“Don’t Cry for Me Argentina!” The life of Eva Peron is immortalized in song, film, theater, and somewhat macabrely, by her embalmed remains that lie under seven meters of concrete in La Recoleta Cemetery, Bueno Aires.
Her “rags to riches” rise to fame and her storybook romance with Juan Peron—the man she would help propel to the Argentine presidency—have all the traits of a classic Hollywood drama. But, when all is said and done, what did she really leave Argentina with? The once affluent country suffered a reversal of fortune from “riches to rags.”
On “This Day in History,” I dive beneath the glitzy veneer of Eva (Evita) and Juan Peron’s “rule” to its raw reality still playing out in the lives of Argentines….