt to establish a different social order, while the lower classes adored her and saw her as a cultural icon and a 'lady of hope' who would save them and who could embody all their interests and rights: "In anthropology, the most sensitive treatment remains that of Julie Taylor (Eva Peron: the myths of a woman, 1979), who contrasted two 'myths', held respectively by upper-class respondents and working-class Argentines. For the former she represented a 'black myth', a bad woman who would assault their class interests and the established order, whereas for the latter she embodied the 'Lady of Hope', who would care for the poor, especially the descamisados -- 'shirtless', recent migrants from the provinces."(Schneider, 396) it was certainly Evita's dedication to the poor which promoted her as a cultural icon in the first place. This idea is openly available in her writings, where she emphasizes her view on social justice and her indignation when confronted with social discrimination between the different classes of people: "I have discovered a fundamental feeling in my heart which completely governs my spirit and my life. That feeling is my indignation when confronted with injustice."(Peron)

According to Evita's own confession, her first realization of the idea of social injustice was shocking to her, as she perceived openly the difference between the poor and the rich: "I admit I learned it almost at one blow, and that I learned it though suffering; and I declare that it never seemed to me either logical or natural."(Peron) Evita's confessed natural repulsion towards injustice was perhaps her greatest trait of character and the most important ingredient in her political success. She gained her place in the hearts of the people by actively fighting for their rights, and discarding personal considerations. This was indeed, for Evita, 'the reason for her life': to be able to counteract the oppression exercised by the rich over the poor: "I felt, even then, in my innermost heart, something which I now recognize as a feeling of indignation. I did not understand why if there were poor people there must also be rich ones, nor why the latter's eagerness for riches must be the cause of the poverty of so many people."(Peron) She regarded even her union with Peron as a symbol for her mission towards the poor. Evita thus was all the more successful as a political leader precisely because she was devoted to the causes he defended beyond everything else, personal life included: "This revolution brought -- and still does -- a great light into my life. To me, a humble and lowly woman, he entrusted the care of his workers, his greatest love. And I thought to myself: "He could have entrusted them to others, to any of his friends, including some trade-union leader...but no, he wanted it to be me...a woman who knows nothing except how to love him!'"(Peron) From her words, it is evident that she demoted herself as a lowly woman, whose greatest happiness were the active defense of the poor. Therefore, she took upon herself a great responsibility and subsequently worked feverishly in favor of the poor: "I am the head of my people not only by a decree of destiny. I am there because, without knowing it perhaps, I prepared myself for it as though I had known that someday this responsibility and privilege would by my lot."(Peron) Evita's legacy is first of all cultural, but her acts of charity were also very important. Thus, throughout her short life, she worked in favor of the poor, establishing charity societies, hospitals and helping the poor in a number of ways. Sadly however, her work was cruelly destroyed soon after her death, once the Peronist regime was conquered by its political enemies. Her enemies thus were not satisfied with taking over the power but were also careful to destroy all the signs associated with Juan and Evita Peron. Thus, the hospitals and each little thing that bore the emblem of the Peron regime were senselessly destroyed by the combatants. Despite this, Evita's myth remained alive among the people, who saw her as an almost sacred figure, because of her devotion to them: "The working classes, her devout descamisados, were hungry to accept her extraordinary acts of generosity. They had always been on the margins of society, and when Juan and Eva Per n placed them at the very center, they won their unwavering devotion and harnessed their tremendous political power. Rumors began to circulate that Evita was capable of almost superhuman accomplishments and that she wielded a sort of divine power."(Foster and Lockhart, 26) According to Foster and Lockhart, the myth of Evita is even slightly religious in its form, since the first lady was not only extremely popular but almost revered by the people: "Both in Argentina and abroad, it was widely believed that the myth of Evita had arisen in the Argentinian working classes and centered an ideal of pure and passive womanhood incarnate, who exercised saintly power closely related to this classic femininity. According to this idea, popular enthusiasm for Eva Per n not only assumes a vaguely religious nature, but also takes the form of an irrational, mystic reverence for a saint or madonna."(Foster and Lockhart, 25-26) Naturally, Evita's early death was accompanied by a state of nation mourning, which was assumed even without previous instruction. Also, her popularity and the fear of a crisis among the people compelled the greatest secrecy related to the cervical cancer which caused her death. The diagnosis was concealed from Evita herself and from the general public, so as not to increase the vulnerability of the Peron regime: "Politics was another potentially relevant factor. The concealment of Evita's diagnosis may in part have reflected a decision not to burden her with the ramifications of her impending death to Argentina's future. In addition, because the family's decision to withhold the diagnosis from Evita necessitated keeping the Argentine people uninformed, secrecy may also have had the additional benefit of hiding information that would have increased the political vulnerability of the Peron regime."(Lerner, 312) the biographical details of Eva's life thus emphasize her great historical role and her enormous influence as a cultural symbol for the Argentinean people.

As Eva Peron emphasized in another of he writings, namely, the History of Peronism, her actions were all performed out of devotion to the ideas promoted by Peronism, such as the triumph of the working class people, and the establishment of social justice: "The working class forces have triumphed, thanks to the humble, good men and the workers who saw in Per n not only the social reformer, but also the patriot, the man who brought security to the nation, the man who would fight so that when he retired the country would be bigger, happier, and more prosperous than when he found it. These men made the triumph of Per n possible. This is why we Argentines may enjoy our social justice, and our economic independence which grows greater every day, thanks to the patriotic effort and extraordinary vision of General Per n."(Peron) These were seen as patriotic aims as well, as they also promoted the economic independence of Argentine.