Oh what I’d give for a hundred years!
But the physical interferes
Every day more--0 my Creator!
What is the good of the strongest heart
In a body that’s falling apart
A serious flaw--I hope You know that.
--Evita

The Open Forum

Perón’s methods changed little over the years, and when he presented the tattered carcass of the once-strong La Prensa to the descamisados, he expected the same kind of enthusiasm they had given him five years earlier. But one more victory over the oligarchs seemed meaningless in the face of the economic problems which had eroded most real wage gains.

One rather obvious change in the Casa Rosada was Perón’s relationship with the United States. The man who had campaigned under the anti-American banner in 1945 accepted a U.S. loan in 1950 and nationalism took a back seat to need when a trade agreement was signed in 1951 with favorable terms for Britain.

The shaky moments of 1950 and 1951, including strikes and army unrest, did not deter the ruling couple from preparing for the next election. All over the country, signs and banners were put up proclaiming "Perón Cumple--Evita Dignifica" (Perón achieves--Evita dignifies), and it began to look as though there would be a Perón-Perón ticket in 1952.

In a governmental system where the executive can rule by decree simply by placing the country in a state of siege, it may seem odd that Perón continued to insist upon receiving a mandate from the people for high office when he was a dictator in so many other ways. He could have easily declared himself emperor and Evita empress if he had so wished. But, his only answer to the diminishing of the regime’s popular support was to advance the date for the elections, hoping that he could get them over with before he had to introduce a plan for beef rationing.

Back before the days of October 1945, La Prensa wrote an editorial stating, "let nobody govern or try to govern unless he has been freely and spontaneously called by the people to govern." Both Peróns, particularly Evita, must have had this in mind while making plans for the re-election. To achieve this spontaneous call, Eva mounted what she promised would be the greatest show of love and loyalty Argentina had ever seen; she spent an estimated five hundred million pesos to gather 2.5 million people into the Plaza de Mayo. The CGT machine worked hard to fulfill the lady’s prophecy by using well-tried methods: organized and carefully planned free transportation from the interior, free food and lodging, entertainment, and excitement. Coercion within the union itself was used to enforce attendance at this extravaganza.

Perón had been the star of the Labor Day celebrations, when his own candidacy had been "forced" upon him, but this was Eva’s turn in the spotlight. On the morning of August 22nd, everything was ready. All that could be done had been done to ensure the success of this open forum, and the four-day festival was to begin with people [carefully rehearsed] begging Eva to be their next vice president and ending with the official nominations.

Football games (always the source of riots) were cancelled, the CGT called a general strike so that workers were free to attend, and even the weather cooperated, allowing Eva to walk out onto a sunny balcony.

But something went wrong. Only 250,000 people showed up, though the official press office would always insist that there were at least 1.5 million present. Eva handled her first flop like the professional she was, and was convincingly humble when the people asked her three times to accept the nomination. She finally said she would bend to the will of the people, went inside, and cancelled the remaining three days of the festival. The scheduled announcement of official acceptance never came; there was only silence from the Casa Rosada.

Victory for the Army and a Patriarchal Society

There was silence because the army had finally been pushed too far, and were so revolted by the idea that Eva would become their Commander-in-Chief should Perón be away, ill or die while in office, that they insisted on the withdrawal of Eva’s proposed candidacy. The argument was somewhat academic, considering the obvious state of Eva’s health (she had been ill for most of the year). Perón may have been her senior by 24 years, but he was robust and she was not.

Also, Eva had continued to be extremely unpopular with the army, offending their dignidad with her abrasive contempt for them and her attempts to control the administration of the Campo de Mayo. The traditional elements of Argentine society, particularly the middle class class which was now threatened by the burgeoning lower class (and the army was predominantly of middle-class origins), found in Eva a perfect scapegoat for what they saw as a shattering of the old social order and a declining of cultural values.

Perón, at this point, could not afford one mis-step with the army. The military had subdued the rioting rail workers during two strikes and he might need them again. The split in the peronista party itself, spotted early by those La Prensa reporters, was now on full view in the Chamber of Deputies, where there was a decided pro-Eva faction against Perón’s men. Perón might have been able to continue his control of the army if the promised million had shown up on 22 August, but one-tenth of the expected support was not any threat to the military.

Why did Eva want the vice presidency? Her de facto power already exceeded that of the sought-for office. In fact, her role as unpaid servant of Perón and the people was an effective one that fit her very well. Eva’s desire for the office is often attributed to her corrupt megalomania but it seems that other reasons must be found, since she already had that power.

Eva obviously needed to be reassured that her people still wanted and needed her, now that she could no longer grant extravagant raises or increase the luxuries available to them that they had come to expect. In fact, prior to the elections, both Peróns could have used a visible demonstration of the size and strength of their main power base and the threat that strength implied against an opposition that had been driven so far underground that its size and power was unknown.

Finally, it may be that Eva had gotten tired of working from behind Perón and his stooges. Her crusade for a better life for her workers, women, and descamisados was hindered in part by a bureaucracy in which she had no official position. It must also be noted that Eva might have feared that her name, works, and achievements would fade into obscurity if her illness was truly serious and led to death. The final stamp of legitimacy upon all that she had done would have insured her place in the history of Argentina.

A New Role for Eva

The army was stronger than she was, and it was a broken, tired, and ill woman who came on national radio at the end of August to tell the audience that she would retain her place, humbly at the side of Perón and the people of Argentina, renouncing any titles or honors. The next day, she collapsed and her public life was over. She was under restraint after a nervous breakdown when it was announced that she would receive the Grand Peronista Medal, Extraordinary Class, for "her noble attitude and her demonstration of abnegation and disinterestedness on renouncing the candidacy." She was still in bed and receiving daily blood transfusions when the army staged a coup on 28 September 1951.

Originating at the Campo de Mayo and a neighboring air force base, El Palomar, the revolt was contained with ease because the rebels were not organized. Some observers suggested that the coup was staged by Perón as a simple show of strength or because he needed a new scapegoat. Peronistas had found that oligarch-baiting was empty fun in the impoverished country. Few people believed Perón’s claim that communist groups were solely responsible for agitating discontent within the ranks of the military.

Eva had been lying in the hospital, unconscious, when the revolt took place but insisted on making a radio broadcast as soon as she was able. Some of the intense anger in her speech the next night mirrored the platitudes Perón had already spoken from his balcony, but it can also be attributed to her frustration at being away from the action.

The attempted coup was unfortunately timed for Perón, who was then facing the final days of his campaign for re-election with no vibrant woman at his side. He used her illness as an excuse for his inattention to government matters and as a weapon against his opposition.

On October 17, 1951, Loyalty Day ceremonies were overshadowed by the presentation of the grande peronista medal to Eva, and this event was all that the open forum in August had failed to be. The night was dignified by a spontaneous outpouring of affection for Eva; many in the crowd were stunned and showed obvious grief at her frail appearance.

After she had been carried out onto the balcony in an armchair, Eva sat still for a moment as the cheers washed over her, then she asked Perón to quiet the crowd so she might speak. Her tiny voice was ample evidence of the seriousness of her illness and she was so weak that Perón had to lift her up so she could greet her people.

Television cameras were there (a first for the Casa Rosada) recording the entire event, as was the world press. While she was before the microphones and cameras. Eva’s face is saint-like; she looks like an idealized martyr to the establishment of Perón’s New Argentina. Her face is unmarked by pain, illness, or even life, and her skin is so translucent that she hardly appears real. She did become human for a moment, so overcome by the tribute Perón paid her that she turned away from the crowd and wept quietly against his shoulder.

Saintly appearance notwithstanding, Eva’s words to the crowd were tinged with emotional suffering but bore traces of her old fanaticism:

I have only one thing of value and that is my heart. It burns in my soul, aches in my flesh, stings in my nerves; it is love for the people and Perón...my glory is and always will be the shield of Perón and the banner of my people, and even if I leave shreds of my life on the wayside I know that you will gather them up in my name and carry them like a flag to victory.

Just how many shreds of her life she left behind on the balcony only she knew, but the photographs taken in the Casa Rosada just moments later show a different woman; her face is old and haggard, obviously twisted with extreme pain. Perón declared that the following day would hereafter be called "Santa Evita Day," but all festivities went on without Eva; she went home to a bed she would hardly ever leave again.

A Martyr at Last

Eva was operated on for cancer on November 6th by several Argentine physicians and Dr. George Peck from New York, but before she went under the anesthesia, she recorded a speech to be broadcast on election eve. The text was cleverly written under Perón’s direction so it could have been used even if Eva had died on the operating table. In it, she speaks of "hovering like a shadow" over each peronista casting his or her ballot. She was indeed wraithlike when she cast her first vote as an enfranchised woman, propped up by pillows on her hospital bed.

Perón was elected by a popular majority of sixty-two percent (the electoral college had been eliminated in the revised constitution of 1949), and then promptly asked for a six-month leave of absence to be with his wife. Little of that time was spent with her, but it was a chance to escape the problems plaguing his country. Labor was disenchanted with the regime now that inflation was destroying the increases in buying power they had gotten earlier; the army was openly against the government; strikes were becoming commonplace and often violent; beef, the national dish, was now rationed.

The Fundación and all its subsidiary interests ground to a halt. The main reason Eva had accomplished so much in such a short span of time was her complete disregard for formal bureaucratic structure. As she had long since removed anyone who had leadership potential, there was no one capable of filling in for her, and there was no replacement for Perón, either. The vice president, an old and infirm man, died before the inauguration in 1952. This is the fatal flaw in any "cult of the personality;" when the personality(s) on which it is based absent, the entire system collapses. Eva’s illness meant all daily audiences with the poor and the workers stopped, as did all social aid. The CGT floundered helplessly and the entire labor power base slid out from under Perón. He must have missed her driving personality more than anyone--he had no other goad or inspiration--and he now had no one to be his eyes and ears among the people.

Fear was possibly one of the reasons why Perón organized the resulting circus around Eva’s illness and death. Whenever ministers or cabinet members came to the residence on urgent business, it was Eva who would rouse herself and spit out a few orders. Perón would dress her up and drag her downstairs whenever she could stand, but it was futile and he retreated more and more from actively running the country.

Nightly prayers were said all over Argentina for Eva’s speedy recovery, and she did rally a bit in early January 1952, only to return to her bed after a brief outing with Perón in the car. Children composed poems and essays praising her and many governments conferred their highest decorations on her during the last six months of her life. Congress scrambled to re-name everything possible after her, even a province and a large city. The publication of her book, La razón de mi vida, in late 1951 inspired tributes and speeches nationwide. It was made required reading in all the schools and the first edition of five hundred thousand copies sold briskly. Generally acknowledged as having been ghost-written by Manuel Penella de Silva, it nevertheless is a good anthology of her speeches and broadcasts. Though sentimental and blatantly propagandist, the fire and force of Eva’s personality are present and something of her powerful charisma comes through, particularly if the book is read aloud.

Eva’s death on July 26, 1952 plunged the country into an orgy of mourning that has been unequaled in modern times. Everything stopped for weeks in Buenos Aires as the millions of loyal descamisados lined up to pay their respects. Flowers choked the streets around the CGT headquarters building.

Once the funeral and attendant events were over, Perón retreated once again to his Olivos house and set up a school for young girls, playing "papa" more often than he acted as president. His former work schedule, which had matched his wife’s, degenerated into token appearances at the Casa Rosada and brusque meetings with his cabinet.

After unsuccessfully attempting to fill Eva’s shoes by meeting with the people once a week, he dismantled her political machine and sent most of her staff packing. As rumors grew about scandalous activities at the Olivos house involving Perón and a series of young girls, it became obvious that Eva had not only been the driving force behind the president, but that she had kept his sexual preferences out of the public eye. His image as visionary and leader of the downtrodden had been kept firmly in place by Eva, and his star tarnished quickly after she was gone.

It is certainly not true that Eva ruled Argentina by using Perón as a front and shield. He was the only one who could have kept the army in line and he provided the idealism that gave the dictatorship the purposes and goals it needed as Argentina rose in world prominence immediately after World War II. Later, it was necessary to give the people a "cause" to justify the sacrifices they were asked to make after the decline of the boom economy. Eva was not a visionary, and she would never have had a fraction of her power if Perón had not been the type of man he was.

But she was certainly a woman without peer, with a unique combination of qualities that merged with the coincidence of her placement in time. She rose to power in the only way possible for a woman of her class and she always seemed to know her destiny for success. She drove herself on, seldom looking at long-range goals when faced with the daily urgency of her petitioner’s individual problems. Her sincerity never failed in the eyes of the people, and her opportunism and acquisitiveness were accepted by them because she promised to take them all along with her on her climb to the top.

She was fallible and mortal, and so she failed. But for that, her descamisados forgave her.

Apotheosis

The legend of Eva Perón has haunted Argentine politics since the day she died. In 1996, President Carlos Menem nearly withheld permission for the Alan Parker film of Evita to shoot on the balcony of the Casa Rosada because the musical "vilified" Eva. He relented only after changes were made which showed Juan Perón as a sympathetic man hovering at his dying wife's bedside.

Back in 1952, Perón milked her memory for three more years while doing as little presidential work as humanly possible. He established a school for girls at his country house and there were scandalous rumors of his affairs with many of the nubile youngsters. When his regime was overthrown in 1955, the party was outlawed, monuments destroyed, and young women coerced into writing exposes of their sleazy affairs with the now-discredited president.

The real tragedy of 1955 was the total destruction of every school, hospital, public building, nursing home, warehouse, carton of clothing, food, medical supplies and other goods owned by Eva's fundación ayuda social. Every building bearing her name or that of the Foundation was dynamited into rubble. This total disregard for the people of Argentina's needs and their memory of what they once had--thanks to Eva-- is one reason the Peronist party managed to stay alive during decades of fierce repression, reprisals and witchhunts. It also did the exact thing Eva most feared--it eradicated her name and her work from the annals of Argentine history.

The ex-dictator was a stateless man for decades, bouncing from country to country for years until finally settling in Madrid with his third wife. Isabel. Eva’s body was secretly spirited out of the country, in the fear that it would become a political icon and rallying point for the suddenly distraught, disenfranchised and now illegal supporters of the Peróns. It was buried in a secret grave in Milan for some 17 years until a slightly more forgiving regime released its location and it was exhumed and taken to Perón and Isabel in Madrid. There were even rumors that the couple used to prop the body up at the dinner table with them.

But decades of repression and torture at the hands of a succession of unsuccessful governments started to make Perón look pretty good, and astonishingly, he was asked to return to Buenos Aires in 1972 and form a government. Aged and bitter, he still had a lot of charisma and his return was met with a wild reception at the airport. He became president again, dying in office some 18 months later. His ex-dancer wife, Isabel, had achieved the one goal Eva was denied--she was vice president and succeeded her husband as president of the country. But she was unsuited to power and after a reported nervous breakdown and a year of house arrest, was driven from the country to make way for yet another decade of tyranny and economic chaos.

The Peronists regained power bit by bit and are currently a viable (and visible) force in Argentine politics, the party still evoking the magic images of Juan and Eva in their youthful glory.

Go to: Chapter 7: EVITA LIVES!



Bibliography


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Text ©1980, 1999 by Sylvia Stoddard