The Life of Argentinian Saint Evita Peron
The Life of Argentinian Saint Evita Peron
Evita Peron, to many Argentines, was a saint. 40,000 of them would write to the pope attesting to her miracles. She was born on May 7, 1919, in Los Toldos, and baptized Maria Eva, but everyone called her Evita. Her father abandoned the family shortly after her birth. In early 1935, the young Evita fled to Buenos Aires. She wanted to be an actress, and in the next few years supported herself with bit parts. She began regular visits to the offices of a movie magazine, talking herself up for mention in its pages. When, in 1939, she was hired as a second-tier actress in a radio company; she discovered a talent for playing heroines in the fantasy world of radio soap opera. This was a period of political uncertainty in Argentina, yet few people were prepared for the military coup that took place in June 1943. Among the many measures instituted by the new government was the censorship of radio soap operas. Quickly adapting to the new environment, Evita approached the officer in charge of allocating airtime, Colonel Anibal Imbert. She seduced him, and Imbert approved a new project Evita had in mind, a radio series called Heroines of History. Six months after Evita met Imbert, an earthquake struck Argentina. Colonel Juan Peron, the secretary of labor in the military government, launched a collection for the victims. He arranged for the Buenos Aires acting community to donate its time for an evening's entertainment, with the proceeds going to disaster relief. Evita was present on the big night, and she wanted to meet the colonel. They talked for hours and left together. Within days Evita had moved into Peron's apartment. Peron had risen quickly in the government and had accomplished a major coup with the unions, essentially taking control of them.
In February, Peron engineered the ouster of the president and took over the war ministry. Evita continued her radio portrayals of famous women, but her ambitions lay in the movies. She wanted Peron to help her in her film career, and he did by procuring the film itself, a commodity difficult to obtain during World War II. He offered it to a movie studio in exchange for Evita's starring role in a film. Four months into their relationship, Evita was named president of a...