INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

Upon her death in 1952, loyal Perónistas cabled Pope Pius XII to request that he begin the beatification process, the Catholic Church's first step in canonization. They were rebuffed.

She was ardent in her hatred for her enemies, the oligarchy. Evita loyalists trace this deep antagonism to her sexual assault as a teenager by two young landowners' sons.

When the aristocratic ladies of the Sociedad de Beneficiencia disdainfully refused her its honorary presidency-- a post that traditionally belonged to the president's wife-- Evita promptly destroyed the organization and set up her own Eva Duarte de Perón Social Aid Foundation.

Had a big dispute and fallout with Argentine actress Libertad LaMarque, which caused LaMarque to be blacklisted by the Peron regime. LaMarque went into exile into Mexico afterwards.

While Eva toured Spain as the first lady of Argentina, she was awarded with a supreme gift from president Franco, The Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic. Because Eva was Roman Catholic, this award was of extreme importance to her.

Whether she prostituted herself or not has never been substantiated. Critics of the government in the late 40's and early 50's claimed they had pornographic photos of the young Eva, but none ever materialized. What is known is that Eva did have a succession of lovers which aided her in getting better parts in the theater.

Evita's body was immaculately preserved.  Perón hired a Spanish pathologist Dr. Pedro Ara who had perfected a technique for preserving human flesh. Dr. Ara spent two years preserving her entire body including her brain and other internal organs which embalmers normally remove.

Pope Pius XII granted her a 30-minutes interview, a length reserved for queens only. She desperately craved the Pontific Marquee, a honorary title bestowed by the Vatican, but never succeeded.

21 years after her death, her myth was revived when Tim Rice happened to hear a documentary about Perón on his car radio and, on the spot, spawned the notion of Evita, a musical treatment of her life.