Representations Of Eva Peron In Argentine Fiction

Representations of Eva Perón in Argentine Prose Fiction

The principle works I will refer to are:

SE: Tomás Eloy Martínez, Santa Evita (Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1998) LP: Abel Posse, La pasión según Eva (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2005) EM: Rodolfo Walsh, 'Esa mujer', in Los oficios terrestres (Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Flor, 1986), 9-19 SM: David Viñas, 'La señora muerta', in Las malas costumbres: cuentos, (Buenos Aires: Editorial Jamcana, 1963), 63-72 ES: Jorge Luis Borges, 'El simulacro' in El hacedor, (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1975), 31-32 SQ: Edgardo Cozarinsky, 'Star Quality', in Vudú Urbano (Buenos Aires: Emecé, 2002), 71-76 E: Juan Carlos Onetti, 'Ella', in Cuentos completos (Madrid: Alfaragua, 1994), 459-462

Abstract

Eva Perón, popularly known as Evita, is one of the most controversial figures in Argentine history. An illegitimate child of humble beginnings, by the age of 25 she was the First Lady of Argentina, the most powerful woman the country had ever seen. Not everyone in Argentina shared the love that the working masses (the so-called 'descamisados') had for Evita. Opinion was, and still is, divided into two camps: supporters of the 'mito blanco' and supporters of the 'mito negro'. This division is highlighted by the vast body of literature that her figure has inspired. In this essay I aim to explore what can be learnt about the character of Eva Perón from several key literary works (principally, Santa Evita, Esa mujer, La pasión según Eva and La señora muerta). I shall argue that the circumstances surrounding her life and death have conspired to immortalize not only the woman and her memory but also the controversies that she embodied. The strength of the passion she aroused and the unique nature of her immortalization after her death, at the hands of both her supporters and her enemies, made her life and her legacy arguably even more significant than those of Perón himself. I shall endeavour to identify and trace those factors that made this 'mythification' possible. The irreconcilable controversy embodied by Eva Perón, a figure who ultimately resists definition, renders impotent the concept of a discoverable 'truth' about her character. Consequently, various writers have claimed that Evita is best evaluated from a postmodern perspective. Does this view somehow cast aside the very real significance she has as a genuine historical figure, an importance still felt in Argentina today? These are the questions I aim to answer in my essay: how far fiction can help us to understand who Eva Perón was, what she stood for and the legacy that she has left behind.

Introduction

Eva Perón was born on the 19th May 1919, the illegitimate daughter of a small-town gentleman, Juan Duarte, and his low-class mistress, Juana Ibarguren.1 At around fifteen she decided to make her fortune as an actress in Buenos Aires, a move that culminated in her becoming the mistress, and then wife, of populist President Juan Perón. She died a tragic death to uterine cancer at just 33, at the apogee of her husband's regime. The country immersed itself in mourning.2 Her body was promptly embalmed, and her legacy lived on in the form of her powerful charitable foundation, the Fundación Eva Perón. Meanwhile, the regime crumbled, culminating in Perón's exile in September 1955. Power passed into the hands of the military-led 'Revolución Libertadora', who promptly embarked upon the so-called 'desperonización' of Argentina, which involved banning any mention of either of the Perón's names.

The whereabouts of Evita's mummified corpse was kept top secret for fear that remaining Peronist supporters would treat the burial place as a shrine, or even attempt to seize the corpse and use it as some kind of mascot. The corpse was constantly moved between hiding places ranging from the office of the Head of the Intelligence Service, Colonel Moori Koenig, to a van parked in a public street, until the decision was taken to remove it from the country entirely. The body was taken to Italy in an unmarked coffin, where it would lie in a falsely-named tomb until after Perón had been reinstated 17 years later.

Evita aroused such strength of feeling on both sides that over the course of her life and after her death she was called every name under the sun: 'Es una santa, es una hiena, en esas semanas a Evita le dijeron de todo' (SE, 91). To the oligarchic classes whom she so despised, she was a power-hungry prostitute, a bastard-child on the hunt for revenge against those she believed to have maltreated her, a fake and a liar whose rise to fame and power represented the complete breakdown of Argentina's moral fabric. After her death her enemies pejoratively referred to her as 'esa mujer', although 'en privado le reservaban epítetos más crueles. Era la Yegua o la Potranca, lo que . significaba puta, copera, loca' (SE, 22).

To her supporters, she was 'Abanderada de los Humildes, Dama de la Esperanza . Jefa Espiritual y Vicepresidente Honorario de la Nación, Mártir del Trabajo .', or 'Señora, Santa, Evita, Madremía' (SE, 20, 262). The variety of names that have been used to refer to Eva Perón reflects the multiple identities and values that have been attributed to her. Indeed, in La pasión según Eva Evita herself acknowledges all of these different names, declaring 'soy, podría ser, todos y ninguno' (LP, 27). The analysis of her figure has been so divided, and so often based on subjective judgments and prejudices (such as a difference in class attitudes) as opposed to objectively analyzable facts (there is a gross lack of reliable documentary evidence concerning key facts about Evita's life), that it seems unlikely any consensus on her can ever be reached. The controversies embodied by Evita reflected the crisis of personal identity felt by Argentina and its people that resulted from the changing structure of society. The growth and establishment of the working class as a viable political force represented a stark move away from the oligarchic hierarchy that ruled early 20th century Argentine society. A relaxing of strict Catholic morality was welcomed by some and horrified others. Women began to take on an increasingly important role in public life. Nowhere did these clashes manifest themselves more dramatically than in attitudes towards Eva Perón, leading ultimately to what can best be described as her 'mythification'. I aim to discover what made this 'mythification' possible. The different elements of her story can best be described chronologically, and so I shall begin with her illegitimacy and the issues surrounding her career as an actress, and then go on to discuss the propagandistic forces that conspired to immortalise her as what appears to be more of a brand or symbol than a flesh and blood human being.

Many of the works written about Eva Perón claim to be based on historical fact, to have a closer relationship with 'the truth' than would normally be awarded to texts strictly classified as fiction. This is highlighted by the acknowledgements that appear at the end of both Santa Evita and La pasión según Eva. Martínez thanks many of the people who appear in the novel as fictional characters (SE, 393). In the foreword to his novel, Posse assures the reader that 'Todas las circunstancias son históricas. Todas las palabras, o casi todas, surgen de versiones reconocidas, de declaraciones y de textos' (LP). The same can be said for La novela de Perón, allegedly so closely based on recorded conversations Martínez had with Juan Perón that he felt the need to clarify the fictionality of the work in the title. Similarly, in the foreword to Los oficios terrestres, Rodolfo Walsh states that 'El cuento titulado "Esa mujer" se refiere, desde luego, a un episodio histórico que todos en la Argentina recuerdan. La conversación que reproduce es, en lo esencial, verdadera'. The view that all of these authors seem to share is that as far as getting to know 'the real Evita' is concerned, the fictional novel is a more useful tool than factually sound historical biography. As Posse explains, 'A lo largo de los años he ido recogiendo las más variadas versiones sobre Eva Perón . Gracias entonces a quienes me fueron acercando los matices y los colores necesarios, las variaciones que hacen surgir el tema humano más allá del estereotipo vulgarizado' (LP, 311). In this essay I aim to discover just what the 'tema humano' that results from this search actually is.

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