Evita Peron

Evita Peron


     In 1949 the most familiar scene in Argentina was the one played out

almost daily at the Ministry of Labor in Buenos Aires. There, under the glare of

camera lights, a former radio star and movie actress, now the most powerful

woman in South America, would enter her office past a crush of adoring,

impoverished women and children. Evita Peron, the wife of President Juan Peron,

would sit at her desk and begin one of the great rituals of Peronism, the

political movement she and her husband created. It was a pageant that sustained

them in power. She would patiently listen to the stories of the poor, then reach

into her desk to pull out some money. Or she would turn to a minister and ask

that a house be built. She would caress filthy children. She would kiss lepers,

just as the saints had done. To many Argentines, Evita Peron was a flesh-and-

blood saint; later, 40,000 of them would write to the pope attesting to her

miracles.


     She was born on May 7, 1919, in Los Toldos, and baptized Maria Eva, but

everyone called her Evita. Her father abandoned the family shortly after her

birth. Fifteen years of poverty followed and, in early 1935, the young Evita

fled her stifling existence to go to Buenos Aires. Perhaps, as some have said,

she fell in love with a tango singer who was passing through.


     She wanted to be an actress, and in the next few years supported herself

with bit parts, photo sessions for titillating magazines and stints as an

attractive judge of tango competitions. She began frequenting the offices of a

movie magazine, talking herself up for mention in its pages. When, in 1939, she

was hired as an actress in a radio company, she discovered a talent for playing

heroines in the fantasy world of radio soap opera.


     This was a period of political uncertainty in Argentina, yet few people

were prepared for the military coup that took place in June 1943. Among the many

measures instituted by the new government was the censorship of radio soap

operas. Quickly adapting to the new environment, Evita approached the officer in

charge of allocating airtime, Colonel Anibal Imbert. She seduced him, and Imbert

approved a new project Evita had in mind, a radio series called Heroines of

History. Years later, people would say that Evita had been a prostitute.


     Six months after Evita met Imbert, an earthquake struck Argentina.

Colonel Juan Peron, the secretary of labor in the military government, launched

a collection for the victims. He arranged for the Buenos Aires acting community

to donate its time for an evening's entertainment, with the proceeds going to

disaster relief. Evita was present on the big night, and she wanted to meet the

colonel. Peron had risen quickly in the government and had accomplished a major

coup with the unions, essentially taking control of them. But Evita probably

knew nothing of this. Not political in the conventional sense, she was attracted

instead by the colonel's dashing figure and his aura of power. They talked for

hours and left together. Within days Evita had moved into Peron's apartment.


     In February, Peron engineered the ouster of the president and took over

the war ministry for himself. Evita continued her radio portrayals of famous

women, but her ambitions lay in the movies. She wanted Peron to help her in her

film career, and he did by procuring the film itself, a commodity difficult to

obtain during World War II. He offered it to a movie studio in exchange for

Evita's starring role in a film. When she arrived for the first day of filming,

it was in a war ministry limousine.


     Four months into their relationship, Evita was named president of a new

actors' union Peron had created. (Any actors who wanted to work were obliged to

join.) Soon afterward, she began a daily radio broadcast called Toward a Better

Future. It was government propaganda, and it was the first time Evita's dramatic

talents had been harnessed to advance the political interests she was picking up

from Peron.


     When World War II ended in 1945, Peron, then vice president, beThis is ONLY a preview of the article. If you would like to view the entire document, you must subscribe to Electronic References. Please register below now!


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