BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Maria Eva Noble says she’s fulfilling her namesake’s legacy as she works at a soup kitchen in a working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood.
It is named after Argentina’s iconic former first lady Maria Eva Duarte de Perón, better known as Eva Perón or Evita, who died 70 years ago on Tuesday. The soup kitchen where Noble volunteers in the Flores neighborhood provides lunch to about 200 people daily and is run by an organization that also bears the late leader’s name.
Although not related to Eva Peron, Noble says, “I carry Evita in my DNA.” And she’s hardly the only one who feels that way.
Seven decades after her death, Evita continues to stir passions in Argentina, as her followers believe her image as a defender of the poor is more relevant than ever at a time when inequality and poverty are on the rise, while the economy remains stagnant amid galloping inflation.
Evita has been the subject of countless books, movies, TV shows and even a Broadway musical, but for some of her oldest and most ardent followers, the relationship with the actress-turned-political leader is much more personal.
Juana Marta Barro was one of dozens of people who lined up Tuesday morning to leave flowers and pay their respects at Evita’s grave, located in the Recoleta district of the Argentine capital.
With tears in her eyes, Barro, 84, the daughter of a housekeeper, recalled how her life in the northern province of Tucuman improved after Evita entered the political scene and she suddenly had better shoes and a school uniform.
“Thanks to her, I had my first backpack,” said Barro, who still remembers the excitement of seeing Evita pass through his town on a train. “She is a torch that shines in my heart.”
Evita was born in a modest home in Los Toldos, a small provincial town about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the capital, where she moved when she was 15 to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. A decade later, she met Juan Domingo Perón, a military officer who had been a civil servant.
Evita was by his side when Perón won the 1946 presidential election and assumed an unprecedented role as a powerful first lady, putting herself at the forefront of women’s rights causes, including suffrage, which was approved a year later, and the creation of foundation to help workers and the poor.
As much as Evita was loved, she was equally hated by many of the rich and powerful in the country, who worried about her growing popularity and influence.
Her time in the spotlight was intense but short-lived as she died of cervical cancer aged 33, leading to an outpouring of grief on the streets as the South American country went into mourning.
Peron was eventually elected president twice more and was the founder of a political movement – Peronism – that dominates Argentine political life to this day, with many leaders of different ideological views declaring loyalty to the former general.
“Perón was respected, he was obeyed – you either agreed with what he said or you didn’t.” But Evita was loved or hated and ultimately contributed a strong dose of emotion to Peronism,” said Felipe Piña, a historian who has written extensively about the former first lady.
For some, that emotion has remained.
Maria Eva Sapire joined almost 100 others the day before the anniversary of Evita’s death to dress up as her as part of a performance that paid tribute to the former first lady.
Sapire is named after Evita and now she talks about it with her own daughter.
“When you listen to her speeches, it’s amazing how so many things still fit so many years later,” Sapir said.
Others who admired Evita later in life often say that it was the sense that she was ahead of her time on many issues, especially women’s rights, that led them to join her legions of fans.
“Young people in particular see a rebel in Evita, a figure who didn’t bow her head or give up” and ultimately died “young and beautiful,” which helped build a “pop icon,” Piña said.
“Eva is a character that enchants,” said Alejandro Machi, director of the new series “Santa Evita,” which premieres Tuesday on Disney’s streaming service, based on a 1995 novel by Argentine writer Tomás Eloy Martinez.
Perón and Evita continue to be criticized both in Argentina and abroad. Some, for example, say Evita used state money to do what she described as charity work to build her own image as a saint and help her husband grow in popularity. Others also point to allegations that the couple received money from the Nazis to help war criminals hide in Argentina after World War II.
Cristina Alvarez Rodríguez, Evita’s great-niece who is now a minister in the Buenos Aires provincial government, said she was particularly moved by the number of “very young girls who have tattooed Evita on their skin” and now “have her as a guide light.”
Many now also yearn for a figure like Evita.
For some, the current government of President Alberto Fernández, who describes himself as a Peronist, has deviated from these principles.
“The Argentine people feel betrayed. Peronism never came to starve people, and that’s what’s happening now,” said Mateo Nieto, who has pictures of Peron and Evita in his pizzeria in the northern town of Posadas, near the border with Paraguay.
Nieto said that “the government that is in power calls itself Peronist, but it is not really Peronism.”
“We really miss someone like Evita, it would be great to have a leader like her at this time,” he said.
Machi, the director, sees Evita as an “interesting metaphor” for the kind of country Argentines want in a time of growing poverty and inequality.
“This woman proposed a society with greater mobility, which is exactly what Argentina does not have at the moment. There is no social mobility of any kind, and if there is any, it is downward,” he said.
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