Evita

I was watching the movie last night "Evita" we saw this movie in 1996 when it came out in theaters. I thought it was a good movie and some of my friends did not like it. In 1997 Madonna won a Golden Globe award and so did the movie. Madonna played the part of Eva Peron, the wife of the President of Argentina Juan Peron from 1945 until her death in 1952.

Maria Eva Duarte was born out of wedlock in rural Argentina in 1919, she spent her childhood in Junin, Buenos Aires with five sisters and brothers. In 1935 at age 15, Eva moved to Buenos Aires to pursue her dream of movie stardom. She spent many difficulties of surviving without a formal education in a overcroeded city. In 1936, she toured with a theater company and pursued this career until she met Colonel Juan Peron on January 22, 1944, they married the following year.

When Peron became President, Eva did not want to be a model wife like other wives, she wanted to work with Peron., hence the people called her Evita and as time went on and her work with the Foundation progressed they proclaimed her a saint. Within a few years her foundation assets in cash and goods exceeded three billion pesos or over $200 million at the exchange rate of the late 1940s.

Her foundation she had started had many services, its aims were to provide monetary assistance and scholarships to gifted children from impoverished backgrounds, built homes and homes for the seniors, schools, hospitals and orphanages. This was to satisfy the basic needs of less privileged class. Evita was able to have a law passed for equality of political rights between men and women and in September, 1947 it was finally established, women now had the right to vote.

By 1951 her health was deteoriating rapidly and she under went surgery, she had cervical cancer. After Juan Peron's second inauguration, Evita was given the official title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation". Despite all available treatment and by June, 1952, weighing only 79 pounds, Evita died at the age of 33 years of age. Her work had become a part of thousands of men, women and children who mourned her. Eva became an icon during her reign as wife of Peron. Argentina owe a debt to Evita for offering an example of passion and combativeness.

After Evita's death, the military demolished all the buildings and homes that Evita's foundation had built, her foundation did not last too many years after she died. It took more than twenty years after her death for Eva to find her final resting place.

The military removed her body from the labor unions headquarters in Buenos Aires and it disappeared. For years her family wrote letters requesting meetings with the military with no results. Just to show you how the military was, they feared an uprising so they moved her a few times and finally they moved her to Italy, and buried her under a asumed name. In 1971 the military returned her body to Juan Peron, he had been exiled to Madrid, Spain. Eva's family traveled to Spain and retreaved her body. Evita's body had been profaned, her neck partially severed, her face disfigured with hammer blows, her face and body slashed with a knife or sword, her knees broken, a finger severed, her nose crushed. This is so sad, no one deserves this kind of treatment, this is sacrelige in the worst way.

Eva has found her resting place, one that she deserves after all that. I think she was doing the right thing for her country, she made a lot of enemies along the way but she did right by the poor of her country. After 26 years Eva is buried in the Duarte family tomb in the Raloceta cemetery of Buenos Aires. To make sure she would not be stolen away again the tomb was built by a company that specializes in bank vaults and is built to resist burglary attempts, and her sister has the only key.. She is buried 20 feet underground, Eva was finally laid to rest in a glass covered coffin, the tomb will resist fire and bombings.

I really enjoyed this movie and still do when it is on the TV. Evita is listed as one of the great ladies of our times. Others may look at her and what she did with a different view.