Evita: The Real Lives of Eva Peron by Fraser Nicholas & Navarro Marysa

Author:Fraser, Nicholas & Navarro, Marysa
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780120799
Publisher: Andre Deutsch Ltd
Published: 2003-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

We’ll triumph with Evita

And with her we’ll dedicate

Our lives to Perón.

Viva Perón! Viva Perón!

For Perón and for Evita

We want to give our lives

For Evita our captain

And Perón our general.

By now the history of 17 October had been written to provide a part in the ‘revolution’ for Evita; as protagonist, loyalist, and spiritual support. She had many ‘titles’ – ‘The Lady of Hope’, ‘The Mother of the Innocents’, ‘The Workers’ Plenipotentiary’, ‘The Standard-bearer of the descamisados’ – but the one she used most often on this occasion was the simplest; ‘The Bridge of Love’. Where Perón’s lengthy and raucously delivered speeches might deal with any matter of policy or contain an explication of his ideology or his theories of leadership, Evita dealt essentially with herself, with Perón and with the descamisados. She would speak on Perón’s behalf to the crowd or on the crowd’s behalf to Perón and then for herself, the person who brought the leader and his people together.

Evita had earlier been an indifferent public speaker, shrill and monotonous, but by 1948 she had acquired a masterly ability to convey emotion publicly. Even those opposed to her who affected to find the content of her speeches boring came away with a strong sense of the intense, reciprocal emotion that passed through any meeting she addressed. Usually, she began ‘My dear descamisados’. She spoke of the benighted days of the Oligarchy, of a past in which the only important event to have occurred was the Revolution of 17 October, and of a present defined by ominous threats and betrayals on the part of ‘selfish, traitorous’ enemies. Only with the coming of Perón had Argentines received ‘social justice’, and now it would be maintained ‘inexorably’ or ‘at all costs’. Evita spoke fluently, dramatically and passionately; often she would abandon her text and improvise in her own words and she stabbed at the air as if to touch the audience. At the midst of each speech, she spoke of her own heart. Perón had worked for the people because he loved them and they had shown their own gratitude by freeing him from prison. Then she, out of her own gratitude, had given herself first to Perón and then to them.

Evita dealt, not in political terminology but in that of the emotions. Her language came from her own feelings and the conventions of the soap operas, and they made the notions of love and loyalty to Perón vivid and urgent. These were important in Peronism because for many people they were the content of Peronism. But they also played a large part in the progressive elevation of Perón to divine status. Evita’s cult of Perón probably first occurred in her speeches to shore up her own political identity and to reflect her own real admiration for Perón, but by 1949, the cult was institutionalized and Evita was its priestess. More than any alleged defect of character this hero-worship, arising out of great love, corrupted Perón and debased his movement. The press was gagged and Congress was cowed; it became an offence to speak slightingly of Perón.

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