Who is this Santa Evita?

Maria Eva Duarte de Paron, born in 1919 in Los Toldos, Argentina, was the daughter of Juana Ibarguren and her rich, married lover Juan Duarte. Juan Duarte was killed in a car accident in 1920 and Eva and her family were not permitted to attend the funeral. This scarred Eva and she never forgot the differences between the workers and the elite.

In 1944, Duarte met Juan Domingo Peron, whom she eventually married, at a charity fund-raising event after an earthquake destroyed San Juan.

This was a time of political unrest in Argentina as rulers were overthrown on a regular basis and the British oligarchy caused a great deal of resentment in the working class.

Duarte helped Peron rise to the presidency by convincing him to become the champion of the workers' regime.

Duarte was loved by the people. Thousands of the poor would regularly gather beneath the balcony at Casa Rosada, crying her name. As champion of the workers, she started the Eva Peron Foundation, a charity that helped many of the country's poor. Many historians said it was the people's love of Duarte that kept Peron in power.

Unfortunately, it didn't last. During the "Rainbow Tour" of Europe, Duarte became ill. She was diagnosed with cancer. Thousands of people held visual outside Casa Rosada until Eva's light went out on July 26, 1952. Evita was only 33.

Source: Evita: The Woman, by Garth Wangemann