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