Eva Perón (1919–1952)

The book tells the story of Eva Duarte Peron, known to her political allies and country people as "Evita." She was a young Spanish actress who became the second wife of Juan Domingo Peron. He was a military leader who advocated for the rights of the working class.

In her book, Mi Mensaje, Evita describes a political climate of unrest. She was a steadfast supporter of her husband, and was, perhaps, too much of a hero worshipper. She liked to give speeches filled with emotion and was known for her popular radio addresses.

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and suspected her doctors were trying to eliminate her from rising in authority in her husband's government. She did, in fact, die after complications from surgery.

Her "message" is filled with passion and intent. She considered herself an idealist of the heart and hated indifference. She had an innate distrust of the military and favored putting governmental power in the hands of the people.

"When you speak simply and lovingly to the people," she says, "the people comprehend the truth offered them. And all the more faithfully if it is preached by example."

Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Evita-Own-Words-Eva-Peron/dp/1565843533… (more)

This is Eva Peron’s memoir, finished just weeks before her death on July 26, 1952. Sixty years later, the musical “Evita” is being revived on Broadway, the movie version of the musical is being played on television and just yesterday (August 15) I read: “President Cristina Fernandez revealed the new 100-peso note Wednesday night on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the death of Evita Peron. She's the first woman to appear on any Argentine banknote.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/eva-peron-peso-note-unv_n_1705514.html) According to the appendix of reprinted newspaper articles included in the 1980 edition I have here this was the scene in Argentina sixty years ago: "Two hundred thousand … lined the two-mile street tonight from the President’s palace. When the body of Eva Peron had been placed in an open coffin covered with glass in the hall of the trade union headquarters, the people filed past 16 ft. away, a stream which will go on for two days.” (The Times, Wednesday, July 30, 1952)* Some would call her a saint. Peron’s labor unions actually attempted to have her canonized after her death. Others would call her a manipulative whore who slept her way to the top and abused the power she had as fascist dictator’s – I mean - democratically elected President Peron’s wife. I wanted to find out who this woman was who attracted such love and hate, attention and grief, who manages to garner such fascination still today.

She was the youngest in a family of five – and illegitimate. Her father was married already with a family of his own; Eva belonged to this “second” family. She was poor. At the age of 15 she made her way to Buenos Airies (and not with any tango singer as mythified in the musical, but according to the tiny research I've done, with her mother and then stayed with a family there) where she went to pursue a career in acting where she had some – and then a little more than some, especially after her association with General Juan Domingo Peron – success. None of that is written here, however, this is not Eva Peron’s life story; it is her passionate – PASSIONATE!!! – and politically charged statement on how much she loved, loved, LOVED!!! her husband, her descamisados (shirtless ones), and how much she hate, hate, hated the privileged minority of Argentina, the oligarchy, who oppressed her beloved descamisados! The book is divided into three main sections: The Causes of My Mission, The Workers and My Mission, Women and my Mission. This woman was on a Mission!

The melodrama jumps off the page immediately in the Prologue in which she compares herself to a sparrow and General Peron as a condor: “I was a sparrow… If I fly higher, it is through him. If I walk among the peaks it is through him.” And before this: “All that I am, all that I have, all that I think and all that I feel, belongs to Peron.” Needless to say the first half of the book is filled with histrionic worship of her husband - not as a man so much but more as Leader, General, President, Father and Friend of the people. She compares his rising political star to the birth of Jesus Christ: “They saw him and believed. What happened in Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago was repeated here. The first to believe were not the rich, not the wise, not the powerful, but the humble.” The humble being, of course, the poor working class Argentinians, the descamisados. She describes the eight days Peron was under arrest in October of 1945 as her “hour of Calvary.” By the middle of this short book I had read so much histrionic, melodramatic propaganda that I didn’t know if I needed two aspirins, a nap, or a deprogramming! So I decided to quit. And then I read: “Among my readers, as in every corner of the earth, there are sure to be two classes of souls. The class of narrow souls who cannot conceive of generosity, nor of love, nor even of hope, as realities. If this book falls into the hands of a soul like that, I beg him to not continue further. It is not worth while! It will all seem futile to him, or simply propaganda. Here begin the chapters that none but those who still believe in sincerity, in faith, in love, and in hope will be able to understand.” So I continued on! (I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about being manipulated and insulted by a dead woman.)

I’m glad I continued. Because the last half of the book is filled with her “social welfare” or “social justice” work. At that period of Argentina’s history, social charity had been undertaken by a small group of rich women: the Sociedad de Beneficencia. Orphans under the care of the Sociedad had to wear a blue uniform and have their heads shaved. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Peron_Foundation) No wonder she said “When the rich think of the poor, they have poor ideas.” Mother Evita had her own way of helping: “In my homes, no descamisado should feel that he is poor. … The tables in the dining room have colorful cloths, and flowers must not be lacking, as they never are in any home where there is a mother or a wife who is more or less fond of her family.” The children were not to wear uniforms, but have “clothes of the color he likes. The only stipulation is that he must have something good; because these children are accustomed to poverty, they must not choose the worst! – although this very seldom happens… good taste is the last thing lost through poverty!” She also speaks of sending pan dulce and cider to the five million Argentinians at Christmas (a traditional symbolic gift from her and her husband); of sending gifts (of what, I’m not sure) to the children at Epiphany; and of the endless letters and personal visits she received from the poor with their requests – requests that she tried to fill through her foundation - on Wednesday afternoons at the Secretariat (her office). I was amazed when I read how she wanted homemakers to receive a small “allowance” for their work as homemakers: “A salary paid to the mothers by all the nation and which comes out of all the earnings of all the workers in the country, including the women.” She thought of herself as a mother also. “For I really feel myself the mother of my people! And I honestly think that I am.” Now I understand why all the mourning and grief over her. Imagine being a poor descamisado pushed to the margin of society only to all of a sudden being elevated to the most loved group by the President and First Lady, who not only tell you that you matter more to them than the upper class, but actually personalize it with gifts and “social justice” in which all the wealth of the well-to-do minority - which should have been yours in the first place - is promised to you now. "What I give belongs to those who receive it. I do nothing but return to the poor what all the rest of us owe them, because we had taken it away from them unjustly." No wonder 200,000 people lined the streets around the President’s palace!

Of course, there is the sinister side to the story. Where did all that money for her foundation come from? And just where was it all going? At the same time sweet mother Evita was taking care of her descamisados she was wearing furs, Paris couture and expensive jewels (she had an answer to this as well - it was done so that the poor could see what they could one day have under Peronism). What happened to you if you were not a Peronista? You were a traitor, of course. At one point she defines the oligarchy she hates so much as anyone (anyone!) who opposes Peron. These are Evita’s writings from her “innermost heart”. She refers to herself quite frequently as a humble woman, the shadow of Peron, who would gladly lay down her life for her people. She does confess to having some “personal ambition”: “I would like the name of Evita to figure somewhere in the history of my country …. If only in a small footnote … And I would feel duly compensated – and more – if the note ended like this:" 'All we know about that woman is that the people called her, fondly, Evita.'"… (more)

Occasionally, a self-biography will give wonderful, engaging insights into prominent figures, and show by gaze of their trials and tribulations the paths by which they learned wisdom. The auto-biography is Eva Peron is no such book. Amazingly, it comes off rather as a propaganda piece. Note,however, that later chapters were written when "Evita" was very ill, and likely understood that she wasn't much longer for this world. Knowing that, one then has the option of looking at this tome as her last token of love for her husband, Juan Peron, understanding that after her death, his connection -whatever remained of it after enacting the policies of totalitarian regime- with the common people would be buried with her.… (more)