Eve Peron

Wife and political partner of President Juan Peron of Argentina. Born May 7, 1919, the youngest of five children, in the little village of Los Toldos in Buenos Aires province, Argentiina.Following the death of her father, the family moved to the larger nearby town of Junin, where her mother ran a boarding house. At the

age of 16, Evita, as she was often affectionately called, left school and went to Buenos Aires with the dream of becoming an actress. Lacking any theatrical training, she obtained a few bit parts in motion pictures and on the radio, until she was finally employed on a regular basis with one of the larger radio stations in Buenos Aires.

In November 1943 she met Colonel Juan Peron, who had just assumed the post of secretary of labor and social welfare in the military government which had come to power the previous June. Eva developed an intimate relationship with the widowed Peron, who was beginning to organize the Argentine workers in support of his own bid for the presidency. Becoming Peron's loyal political confidante and partner, she rendered him valuable assistance in gaining support among the masses. In October 1945, following Peron's arrest and imprisonment by a group of military men opposed to his political ascendancy, she helped to organize a mass demonstration that led to his release. A few days later, on October 21, 1945, Eva and Juan Peron were married. Now politically stronger than ever, Peron became the government candidate in the presidential election set for February 1946. In an action unprecedented for Argentine women, Senora de Peron participated actively in the ensuing campaign,

directing her appeal to the less privileged groups of Argentine society, whom she labeled los descamisados ("the shirtless ones").

Following Peron's election, Eva began to play an increasingly important role in the political affairs of the nation. During the early months of the Peron administration she launched an active campaign for national woman suffrage, which had been promised in Peron's electoral platform. Due largely to her efforts, suffrage for women was enacted in 1947, and in 1951 women voted for the first time in a national election.

Eva also assumed the task of consolidating the support of the working classes and controlling organized labor. Taking over a suite of offices in the Secretariate of Labor, Peron's former center of power, she used her influence to seat and unseat ministers of labor and top officials of the General Confederation of Labor, the chief labor organization in Argentina. For all practical purposes she became the secretary of labor, supporting workers' claims for higher wages and sponsoring a host of social welfare measures.

Because of her own lower-class background, Eva readily identified with the working classes and was fervently committed to improving their lot. She devoted several hours every day to audiences with the poor and visits to hospitals, orphanages, and factories. She also supervised the newly created Ministry of Health, which built many new hospitals and established a remarkably successful program to eradicate such diseases as tuberculosis, malaria, and leprosy.

The Maria Eva Duarte De Peron Welfare Foundation established in June 1947 carried out a large part of her