María Eva Duarte de Perón was born in Los Toldos, Argentina. Her parents were not married, and her father had another family. Her legal and societal status as an illegitimate child followed her in her life. Her mother struggled financially, and the situation worsened after her father died in a car accident when she was seven years old.
In 1930, the family moved to Junín, where she developed her love for the stage. She began to perform in various community theater productions and aspired to become an actress. At 15, she ran away from home to Buenos Aires to pursue her dream. Soon after her arrival, she joined a theater company and landed numerous radio parts. In 1937, at 18, she had her film debut and later acted in a series of B-movies. In 1942, she signed a five-year contract to participate in a radio program called Great Women of History to voice prominent historical women, such as Queen Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great. By the age of 23, she was the highest-paid radio actress in the nation, earning six thousand pesos a month. This year, she co-founded the Argentine Radio Syndicate, a union of broadcast performers, and was elected its president.
In 1944, she was invited by the Secretary of Labor, Juan Perón, to a benefit gala to support the victims of an earthquake that occurred in San Juan. From the moment they met, they were unseparated, establishing their marriage a year later. She was 24, and he was 49.
In 1946, her husband, who gained political power and support from the public, especially after being arrested by his political opponents, decided to run for president. She was a leading figure in her husband’s campaign, using her radio program to dramatize his accomplishments and traveling with him throughout the country. Her approachable attitude toward the people and empathy for the working class increased his popularity when he was elected president.
Perón did not hold an official position in the government, but she was the de facto minister of health and labor, which allowed her to increase the wages of workers’ unions. She used her position as the first lady to advocate for various causes, improving the living conditions of the poor and women’s suffrage. Thanks to her effort, Argentinian women were granted equal political rights and universal suffrage in 1947. Two years later, she founded the Female Peronist Party, the first large female political party in the country.
Perón also founded and headed the Eva Perón Foundation. Supported by the government, unions, and private businesses, the foundation established thousands of schools, hospitals, elderly housing, and orphanages.
In 1950, 31 years old Perón was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. Despite her health condition, she continued to be active in both philanthropy and politics, and in 1951 she was chosen by her husband to run for vice president. The opposition from the military and upper-class citizens led her to decline her candidacy. Despite the various medical procedures she went through, her cancer has spread, and she died at the age of 33.
Three years after her death, Perón’s husband got overthrown from the presidency, and her embalmed body was stolen and hidden in Italy under the name “María Maggi.” Sixteen years later, her body was exhumed and sent to her husband’s exile home in Spain. In 1973, he returned to Argentina, serving as president until his death a year later. His third wife, Isabel Perón, returned Evita Perón’s body to Argentina and displayed it beside her husband. Later, her remains were reburied in the Duarte family crypt.
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