Eva Peron: Legend lives on 70 years after death

Mention the name Eva Peron her fellow Argentines will likely differ on the legacy of the former Argentinian First Lady who died on this day 70 years ago.

Mention Evita to older generations in Europe or the US and they might burst into a dramatic rendition of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina,” the chart-topping torch song from the 1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice hit musical.

From poor girl to first lady

The musical was based on Peron’s rags-to-riches biography, though her storied life seemed predestined for retellings in books, films and on the stage.

Born into poverty on May 7, 1919, Maria Eva Duarte — nicknamed “Evita” or little Eva in Spanish — left her rural village of Los Toldos to pursue an acting career in Buenos Aires. There, the struggling actress met the soon-to-be Argentinian President Juan Domingo Peron.

Her life would be forever transformed.

Married soon after their meeting, Eva’s husband was elected president the following year in 1946, making her the First Lady of Argentina at only the age of 27. 

In the following six years, Evita, as she was known, championed labor rights and female suffrage. Besides running the Ministries of Labor and Health, she also founded and ran both the charitable Eva Peron Foundation as well as Argentina’s first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.

A report by Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service commemorating her 100th birthday in 2019, described Peron as having been “hated and loved with intensity in equal parts.” 

“Some saw her as a saint, a benefactress, a revolutionary, a woman determined to bring social justice to every corner of the country,” the report added. “Others judged her as ambitious, adventurous, resentful, selfish and false, full of hatred and hypocritical.” 

Peron eventually succumbed to uterine cancer on July 26, 1952. She was only 33. 

Evita, her husband by her side, waves to the crowd in Buenos Aires in 1950

Canonized in popular culture

Peron is among those cult real-life figures whose stories continue to be immortalized through song and dance, both on stage and screen.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the prodigious American theater-writing team of composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist-dramatist Oscar Hammerstein II also produced a series of hit musicals for Broadway.

Two of their productions “The King and I” and “The Sound of Music” are based on the lives and reminiscings of Anna Leonowens and Maria von Trapp respectively.

Both were coincidentally governesses: Leonowens was an English governess to Thai King Mongkut’s children in the early 1860s, while von Trapp, who originally planned to become a nun, ended up marrying the widowed Austrian Captain Georg von Trapp, whose seven children she had cared for.   

While some creative liberties were taken with both stories, they boasted hit songs that are still popular. 

Meanwhile, some recent musicals have also focused on diversity and inclusivity. 

The 2013 Broadway adaptation of “Kinky Boots,” the music and lyrics for which was written by 80s pop legend Cyndi Lauper, is based on the true story of Steve Pateman, who, inspired by drag queen Lola, tried to save his family-run shoe factory in Northamptonshire from closure by creating “Divine”-branded fetish footwear for men. 

The film was a hit, for giving a platform to the LGBTIQ community and the biases they face.

Meanwhile, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s multiple-award winning 2015 rap musical “Hamilton” tells the story of American founding father and first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, whose face graces the country’s $10 note.

By casting non-white actors as the founding fathers, Miranda described the musical as being about “America then, as told by America now.”

Meanwhile “Evita” remains a crowd-pleaser to this day, with productions being staged in various European countries, including Germany. 

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Why ‘Christopher Street Day’?

  In many German cities, Pride is also known as Christopher Street Day, or CSD for short. Christopher Street is the New York location of the Stonewall Inn, where in the early hours of July 28, 1969, police led a brutal raid inside the famous gay bar. The ensuing violent demonstrations of gay and lesbian New Yorkers against the excessive force used by police became known as the Stonewall Riots.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Confronting biases

  Berlin Pride was founded by Bernd Gaiser, a longtime rights activist, in 1979. “Only when we, as gay men and lesbians, go out in public and confront society… can we force them to change their attitudes towards us,” Gaiser told Die Zeit newspaper in 2018. About 500 people attended that first celebration in a city divided into East and West.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Annual themes to fight for rights

  Each year, Berlin Pride has a different theme that is determined via a public forum. In 1998, for the first time, the party got political with the theme, “We demand equal rights.” The theme for 2022 is “United in Love — Against Hate, War and Discrimination.” The organizers demand quicker investigations into hate crimes against LGBTIQ people and for zero tolerance against discrimination.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Always political

  The causes championed each year at Christopher Street Day are not only aimed at LGBTIQ communities, but promotes human rights and fights discrimination on behalf of all people. CSD is also eco-friendly. Here, a participant holds up an environmental awareness sign: “Avoid plastic waste!”

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Mainstream support

  In February 2001, same-sex civil unions were legalized in Germany, due largely to the efforts of the center-left Social Democrat (SPD) government, who were able to pass the law in spite of protests from the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). SPD Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse (left) attended Berlin Pride that year in a sign of solidarity.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Solidarity in all (uni)forms

  In 2014, Potsdam Police Commissioner, Marko Klingberg (center), risked disciplinary action by marching in his uniform — considered official clothing — at that year’s parade. Klingberg, who was then deputy federal chairman of the Association of Lesbian and Gay Police Officers, found the no-uniform rule discriminatory and ignored it. Besides a phone call with his superior, he faced no consequences.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  That’s MISS*ter CSD for you!

  Every year since 1991, a personality whose character, political opinion, charisma and persuasiveness wowed the audience was crowned Miss CSD. The candidate’s gender, sexual preference, age or origin were not relevant. In moving with the times, and in the spirit of diversity and tolerance, the title was renamed MISS*ter CSD in 2016.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Marriage for all

  The 2017 parade was the last before gay marriage was legalized in Germany on October 1 that year. In the lead-up to the vote on the same-sex marriage bill, Chancellor Angela Merkel famously told parliamentary representatives to “vote based on their individual conscience.” A move that did not alienate her conservative voter base, she was able to ensure passage of the marriage for all law.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Masked but not muted

  After being canceled in 2020 due to pandemic lockdown, the Christopher Street Day parade resumed in 2021. It was divided into two demonstrations with much smaller crowds compared to previous years, the event having attracted around one million people in 2012. Those who attended were not deterred from pursuing their message of equality and tolerance for all.

• Berlin Pride: ‘Against hate, war and discrimination’

  Cautious revelry

  This year’s CSD participants will not only have to deal with COVID, but also the emerging risk of monkeypox. Berlin has registered more than 1000 cases, however a new study has shown that 95% of these cases are transmitted through sexual activity. US health officials are concerned that it could become an endemic STD like gonorrhea, herpes or HIV.

  Author: Brenda Haas

Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/eva-peron-legend-lives-on-70-years-after-death/a-62582447?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf