TONY LEON: Thoughts on icon Eva Perón
Ahead of the staging of the musical Evita, Tony Leon, SA ambassador to Argentina from 2009-2012, reflects on the life and legacy of Eva Duarte Perón
I am delighted that my good friend Pieter Toerien will again be staging a new version of the acclaimed musical opera, Evita, in SA later this year. He has asked me to share some reflections on the brief life and extraordinary global and country effect of Eva Duarte Perón, known universally as "Evita". When I arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in late 2009 to take up my post as SA ambassador, Evita had been dead for more than 57 years. She died of cervical cancer in 1952, at the incredibly young age of 33. (The diagnosis had been hidden from her.) Yet, the iconoclasm of Evita and her memory loomed over Argentine politics and her country like a giant shadow. President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, to whom I presented by credentials, saw herself as the political embodiment of Evita. Monuments, street demonstrations and much of the boisterous political discourse were refracted through the lens of Evita and her husband, Juan Domingo Perón, who served as president of Argentina in the l...
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