Evita As a Saint
Evita was to the people a martyr and they gave her the position of a saint. After her funeral
the crowd shouted thing as 'but Evita you never died, you're immortal!', 'Goddess',
and 'se siente, se siente, Evita está presente!'. The people of Argentina were
convinced that Evita would always be with them, exactly like a saint.
A woman, María Luisa, who has researched Evita's life claims that Evita would have been
able to save herself from cancer, due to the fact that her mother did and that she was
diagnosed in a very early age. Maybe she seized the opportunity to make herself a legend.
She had in seven years achieved more than most do in a lifetime. Under the interview of
María Luisa, she finishes up with the phrase: 'Did you know she was the same age
as Christ when she died'. She says this lowering her voice as if it is not approved by
society or maybe just the church to say this. The Catholic Church would not approve of
anyone being compared with Jesus and therefore the assumption of Evita having a deeper
connexion to God and Jesus is not to be spoken of.
Through her life Evita created a image of Perón as God figure. Meanwhile she offered
herself as a 'Bridge of love' between the people and Perón, which is precisely the purpose
Christ has in Christianity. In this manner Evita crossed a line within the church, but the
people were so mesmerized by her that they did not see this as crossing any sort of line.
School books from that period were, as the rest of the country, deeply influenced by
politics. Some of these books encouraged schoolchildren to think of Evita as an envoy of
God who decided 'to put and end to so much iniquity, sent his favorite angel to
earth...and one day God, seeing that she had carried out his wish, ordered her
return'.
Evita repeatedly gave herself and Perón a to some extend 'religious' status, which gave
her even more power. It might be possible that Evita would have lost her status down the
road if she had not died. Maybe she thought that as well and therefore decided to keep her
status forever, by giving herself the same destiny as many saints have had in the past.
Evita and Perón
In 1944 Perón was minister for labour and an ambitious politician. This was the year that Perón met Evita, a twenty-four-year-old upcoming actress.
At first Perón saw her as being too much “we have to get money from those who have it”, she demanded. Perón was mostly subdued by her force and will but with this, her beautiful pale face and look, Eva seduced him.
Four months after they married, Perón became president and everything Evita ever did was for and in favor of Perón “Perón is everything and I am nothing” she wrote “nothing I have, nothing I am, nothing I think is mine; it all belongs to Perón”
“As far as I am concerned, and I have analyzed the subject in depth, Perón is perfect.” Evita expressed, this also shows that she was desperate to be loved. Evita saw herself in the role of Christ, and Perón was god, this also shows her will to live in his spirit and with his goals. Evita praised her husband to the fullest “I love you so much that what I feel for you is a kind of idolatry,”. She never got an official position in the government, but she truly was the face to the nation. She always cared to help the poor, and this is also why people saw her as a saint, she turned herself into a myth by everything she did. Her whole life was dedicated to Perón and to the argentinian people.
Evita - The Woman Who Burned
“All Evita ever wanted was to burn.”
Throughout all her speeches, her books, in all her sayings, there are noticeable references to fire. She uses fire as a substance ontological metaphor, which an abstraction, such as an event, activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as material. In this case it is the abstraction of love. A love to Perron, and the values he encouraged. Fire was used to define both hatred and love. She burned with hatred for the wealthy just as she burned with love for the descamisados - the followers and fighters for Perron. As a material, a fire is strong, passionate, wild, brilliant, intense, and so on. All adjectives to describe a fire, is also adjectives to describe Evita herself. Just as her sister Erminda said, when Evita was lying at her deathbed; “I know that beneath your resting eyelids there is a fire that refuses to be extinguished.” And as Perron memorized the first meeting with Eva Duarte, he said; “Eva was pale but when she spoke, her face seemed to catch fire.” Even her body language could be associated with fire; “It was like watching a gun being fired. She used her whole body as a weapon and each word was a bullet.”
Evita’s fire is immortal, and still, to this day, burns in the eyes of many.
Evita's Reflection on Argentina
Said about Buenos Aires, where Evita lived:
“Buenos Aires in the 1930s was the continent's most cosmopolitan and elegant metropolis, and soon became known as the 'Paris of South America. In direct contrast to the glamour of the city, the 1930s were also years of great unemployment, poverty, and hunger in the capital, and many new arrivals from the interior were forced to live in tenements, squalid boardinghouses, and in outlying shanties that became known as villas miserias.”
The contrast between the highly developed and the poor Argentina was enormous. Argentina needed Peron, needed Evita, to unite the two parts. And that was they did. Evita’s contribution to this unifying was by helping any descamisado who had a problem. People came to Evita with their illnesses, their inadequate housing, their joblessness and so on, and miraculously in the bureaucratic country, Evita came up with instant solutions. She found jobs, sick children were brought to hospitals, food and medicine were dispatched around the country. More and more people came to Evita with their problems and the Eva Perón Foundation was established financed by the gouvernment. No one left her office with out money, and when she had no cash she gave away pieces of her jewelry.
Evita’s actions reflected Argentina’s need of help.
Evita was to the people a martyr and they gave her the position of a saint. After her funeral
the crowd shouted thing as 'but Evita you never died, you're immortal!', 'Goddess',
and 'se siente, se siente, Evita está presente!'. The people of Argentina were
convinced that Evita would always be with them, exactly like a saint.
A woman, María Luisa, who has researched Evita's life claims that Evita would have been
able to save herself from cancer, due to the fact that her mother did and that she was
diagnosed in a very early age. Maybe she seized the opportunity to make herself a legend.
She had in seven years achieved more than most do in a lifetime. Under the interview of
María Luisa, she finishes up with the phrase: 'Did you know she was the same age
as Christ when she died'. She says this lowering her voice as if it is not approved by
society or maybe just the church to say this. The Catholic Church would not approve of
anyone being compared with Jesus and therefore the assumption of Evita having a deeper
connexion to God and Jesus is not to be spoken of.
Through her life Evita created a image of Perón as God figure. Meanwhile she offered
herself as a 'Bridge of love' between the people and Perón, which is precisely the purpose
Christ has in Christianity. In this manner Evita crossed a line within the church, but the
people were so mesmerized by her that they did not see this as crossing any sort of line.
School books from that period were, as the rest of the country, deeply influenced by
politics. Some of these books encouraged schoolchildren to think of Evita as an envoy of
God who decided 'to put and end to so much iniquity, sent his favorite angel to
earth...and one day God, seeing that she had carried out his wish, ordered her
return'.
Evita repeatedly gave herself and Perón a to some extend 'religious' status, which gave
her even more power. It might be possible that Evita would have lost her status down the
road if she had not died. Maybe she thought that as well and therefore decided to keep her
status forever, by giving herself the same destiny as many saints have had in the past.
Evita and Perón
In 1944 Perón was minister for labour and an ambitious politician. This was the year that Perón met Evita, a twenty-four-year-old upcoming actress.
At first Perón saw her as being too much “we have to get money from those who have it”, she demanded. Perón was mostly subdued by her force and will but with this, her beautiful pale face and look, Eva seduced him.
Four months after they married, Perón became president and everything Evita ever did was for and in favor of Perón “Perón is everything and I am nothing” she wrote “nothing I have, nothing I am, nothing I think is mine; it all belongs to Perón”
“As far as I am concerned, and I have analyzed the subject in depth, Perón is perfect.” Evita expressed, this also shows that she was desperate to be loved. Evita saw herself in the role of Christ, and Perón was god, this also shows her will to live in his spirit and with his goals. Evita praised her husband to the fullest “I love you so much that what I feel for you is a kind of idolatry,”. She never got an official position in the government, but she truly was the face to the nation. She always cared to help the poor, and this is also why people saw her as a saint, she turned herself into a myth by everything she did. Her whole life was dedicated to Perón and to the argentinian people.
Evita - The Woman Who Burned
“All Evita ever wanted was to burn.”
Throughout all her speeches, her books, in all her sayings, there are noticeable references to fire. She uses fire as a substance ontological metaphor, which an abstraction, such as an event, activity, emotion, or idea, is represented as material. In this case it is the abstraction of love. A love to Perron, and the values he encouraged. Fire was used to define both hatred and love. She burned with hatred for the wealthy just as she burned with love for the descamisados - the followers and fighters for Perron. As a material, a fire is strong, passionate, wild, brilliant, intense, and so on. All adjectives to describe a fire, is also adjectives to describe Evita herself. Just as her sister Erminda said, when Evita was lying at her deathbed; “I know that beneath your resting eyelids there is a fire that refuses to be extinguished.” And as Perron memorized the first meeting with Eva Duarte, he said; “Eva was pale but when she spoke, her face seemed to catch fire.” Even her body language could be associated with fire; “It was like watching a gun being fired. She used her whole body as a weapon and each word was a bullet.”
Evita’s fire is immortal, and still, to this day, burns in the eyes of many.
Evita's Reflection on Argentina
Said about Buenos Aires, where Evita lived:
“Buenos Aires in the 1930s was the continent's most cosmopolitan and elegant metropolis, and soon became known as the 'Paris of South America. In direct contrast to the glamour of the city, the 1930s were also years of great unemployment, poverty, and hunger in the capital, and many new arrivals from the interior were forced to live in tenements, squalid boardinghouses, and in outlying shanties that became known as villas miserias.”
The contrast between the highly developed and the poor Argentina was enormous. Argentina needed Peron, needed Evita, to unite the two parts. And that was they did. Evita’s contribution to this unifying was by helping any descamisado who had a problem. People came to Evita with their illnesses, their inadequate housing, their joblessness and so on, and miraculously in the bureaucratic country, Evita came up with instant solutions. She found jobs, sick children were brought to hospitals, food and medicine were dispatched around the country. More and more people came to Evita with their problems and the Eva Perón Foundation was established financed by the gouvernment. No one left her office with out money, and when she had no cash she gave away pieces of her jewelry.
Evita’s actions reflected Argentina’s need of help.