Overview
In this best-selling biography, French and Argentine journalist Alicia Dujovne Ortiz examines the mythology that surrounds Eva Peron as she penetrates the complexities behind Peron's ever-lasting allure. Born in 1919, the illegitimate daughter of destitute Argentine farmers, Eva Duarte spent her adolescence aspiring to the grand and glorious fame of the theater. At the first opportunity, she fled the deprivation of her origins and the backwaters of her poor village for the glittering lights of Buenos Aires. However, because she lacked both formal training and talent to be an actress, Eva quickly realized that it would take many years of hardship for even a small chance at becoming the star of her generation. It was during this time of disillusion that Eva met Juan Peron. Abandoning her pursuit of stardom, Eva concentrated all of her efforts on helping the future dictator of Argentina ascend politically. Her theatrical ambition was substituted with the desire not only to launch her husband's career, but to remake herself as a figure of providence for the millions of impoverished workers of her country. With access to the newly declassified archives of the Peron government, Ortiz has uncovered new information, including connections between Juan Peron and the German Nazi party. Taking into account every source of information — many never available to any other previous biographer — Ortiz has tapped into dozens of personal testimonies, including that of Father Hernan Benitez, Eva's personal confessor, as well as Eva's own private memoirs.Editorials
Newsday
By far the best researched and most balanced (biography) . . . about Eva Peron.Kirkus Reviews
An impressionistic portrait of a woman revered and reviled in Argentina, just in time for the scheduled December release of the Madonna film Evita.Eva Perón became an icon during her 194552 reign as wife of dictator Juan Perón, but one perceived in radically different ways: To some she symbolized all that is good about Argentina; to others, all that is evil. These contradictory perceptions took such hold of the Argentinean imagination that they still run strong 44 years after her death from cancer at the age of 33. Argentine journalist Ortiz paints a picture of Perón that provides ammunition for both camps: She was, it seems, a petty, jealous, and shallow woman, who also did remarkable good for Argentina's poor. Ortiz digs deep into Perón's background as the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy landowner, and as a mediocre and often desperately poor actress, to explain her contradictory character. But this is no linear biography. Ortiz's Perón is like a character in a Gabriel García Márquez novel: Her essence shifts according to the situation or the time of day. Ortiz even adopts a Márquez-like style, offering several different versions of crucial events in Perón's life. "But where is the truth?" she asks. "In life, as in drama, it is often found in feelings." At the same time, Ortiz inundates the reader with details about the palace intrigues of the Perón years, drawn from newly declassified documents, further tantalizing readers with suggestive but unsubstantiated hints of vast payoffs to Eva and Juan Perón from postwar Nazi fugitives in exchange for safe haven.
Indeed, Ortiz's biography is so awash in suggestive information that it becomes virtually impossible to follow all of the possible threads of Perón's life. But, like an impressionist painting viewed from just the right angle, the book does convey an intriguing image of one the most controversial and fascinating women of our century.