A Brief History of Eva Peron

As the last of five children, Maria Eva Duarte was born in Los Toldos, Argentina on May 17, 1919. Her conception came out of a common practice in the pueblos of her country. Her mother, Dona Juana Ibarguen, became the mistress of a Juan Duarte, a wealthy man from a neighboring village. It was from her mother that Eva learned her most valuable life lesson: “man was her natural enemy or a fool whom a clever girl could exploit” (Flores 23). 

Eva was born during the short time of democracy in her country. It was a time that had “given the country the secret ballot and, for the first time in its history, the possibility of honest elections” (Flores 29). When Hipólito Irigoyen was elected President in 1916, plans for strengthening the country’s workforce began to take root. These plans soon backfired though and, by the end of his term, Irigoyen began the cycle of corruption again by naming his own successor from the Radical party, and returning to the office for a later term. 

On September 6, 1930, General Uriburu seized the Casa Rosada (the pink Government House) without a fight. Uriburu claimed that the rebellion was for the people, in actuality, “the discontent of the people had been used as an excuse for a military coup planned well in advance” (Flores 32). Uriburu was forced by the Army to hold Presidential elections and General Agustín Justo was elected. It was during Justo’s presidency that Eva arrived in Buenos Aires. 

Her love of the stage and the spotlight brought her to the city, but her mother’s teachings are what made her famous. Eva had “no talent, no experience, no unusual beauty, little education, no money” (Flores 33), but she thrived on her ability to manipulate the opposite sex. Soon after her fifteenth birthday Eva met Agustin Magaldi, a talented tango dancer, and they left her childhood pueblo toward Buenos Aires together. After Magaldi, she began to take on a series of romantic affairs to enhance her lifestyle and move herself further away from the slums of her childhood.