Promotional headshot portrait of Argentinean singer, actress, and first lady, Eva Duarte Peron (1919 - 1952), circa 1940s.
(Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1944
Eva Duarte at age 25
Gallery of Eva Perón
1945
Eva Duarte and Libertad Lamarque in La Cabalgata del Circo
Gallery of Eva Perón
1945
Argentina
Maria Eva Duarte Peron, (1919-1952), the First Lady of Argentina is shown here. She was Juan Peron's second wife in 1945, and active in social reforms.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1945
Argentina
President Juan Peron of Argentina and his wife Eva Peron pictured on a yachting trip, 1945.
(Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1945
Argentina
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), the wife of Argentinian Premier Juan Peron.
(Photo by Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1946
Argentina
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), the wife of Argentinian presidential candidate Juan Peron, sitting at a make-up table during her husband's campaign, Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 1946.
(Photo by Thomas D. McAvoy/The LIFE Picture Collection)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1946
Argentina
(Photo by Universal History Archive)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Evita and Juan Perón
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
R. do Catete, 153 - Catete, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, 22220-000, Brazil
Eva Perón and Brazilian President Eurico Gaspar Dutra at the Catete Palace.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Rapallo, Italy
Eva Peron, wife of the President of Argentina, pictured on holiday in Rapallo, July 18th, 1947.
(Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Argentina
Portrait of President Juan Peron of Argentina and his wife Eva Peron, circa 1947.
(Photo by Oscar Kersenbaum/Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Argentina
Portrait of Eva Peron (1919-1952), wife of President of Argentina, Juan Peron, wearing a long ruffled dress, July 8th 1947.
(Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Madrid, Spain
Argentinean First Lady Eva Peron speaks at the celebrations of the festival of the Virgin of Paloma during her first visit to Madrid | Location: Madrid, Spain.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
City Hall, Madrid, Spain
Politics, Personalities, pic: June 1947, City Hall, Madrid, Spain, Eva Peron, 1919-1952, the wife of the Argentine President, left, alongside Spain's General Franco at a gala party (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Italy
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952) the former actress and wife of the Argentinian president Juan Peron, otherwise known as 'Evita', attending a function in Rome during her tour of Italy.
(Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Milan, Italy
6th July 1947: Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), the wife of the Argentinian President, during a tour of the commercial show in Milan.
(Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Kochergasse 3/5, 3011 Bern, Switzerland
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), second wife of Argentinian president Juan Peron, dancing the tango with Enrico Celio, Swiss Minister for Post Office and Railways, at a reception given in her honor at the Hotel Bellevue Palace at Berne. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1947
Argentina
29th August 1947: A smiling Juan Peron (1895 - 1974), the Argentine president, greets his wife Eva Peron(1919 - 1952), on her arrival home in Buenos Aires from Europe.
(Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1948
Official portrait of Juan Domingo Perón and Evita, by Numa Ayrinhac. He is the only Argentine President to be accompanied by the First Lady in an official portrait.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1948
Perón kicks off the Youth Football Championship
Gallery of Eva Perón
1948
Buenos Aires, Argentina
6th September 1948: Eva Peron (1919 - 1952)with her husband President Peron of Argentina and talking to General Pistarini while on their way to a Thanksgiving Day ceremony in Buenos Aires. Mme Peron is wearing the celebrated 'New Look.'
(Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1949
Argentina
Maria Eva Duarte de Peron (1919-1952), was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Peron and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952.
(Photo by: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1950
Argentina
Picture shows Juan Peron (at right), Argentine President, and his wife, Evita. They are shown wearing black tie attire. Undated photo circa 1950s.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1950
Argentina
Upon the 5th anniversary of the Peronist movement in Buenos Aires, Argentinian President Juan PERON and his wife Eva Peron hail the crowd from the presidential balcony.
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1950
Bolívar 1, C1066 AAA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eva Peron (1919-1952), the second wife of Argentinian president Juan Peron greeting the crowds from the balcony of Government House, Buenos Aires on the fifth anniversary of the 'Peronist Movement.' The ceremony commemorates the day when Peron returned to power in 1945. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1950
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eva Peron attending a national feast commemorating Argentina's 141st Independence Day. (Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1950
Olivos, Argentina
10th October 1950: Former actress and wife of the Argentinian president, (Maria) Eva Duarte Peron (1919 - 1952) holding her pet dog at her home in Olivos, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
(Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1951
A crowd of an estimated two million gathers to show support for the Juan Perón–Eva Perón ticket.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1951
Perón embraces her husband during the joint ticket rally, unable to accept popular calls that she runs for Vice-President.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1951
Official portrait of Eva Perón, a few months before her death.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1951
Argentina
Eva PERON makes her election address during the demonstrations in Buenos Aires. One million workers converged on Buenos Aires to demand that President Juan PERON and wife Eva PERON rule Argentine for the next six years. The demonstration, the largest even held in Argentina, were called by the General Federation of Labour (CGT), ostensibly to persuade Peron to stand for re-election as President on November 11th - and his wife Eva to stand for Vice-President.
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1951
Argentina
President Juan Perón and his wife Eva Perón celebrate the Día de la Lealtad, or Loyalty Day, in Argentina, 17th October 1951. The day commemorates the demonstration in 1945 in the Plaza de Mayo which led to the release of the jailed Juan Perón.
(Photo by Popperfoto)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1951
Pasaje Mozart y Avellaneda, Corbatta S/N, B1870 BAB, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eva Peron, former actress and wife of Argentinian President, Juan Peron and commonly known as Evita, takes the first kick in a football match. She stands amongst a group of young footballers participating in the Argentine Children's Football Tournament held at the President Peron Stadium, Buenos Aires.
(Photo by Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1952
Argentina
Juan Domingo Peron: 1895-1974. President of Argentina 1946-55. With his wife Evita.
Gallery of Eva Perón
1952
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The body of Evita Peron arrives at the General Workers Confederation building. A magnificent funeral for the wife of Argentinian President Juan PERON, who dies of ovarian cancer at the age of 33. Argentinians are shocked, the working-class crowd the streets to mourn her passing. Her body rests in the C.G.T. building in Buenos Aires, awaiting a permanent burial place to be built.
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
Gallery of Eva Perón
1948
Perón kicks off the Youth Football Championship
Achievements
Membership
Eva Perón Foundation
Awards
Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of the Condor of the Andes
Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross
Grand Cross of the Order of Boyaca, Special Class
Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau
Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic
Dame Grand Cross of Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Maria Eva Duarte Peron, (1919-1952), the First Lady of Argentina is shown here. She was Juan Peron's second wife in 1945, and active in social reforms.
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), the wife of Argentinian presidential candidate Juan Peron, sitting at a make-up table during her husband's campaign, Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 1946.
(Photo by Thomas D. McAvoy/The LIFE Picture Collection)
Portrait of Eva Peron (1919-1952), wife of President of Argentina, Juan Peron, wearing a long ruffled dress, July 8th 1947.
(Photo by Paul Popper/Popperfoto)
Argentinean First Lady Eva Peron speaks at the celebrations of the festival of the Virgin of Paloma during her first visit to Madrid | Location: Madrid, Spain.
Politics, Personalities, pic: June 1947, City Hall, Madrid, Spain, Eva Peron, 1919-1952, the wife of the Argentine President, left, alongside Spain's General Franco at a gala party (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952) the former actress and wife of the Argentinian president Juan Peron, otherwise known as 'Evita', attending a function in Rome during her tour of Italy.
(Photo by Keystone)
Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), second wife of Argentinian president Juan Peron, dancing the tango with Enrico Celio, Swiss Minister for Post Office and Railways, at a reception given in her honor at the Hotel Bellevue Palace at Berne. (Photo by Keystone)
29th August 1947: A smiling Juan Peron (1895 - 1974), the Argentine president, greets his wife Eva Peron(1919 - 1952), on her arrival home in Buenos Aires from Europe.
(Photo by Keystone)
Official portrait of Juan Domingo Perón and Evita, by Numa Ayrinhac. He is the only Argentine President to be accompanied by the First Lady in an official portrait.
6th September 1948: Eva Peron (1919 - 1952)with her husband President Peron of Argentina and talking to General Pistarini while on their way to a Thanksgiving Day ceremony in Buenos Aires. Mme Peron is wearing the celebrated 'New Look.'
(Photo by Keystone)
Maria Eva Duarte de Peron (1919-1952), was the second wife of Argentine President Juan Peron and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952.
(Photo by: Universal History Archive/ Universal Images Group)
Upon the 5th anniversary of the Peronist movement in Buenos Aires, Argentinian President Juan PERON and his wife Eva Peron hail the crowd from the presidential balcony.
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
Eva Peron (1919-1952), the second wife of Argentinian president Juan Peron greeting the crowds from the balcony of Government House, Buenos Aires on the fifth anniversary of the 'Peronist Movement.' The ceremony commemorates the day when Peron returned to power in 1945. (Photo by Keystone)
10th October 1950: Former actress and wife of the Argentinian president, (Maria) Eva Duarte Peron (1919 - 1952) holding her pet dog at her home in Olivos, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
(Photo by Keystone)
Eva PERON makes her election address during the demonstrations in Buenos Aires. One million workers converged on Buenos Aires to demand that President Juan PERON and wife Eva PERON rule Argentine for the next six years. The demonstration, the largest even held in Argentina, were called by the General Federation of Labour (CGT), ostensibly to persuade Peron to stand for re-election as President on November 11th - and his wife Eva to stand for Vice-President.
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
President Juan Perón and his wife Eva Perón celebrate the Día de la Lealtad, or Loyalty Day, in Argentina, 17th October 1951. The day commemorates the demonstration in 1945 in the Plaza de Mayo which led to the release of the jailed Juan Perón.
(Photo by Popperfoto)
Pasaje Mozart y Avellaneda, Corbatta S/N, B1870 BAB, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eva Peron, former actress and wife of Argentinian President, Juan Peron and commonly known as Evita, takes the first kick in a football match. She stands amongst a group of young footballers participating in the Argentine Children's Football Tournament held at the President Peron Stadium, Buenos Aires.
(Photo by Keystone)
The body of Evita Peron arrives at the General Workers Confederation building. A magnificent funeral for the wife of Argentinian President Juan PERON, who dies of ovarian cancer at the age of 33. Argentinians are shocked, the working-class crowd the streets to mourn her passing. Her body rests in the C.G.T. building in Buenos Aires, awaiting a permanent burial place to be built.
(Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone)
10th April 1947: Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), the wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, reads a copy of 'Democrazia', the newspaper she owns.
(Photo by Keystone)
Liza Minnelli reading the plaque on Eva Perón's tomb, 1993. In the early 1980s, Minnelli was considered for the lead role in the movie version of the musical Evita.
(La Razón de mi Vida is the autobiography of Eva Perón, Fi...)
La Razón de mi Vida is the autobiography of Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. Published in 1951 shortly before Eva Perón's death, it became one of the fastest-selling books in Argentine history. Written in a conversational tone, it is largely a compilation of her speeches. Eva Perón shares her perspectives on feminism and the role of women in political life, labor rights, poverty, and, of course, Peronism, the political movement founded by her husband Juan Perón. In 1952, the year she died, the Congress of Argentina ordered the autobiography to be used as a textbook in the Argentine schools.
Eva Perón, in full Eva Duarte de Perón, née María Eva Duarte, byname Evita, was the second wife of Argentine president Juan Perón, who, during her husband’s first term as president (1946–52), became a powerful though unofficial political leader, revered by the lower economic classes. She fought for women's suffrage and improving the lives of the poor.
Background
Ethnicity:
Her father, Juan Duarte, was descended from French Basque immigrants. Her mother Juana Ibarguren, was descended from Spanish Basque immigrants.
Duarte was born on May 7, 1919, in the small town of Los Toldos on the Argentine Pampas. Her parents, Juan Duarte and Juana Ibarguren, were not married, and her father had a wife and another family. Eva’s family struggled financially, and the situation worsened when Juan died when she was six years old. A few years later they moved to Junín, Argentina.
Education
Eva's childhood was spent in contact with nature, climbing trees, raising silkworms, playing hide-and-seek, hopscotch, and tag, wearing homemade costumes which replaced store-bought toys and made her into whatever she wanted to be.
Young Eva often participated in school plays and concerts. One of her favorite pastimes was the cinema. Though Eva's mother had a few plans for Eva, wanting to marry her off to one of the local bachelors, Eva herself dreamed of becoming a famous actress. Eva's love for acting was reinforced in October 1933, when she played a small role in a school play called Arriba Estudiantes (Students Arise), which Barnes describes as "an emotional, patriotic, flag-waving melodrama." After the play, Eva was determined to become an actress. She didn't graduate her school.
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 Perón, 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 Perón, who was beginning to organize the Argentine workers in support of his own bid for the presidency.
Becoming Perón's loyal political confidante and partner, she rendered him valuable assistance in gaining support among the masses. In October 1945, following Perón's arrest and imprisonment by a group of military men opposed to his political ascendancy, she helped to organize a mass demonstration which led to his release. A few days later, on October 21, 1945, Eva and Juan Perón were married.
Now politically stronger than ever, Perón became the government candidate in the presidential election set for February 1946. In an action unprecedented for Argentine women, Señora de Perón 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 Perón's election, Eva began to play an increasingly important role in the political affairs of the nation. During the early months of the Perón administration, she launched an active campaign for national woman suffrage, which had been promised in Perón'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, Perón'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.
A large part of her work with the poor was carried out by the María Eva Duarte de Perón Welfare Foundation established in June 1947. 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 Perón aided significantly in making the masses feel indebted to the Perón 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 Perón 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 her death in 1952, Eva remained a formidable influence in Argentine politics. Her working-class followers tried unsuccessfully to have her canonized, and her enemies, in an effort to exorcise her as a national symbol of Peronism, stole her embalmed body in 1955, after Juan Perón was overthrown, and secreted it in Italy for 16 years. In 1971 the military government, bowing to Peronist demands, turned over her remains to her exiled widower in Madrid. After Juan Perón died in office in 1974, his third wife, Isabel Perón, hoping to gain favor among the populace, repatriated the remains and installed them next to the deceased leader in a crypt in the presidential palace. Two years later a new military junta hostile to Peronism removed the bodies. Eva’s remains were finally interred in the Duarte family crypt in Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Eva remains an enduring cultural icon in Argentina and Latin America, and in many places people still honor the anniversary of her death. Among some groups, she has attained an almost saint-like status. In 2012, her image was printed on 20 million Argentine 100-peso notes. A formidable political figure in her own right, Eva Duarte de Perón was known for her campaign for female suffrage, her role with organized labor, and her organization of a vast social welfare program which benefited and gained the support of the lower classes.
Although not a government holiday, the anniversary of Eva Perón's death is marked by many Argentines each year. Additionally, Eva Perón has been featured on Argentine coins, and a form of Argentine currency called "Evitas" was named in her honor. Ciudad Evita (Evita City), which was established by the Eva Perón Foundation in 1947, is located just outside Buenos Aires.
Although she never held any government post, Eva acted as de facto minister of health and labor, awarding generous wage increases to the unions, who responded with political support for Perón. After cutting off government subsidies to the traditional Sociedad de Beneficencia (Spanish: "Aid Society"), thereby making more enemies among the traditional elite, she replaced it with her own Eva Perón Foundation, which was supported by "voluntary" union and business contributions plus a substantial cut of the national lottery and other funds. These resources were used to establish thousands of hospitals, schools, orphanages, homes for the aged, and other charitable institutions. Eva was largely responsible for the passage of the woman suffrage law and formed the Peronista Feminist Party in 1949. She also introduced compulsory religious education into all Argentine schools.
Views
The more Eva Perón worked with the poor in her foundation, the more she adopted an outraged attitude toward the existence of poverty, saying, "Sometimes I have wished my insults were slaps or lashes. I've wanted to hit people in the face to make them see, if only for a day, what I see each day I help the people." Crassweller writes that Evita became fanatical about her work in the foundation and felt as though she were on a crusade against the very concept and existence of poverty and social ills. "It is not surprising", writes Crassweller, "that as her public crusades and her private adorations took on a narrowing intensity after 1946, they simultaneously veered toward the transcendental."
Quotations:
"I know that like every woman of the people, I have more strength than I appear to have."
"One cannot accomplish anything without fanaticism."
"It is not philanthropy, nor is it charity... It is not even social welfare; to me, it is strict justice... I do nothing but return to the poor what the rest of us owe them, because we had taken it away from them unjustly."
"Time is my greatest enemy."
"Keeping books on social aid is capitalistic nonsense. I just use the money for the poor. I can't stop to count it."
"There are some oligarchs that make me want to bite them just as one crunches into a carrot or a radish."
"I will come again, and I will be millions."
Membership
Eva Perón founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation.
Eva Perón Foundation
,
Argentina
Personality
Eva Perón 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.
Physical Characteristics:
Hair color - blonde
Eyes color - brown
Quotes from others about the person
"In all of Latin America, only one other woman has aroused an emotion, devotion, and faith comparable to those awakened by the Virgin of Guadalupe. In many homes, the image of Evita is on the wall next to the Virgin." - Fabienne Rousso-Lenoir
"She was by any standard a very extraordinary woman; when you think of Argentina and indeed Latin America as a men-dominated part of the world, there was this woman who was playing a very great role. And of course she aroused very different feelings in the people with whom she lived. The oligarchs, as she called the well-to-do and privileged people, hated her. They looked upon her as a ruthless woman. The masses of the people on the other hand worshipped her. They looked upon her as a lady bountiful who was dispensing Manna from heaven." - John Balfour
"In the images examined, the three elements consistently linked - femininity, mystical or spirituality power, and revolutionary leadership - display an underlying common theme. Identification with any one of these elements puts a person or a group at the margins of established society and at the limits of institutional authority. Anyone who can identify with all three images lays an overwhelming and echoing claim to dominance through forces that recognize no control in society or its rules. Only a woman can embody all three elements of this power." - Julie M. Taylor
Interests
Politicians
Juan Perón
Connections
On October 21, 1945, Eva married Juan Perón.
Father:
Juan Duarte
Juan Duarte was a rancher married to Adela D'Uhart, but also maintained an extramarital affair with Juana Ibarguren Nuñez, with whom he had five children: Blanca Amelia, Elisa Juana, Juan Ramón, Erminda Luján and María Eva, (in the future Evita Perón). He died in Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires.
