Wife and political partner of President Juan Peron of Argentina.
Born May 7, 1919, the youngest of five children, in the little
village of Los Toldos in Buenos Aires province, Argentiina.Following
the death of her father, the family moved to the larger nearby
town of Junin, where her mother ran a boarding house. At the
age of 16, Evita, as she was often affectionately called, left
school and went to Buenos Aires with the dream of becoming an
actress. Lacking any theatrical training, she obtained a few bit
parts in motion pictures and on the radio, until she was finally
employed on a regular basis with one of the larger radio stations
in Buenos Aires.
In November 1943 she met Colonel Juan Peron, who had just assumed
the post of secretary of labor and social welfare in the military
government which had come to power the previous June. Eva developed
an intimate relationship with the widowed Peron, who was beginning
to organize the Argentine workers in support of his own bid for
the presidency. Becoming Peron's loyal political confidante and
partner, she rendered him valuable assistance in gaining support
among the masses. In October 1945, following Peron's arrest and
imprisonment by a group of military men opposed to his political
ascendancy, she helped to organize a mass demonstration that led
to his release. A few days later, on October 21, 1945, Eva and
Juan Peron were married. Now politically stronger than ever, Peron
became the government candidate in the presidential election set
for February 1946. In an action unprecedented for Argentine women,
Senora de Peron participated actively in the ensuing campaign,
directing her appeal to the less privileged groups of Argentine
society, whom she labeled los descamisados ("the shirtless
ones").
Following Peron's election, Eva began to play an increasingly important role in the political affairs of the nation. During the early months of the Peron administration she launched an active campaign for national woman suffrage, which had been promised in Peron's electoral platform. Due largely to her efforts, suffrage for women was enacted in 1947, and in 1951 women voted for the first time in a national election.
Eva also assumed the task of consolidating the support of the working classes and controlling organized labor. Taking over a suite of offices in the Secretariate of Labor, Peron's former center of power, she used her influence to seat and unseat ministers of labor and top officials of the General Confederation of Labor, the chief labor organization in Argentina. For all practical purposes she became the secretary of labor, supporting workers' claims for higher wages and sponsoring a host of social welfare measures.
Because of her own lower-class background, Eva readily identified with the working classes and was fervently committed to improving their lot. She devoted several hours every day to audiences with the poor and visits to hospitals, orphanages, and factories. She also supervised the newly created Ministry of Health, which built many new hospitals and established a remarkably successful program to eradicate such diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, and leprosy.
The Maria Eva Duarte De Peron Welfare Foundation established
in June 1947 carried out a large part of her work with the poor.
Financed by contributions, often forcefully exacted, from trade
unions, businesses, and industrial firms, it grew into an enormous
semi-official welfare agency which distributed food, clothing,
medicine, and money to needy people
throughout Argentina, and even upon occasion to those suffering
from disasters in other Latin American countries. Enjoying great
popularity among the descamisados, Eva Peron aided significantly
in making the masses feel indebted to the Peron regime. On the
other hand, her program of social welfare and her campaign for
female suffrage aroused considerable opposition among the gente
bien(social elite), to whom Eva was unacceptable because of her
own humble background and
earlier activities. Eva was driven by the desire to master those
members of the oligarchy that had rejected her and she could be
ruthless and vindictive with her enemies.
In June 1951 it was announced that Eva would be the vice-presidential candidate on the re-election ticket with Peron in the upcoming national election. Eva's candidacy was strongly supported by the General Confederation of Labor. But opposition within the military and her own failing health caused her to decline the nomination. Already suffering from cancer, Eva died on July 26, 1952, at the age of 32.
After Eva's death, which produced an almost unprecedented display of public grief, Peron's political fortunes began to deteriorate, and he was finally overthrown by a military coup in September 1955.
Eva Peron remains a controversial figure in Argentine history.
Diminutive, attractive, and highly vivacious, both her friends
and her enemies agreed that she was a woman of great personal
charm. Her supporters have elevated her to popular sainthood as
the patroness of the lower-classes, and the sympathetic portrayal
of her in the 1997 film Evita, starring
American actress and singer Madonna, reintroduced Eva to the American
public. By the oligarchy and a large part of the officer corps
of the military, however, she is greatly detested. There is still
considerable difference of opinion regarding her true role in
the Peron regime and her ultimate place in Argentine history.
Biography Resource Center, © 2000 Gale Group
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