Few people had as much influence on Argentine politics as Eva Perón, or Evita as she was also known - a fact that is clearly evident as the country commemorates 100 years since her birth.
María Eva Duarte was born in the town of Los Toldos, a province of Buenos Aires, on May 7, 1919, to a humble family and with a father who maintained a double life with another family.
When she was 15, she moved to Buenos Aires to fulfil her dream of becoming an actress and achieving fame. In 1944, she met Colonel Juan Domingo Perón, whom she married two years later.
In February 1946, following an election campaign where she featured prominently, Colonel Perón was elected president of Argentina. In her role as the First Lady, Evita worked intensely to set up the Eva Perón Foundation, with which she created hospitals, homes for the elderly and single mothers, polyclinics, schools and even a children's city. During the year, the foundation provided assistance to those in need and organised sports events for children and young people.
Researcher and professor of Latin American and Spanish studies at the University of Sydney, Fernanda Peñaloza, explains Evita's strong influence at the time.
24th August 1951: Eva Peron (1919 - 1952) who organised women workers and secured votes for women addresses a crowd of women. Source: Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
"In the '40s, the working masses begin to form part of the public space, the worker appears as a historical subject with a voice ... 'Peronism' does interpellate these voices that begin to emerge with enough force and Eva Perón is absolutely instrumental to be a bridge between the state apparatus and the mobilisation of the masses," Ms Peñaloza says.
Her figure was 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. Others judged her as ambitious, adventurous, resentful, selfish and false, full of hatred and hypocritical.
During that period, women featured very little in Argentine politics, and Evita's presence was considered a contradiction with the characteristics that many came to be expected from a person in an influential position.
"She belonged to a profession that at that time, being an actress or being in the show was [considered] very close to prostitution, so [they] question the qualifications of this person to be in the public arena, but is also questioned for being a person of low morale and whose educational training was quite poor," Ms Peñaloza says.
"The infantility with which it simplified the nation's problems."
The researcher points out that the figure of Eva Perón was exposed to multiple interpretations, and not without difficulties for researchers, given the scarcity of reliable sources that collected information about it, which are also contradictory.
6th September 1948: Eva Peron (1919 - 1952)with her husband President Peron of Argentina and talking to General Pistarini Source: Getty
"It is almost impossible to know who Eva Perón was, but the interesting thing is to think about the different versions of her that circulated and still circulate in the popular imagination," Ms Peñaloza says.
Ms Peñaloza highlights that during the '40s and '50s being a woman in politics was very difficult, so Eva Perón opened a space for women that did not exist before, by facilitating, among other things, the path to women's vote.
The researcher points out that parts of her messages are still current when claiming a more active role for women and greater visibility and power, which at that time were relegated almost exclusively to the domestic space.
"It was a woman who was occupying a role that was powerful and that was very destabilising for the ruling classes and the men of the time," she says.
Ms Peñaloza believes that the figure of Evita continues to polarise Argentine society, depending on the ideology of the political party that is in power at the time.
"Evita can be seen as a saint or as a prostitute, but it is interesting for me to learn these lessons from history where women were really struggling to open up a space of public visibility that was not then available," she says.
Eva Perón died of uterine cancer on July 26, 1952. She was only 33 years old and without children. Her wake lasted more than 15 days.
The most enduring reference to Evita abroad is undoubtedly the musical of the same name produced by Englishmen Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice and immortalised by the song 'Don't cry for me Argentina'.
Madonna appears as Eva Peron in a scene from the movie musical "Evita." Source: AAP
