It is named after Argentina’s iconic former first lady María Eva Duarte de Perón, known as Eva Perón or Evita, who died 70 years ago on Tuesday. The soup kitchen where Noble volunteers in the Flores area provides daily meals to about 200 people and is run by an organization that also bears the late leader’s name. Although he is not related to Eva Peron, Noble says, “I carry Evita in my DNA.” And she’s not the only one who feels that way. Seven decades after her death, Evita continues to stir passions in Argentina as fans believe her image as a champion of the poor is more relevant than ever at a time when inequality and poverty are on the rise as the economy stagnates amid galloping inflation. Evita has been the subject of countless books, movies, TV shows and even a Broadway musical, but for some of her oldest, most ardent fans, the relationship with the actress-turned-political leader is much more personal. Juana Marta Barro was one of dozens of people who lined up Tuesday morning to leave flowers and pay their respects at Evita’s tomb, located in the Recoleta neighborhood of the Argentine capital. With tears in her eyes, Barro, 84, the daughter of a housekeeper, recalled how her life in the northern province of Tucuman improved after Evita emerged on the political scene and suddenly received better shoes and a school uniform. “Thanks to her I had my first backpack,” said Barro, who still remembers the excitement of seeing Evita ride through her town on a train. “It is a torch that shines in my heart.” Evita was born in a modest home in Los Toldos, a small rural town about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the capital, where she moved when she was 15 to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. A decade later, she met Juan Domingo Peron, a military officer who was a government official. Evita was by his side when Perón won the 1946 presidential election and went on to play an unprecedented role as a powerful first lady, placing herself at the forefront of women’s rights issues, including suffrage passed a year later and of creating an institution help the workers and the poor. As much as Evita was loved, she was hated by many of the country’s rich and powerful who were wary of her growing popularity and influence. Her time in the limelight was intense but brief as she died of cervical cancer aged 33, prompting an outpouring of grief on the streets as the South American country went into mourning. Peron ended up being elected president twice more and was the founder of a political movement – Peronism – that dominates Argentine political life to this day, with many leaders of different ideological persuasions claiming allegiance to the former general. “Peron was respected, he was obeyed — whether you agreed with what he said or not. But Evita was loved or hated and ended up contributing a great deal of emotion to Peronism,” said Felipe Pigna, a historian who has written extensively about the former first lady. For some, that feeling lived on. María Eva Sapire joined nearly 100 others the day before the anniversary of Evita’s death to dress up as her as part of a performance that paid tribute to the former first lady. Sapire was named after Evita and now talks about her with her own daughter. “When you listen to her speeches it’s amazing how so many things still fit so many years later,” Sapire said. Others who came to admire Evita later in life often say that it was precisely the sense that she was ahead of her time on many issues, particularly women’s rights, that led them to join her legions of admirers. “Young people in particular see a rebel in Evita, a figure who didn’t bow her head or give up” and ended up dying “young and beautiful,” which helped build a “pop icon,” Pigna said. “Eva is a character that enchants,” said Alejandro Maci, director of the new “Santa Evita” series premiering Tuesday on Disney’s streaming services based on a 1995 novel by Argentinian author Tomás Eloy Martínez. Perón and Evita continue to be the subject of criticism both in Argentina and abroad. Some, for example, say that Evita used state money to carry out what she described as charitable works to create her own image as a saint and help her husband rise in popularity. Others also point to claims that the couple received money from the Nazis to help war criminals hide in Argentina after World War II. Cristina Alvarez Rodríguez, Evita’s niece who is now a minister in the provincial government of Buenos Aires, said she was particularly moved by the number of “very young girls who have tattooed Evita on their skin” and now “have her as the light they it drives me.” Many now also yearn for an Evita-like figure. For some, the current government of President Alberto Fernández, who describes himself as a Peronist, has deviated from these principles. “The people of Argentina feel betrayed. Peronism never came to starve people, and that’s what’s happening now,” said Mateo Nieto, who has pictures of Peron and Evita in his pizzeria in the northern city of Posadas, near the border with Paraguay. Nieto said that “the government in power calls itself Peronist, but in reality it is not Peronism.” “We really miss someone like Evita, it would be great to have a leader like her right now,” he said. Maci, the director, sees Evita as an “interesting metaphor” for thinking about what kind of country Argentines want in an era of growing poverty and inequality. “This woman proposed a society with greater mobility, which is precisely what Argentina does not have at the moment. He lacks any kind of social mobility, and if he has, it’s downward,” he said.
