Evita

It is July 26, 1952. A young Argentine student, Che Guevara, is among the audience in a Buenos Aires cinema when the film is stopped by an announcement that Eva Peron, "the spiritual leader of the nation, has entered immortality."

Eva’s funeral is majestic. Huge crowds, pageantry, wailing and lamentation prevail. Che Guevara is the only non-participant. Che in Evita, serves as narrator, as well as observer, and at times is simply a device that enables the authors to place Eva in a situation where she is confronted with direct personal criticism. There is no evidence that Che Guevara ever met Eva Peron or became in any way involved with her. However, he was born in 1928 and would have been 17 when the Peron’s came into power and 24 when Eva died. He became strongly opposed to the Peron regime during Eva’s lifetime.

Flashback to 1934. A night club in Junin, Eva’s hometown. Eva Duarte is just 15. She asks the singer appearing at the club, Agustin Magaldi, with whom she has had an affair, to take her to Buenos Aires. Once in Buenos Aires, Eva quickly disposes of Magaldi and works her way through a string of men, each one getting her another rung up the ladder of fame and fortune. She becomes a successful model, broadcaster and film actress.

In 1943, Colonel Juan Peron is one of several military leaders close to the presidency of Argentina, which in recent years has proven to be an insecure position for its tenant. At a charity concert held to raise money for the victims of an Argentine earthquake, Eva and Peron meet. They both realize they each have something the other wants. From now on Eva switches her ambitions to political stars. She evicts Peron’s mistress from his apartment and moves into Peron’s life, and garners the wrath of two factions who will remain her enemy till her death.

As the political situation becomes even more uncertain, it is Eva, rather than Peron, who is more determined that he should try for the highest prize in Argentina, the presidency, supported by the workers whose backing she and Peron have long cultivated. Eva's dream is realized, and on June 4, 1946, Peron becomes President in front of a tremendous crowd, who continuously chant “Evita, Evita, Evita.”

Che asks Eva about herself and her success, but meets with a falsely self-effacing response. Eva’s main concern is her forthcoming trip to Europe, which begins in a blaze of glory in Spain, but meets with later setbacks in Italy and France. She never gets to England at all. The one place she yearns to go.

On her return home, Eva resolves to concentrate solely on Argentine affairs, where she is met with continual criticism from the society of Buenos Aires. Che points out that the regime has to date, done nothing to improve the plight of those Eva claims to represent—the working class.

Eva launches the Eva Peron Foundation, a huge organization of sham accounting and of little practical benefit to the nation’s economy. It does help elevate her to near goddess status in the eyes of some of those who did benefit from the fund, including children. Che’s disenchantment with Eva is now total. He sneers at those who adore her and for the last time tries to question her about her motivation and the darker side of the Peron administration. Eva’s response is that of a pragmatist, “There is evil ever around, fundamental.”

Anti-Eva feeling among the military reaches new heights and Che lists several of the major failures and abuses of the Peron administration. Peron attempts to justify Eva’s domination of Argentine life. He draws attention to her illness. Peron and Eva discuss the worsening situation. He is losing his grip on the government, she is losing her battle to live. Eva refuses to give in to her illness and resolves to become vice-president. However, the opposition to Eva from the army is too great, and more important, her body is failing her.

In her last hours, images, people and events of her life flow through Eva’s mind, while the nation’s grief knows no bounds. To the masses, she has become nothing less than a saint. As her life draws to a close, she wonders whether she would have been happier as an obscure person. Maybe then her life would have been longer. But, even in death, she is denied obscurity. The moment she dies the embalmers move to preserve her fragile body to be “displayed forever.”

The story of the escapades of the corpse of Eva Peron during the quarter century after her death is almost as bizarre as the story of her life.

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