Evita

I was up late last night watching the movie Evita with Madonna in the title role. At the time this came out (in the late 90's) it won a ton of awards for it's supposed groundbreaking achievements. Seems to me, as I watched it, that instead of honoring the life of Eva Duarte Peron, it mocked it. I have to give the filmmakers credit where it's due, they didn't gloss over the life to try to make it more than what it was. It really seems like they tried to tell the whole truth.

This made me want to get in there and do some homework, find out more. I found that there's a lot of controversy on how to view her life between the general population and even amongst historians and scholars. Turns out that there are torn opinions about whether to name Evita a slut or a saint. Certainly the movie makes no concrete conclusions, but if I had to venture a guess I'd say they leaned more toward the slut side of Mrs. Peron's life.

When I did a google search of her name one of the first suggestions to pop up was "What did Eva Peron do?" What, indeed....

She did start the Eva Foundation which was sort of like Make A Wish, except you didn't have to be dying to qualify, just poor. You wrote your "wish" out on a slip of paper and they'd toss them in the air. Whichever slip Eva caught, she'd grant. Not a bad little excuse for publicity when one has her hands in politics. If Juan Peron were to take a fall, Eva would go tumbling after.

Now, granted, Eva did pave the way for women in Argentinian politics. Until her fame in the realm of government, women did not have power. It was unthinkable. For that alone, I can put a tally in the plus side of the column (though plus does not equate to saint). But in that time she was little more than the prestige on a magic act. She was the flourish, the sparkle, all the while covering how Juan didn't seem to do anything that actually helped the common descamisados of which she claimed to belong. Nothing got better for the common laborer. In fact, the common laborer had to surrender part of their wages just to start the Eva Foundation.

So from the backs of the workers she gave back to the workers, circulating currency back to the pockets it was taken from to begin with. I think her only major cause for applause was her speeches about helping the common worker (though she didn't...much) and her charity that was not charity.

And Juan Peron, a sinner in his own right who looked down on Eva for not being a virgin when they wed. Funny Eva should die of cervical cancer. Funny, too, that his first wife died of the same. If they only knew then what they know now about the HPV virus then perhaps Juan would have learned not to judge so harshly, likely being the carrier of the disease that killed both women.

So, from what I understand, she slept her way to the top to become and actress (and all of her movies flopped) and then found a man she could dominate. She added sugar to a lack of substance and became so popular it won her a Vice President candidacy she had to decline since her health was failing at the ripe old age of 33.

So...Eva Peron...definite slut...certainly not saint...but a pioneer for women's rights in Argentina.