Eva Duarte Peron: EVITA - a pilgrimage to Recoleta Cemetery. Page 2

Eva Duarte Peron: EVITA - a pilgrimage to Recoleta Cemetery. Page 2

In 1944, as a protégé of Pres. Gen. Edelmiro J. Farrell (1944–46), Perón became minister of war and then vice president.

However, the direction of government and Perón’s ‘socialism’ had few fans in the ultra-conservative armed forces. The tide of socialism sweeping Europe and the America’s was of great concern and Argentina’s pending free elections worried both military and business leaders. Not least of those who saw communist bogeymen under every American bed. Now it is Muslims.

In October 1945, Perón was ousted from his position by rival army and navy officers in Argentina’s shortest coup, which resulted in the labor unions rallying the workers of greater Buenos Aires - Perón was released from custody on 17 October 1945. That night, from the balcony of the presidential palace (Casa Rosada), he addressed 300,000 people. He promised social justice and reform, and to lead the Argentine people to victory in the pending presidential election.

A few days later, Perón, who was a widower, married Eva Duarte, who had been an undistinguished stage and radio actress. Perón’s politics and his meteoric rise have often been attributed to this powerful lady. Eva Duarte de Perón participated in her husband's 1945–46 presidential campaign, winning the adulation of the working-class masses, which she addressed as los descamisados.

Evita was to become a powerful political ally of her husband, revered by the lower economic classes.
Evita never held an official government post but acted as her husband’s de facto minister of health and labor, and was successful in influencing wage increases for the unions, who responded with greater political support for Perón. These sweeping reforms alienated him from the Argentine ruling elite, their external masters and military classes in Argentina.

Perón cut off government subsidies to the traditional and corrupt Sociedad de Beneficencia (Aid Society) and replaced it with the Eva Perón Foundation, which was supported by “voluntary” union and business contributions, plus a substantial cut of the national lottery.

Evita These resources were better used to establish hospitals, schools, orphanages and homes for the elderly. Evita was also largely responsible for the passage of the woman suffrage law and she formed the Perónista Feminist Party in 1949. In 1951, although dying of cancer, she obtained the nomination for vice president, but the army forced her to withdraw her candidacy. It should be noted that Argentina’s political system was often subject to military control until 1983.

Even after her death, Evita remains a formidable influence in Argentina’s society and a great iconic figure of Argentine history. Christina Kirchner’s recent presidential campaign had more than just a mention and flavor of Eva Duarte de Perón.

Evita’s working-class followers tried unsuccessfully to have her canonised, and her enemies in the military, in an effort to exorcise her as a national symbol of Perónism, exported Eva Duarte de Perón’s embalmed body in 1955 after Juan Perón was overthrown and secreted it in Italy for 16 years.

Eva Peron In 1971, the military government, bowing to Perónist demands, turned over her remains to her exiled widower in Madrid. After Juan Perón died in office in 1974, his third wife and vice-president, Isabel Perón, hoping to gain favor among the populace, repatriated the remains and interred them next to Juan Perón in a crypt in the presidential palace.

Two years later a new military junta hostile to Perónism removed their bodies and it is sometimes claimed that their remains are still missing.

Evita’s remains were finally interred in her family crypt (the Duartes) in Recoleta Cemetery. Eva Duarte Perón’s story and her memory are held very close to Argentina’s heart and a pilgrimage to Evita’s resting place in Recoleta Cemetery is a must on your list of things to do in Buenos Aires.