Eva Perón (1919-1952) only lived to be 33, but Evita has had much longer staying power in the decades after her death. Eva started out as a young actress hoping to make it on the big stage, a fitting desire for a woman who became the subject of a major movie. But her destiny was to meet and marry Juan Perón in the 1940s, as he was on the verge of becoming president of Argentina. It would be on that stage that Evita charmed her country’s people and began advocating politically, to the point that she became her own political force in the country, slowed only by her premature death of cancer.
Since her death, the mythology and legend of Evita have grown monumentally. Though millions worshipped Eva, who nearly became the Vice-President of Argentina before her premature death, opinions of her still vary between two extremes. While some think of her as an angelic woman who sought to uplift women and the poor, others view her as a self-serving, egotistical, and embittered woman who used sex to rise up Argentina’s social and political ladder and seek vengeance on the upper classes. Evita: The Legacy and Mythology of Eva Perón humanizes the youngest of 5 siblings who once had more modest ambitions as Eva Duarte, and it explores the mythology and legacy that have grown around Evita, examining her representations in literature, film, and theatre to uncover the truth behind her enigmatic existence.
