Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

"Don't cry for me Argentina, the truth I never left you, all through my wild days, my mad existence, I kept my promise, don't keep your distance!" Evita on the balcony of the Casa Rosada in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber's Evita . When we last left Eva, she and Peron had married after his release from prison. Peron announced his candidacy as part of the newly formed Labor Party. Eva broke new ground by being the first candidate's wife to stand by her husband in a political campaign. At each campaign stop, Eva greeted the people, handing out campaign buttons. She even took a tentative step at making speeches on her own. On February 8 a group of working women met at Luna Park to show their support for the Labor Party ticket. Peron was ill and couldn't attend. Eva was sent in his place. It was supposed to be her debut as a speaker- but they wouldn't let her speak. Every time she tried, the women shouted, "We want Perón!" In a few months ...

"Oh what a circus, oh what a show, Argentina has gone to town, over the death of an actress called Eva Peron!" Che Guevara in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical Evita . In 1978, two Englishmen, Andrew Lloyd-Weber and Tim Rice premiered a new musical in London about the second wife of Argentine President Juan Peron. They called it “Evita.” The musical became a smash success, spawning productions around the globe, launched the career of Elaine Paige, won Tony Awards for Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone. Actresses from Liza Minnelli to Meryl Streep were dying to play Eva Peron in the movie version which eventually ended up starring Madonna. But how close to the truth was “Evita”? And how did this illegitimate daughter from a backwater town in Argentina come to be revered as practically a saint in Argentina? Eva Maria Duarte was born on May 7, 1919 in the small town Los Toldos in Argentina. Her father Juan Duarte was not married to her mother, he had another fam...