Argentina's Interesting relationship with Evita Peron

Juan Peron's Official Presidential Portrait

It is one thing to watch the movie Evita or to hear about it, it is another thing to see her memory in Action in Buenos Aires.
.

In the Casa Rosada - the Eva Peron Salon's meeting room (still used).

If you don't really know much, let's put her a bit in context.  She was a beautiful young woman, who represented "the people" as the first lady of a popular military leader who was elected President, then manipulated things to stay in power.  Evita was very much his partner, and unofficial ambassador of the country through-out Europe and the World.  She also ran an charity that benefit from "required" donations.

Evita's Desk in the Eva Peron Salon in the Argentine White House

.
She became first lady at a young age, only 27 years old.  She was very active in organizing the Labor Unions and championed women's suffrage in the 1940s in Argentina.
.
She died young (33!) and is remembered for her public works.  Much of her legacy has been tarnished by the unmasking of corruption in her husband's regime, much that she was involved with as head the Eva Peron Foundation.
.
But even with this, many people today remember her with admiration for her works.  Even people that don't idolize her agree that although her government stole, like most others, but at least she gave a lot back.

The sitting room in the Women's Lounge in the home she set up - now part of the Evita Museum

.
So it is a odd mix of people that idolize her, that admire her works, and some that hate the right-wing Peron-ista party and don't like her (but don't hate her like they do the rest of the Peron-ists.)
.
So within this context, the depiction of her is surprising.  The Casa Rosada (their White House - essentially) still maintains an Eva Peron Salon - with her meeting table there, and one of her simple dresses on display in the corner.  Her portrait hangs, massively, in the offices with her husband, although she wasn't elected to anything.  She is the only first lady so honored.

Evita's dresses and gowns used in her trip to Europe in the early 1950s.

.
We also went to a museum of hers.  It is in a expensive part of town where she "liberated" the house and turned it into a boarding house for woman who were learning a skill (and their children).  In the museum, there is no discussion that she might have done anything wrong.

The outside of the Evita Museum

.
But, fascinatingly, there was a lot of video of her speaking and her funeral.  It was even more impressive than expected. The funeral seemed to surpass even the pictures I have seen of John F Kennedy's funeral!  People lined  as deep as you could see for miles.
.
A quirky footnote.
.
After she died of cancer, the body was whisked away and buried in an unmarked grave in Italy - so that it did not become a locus for demonstrations.  While Juan Peron was in exile through 1971, he and his second wife took the body to Spain. When he returned in the 70's to Argentina, Evita's corpse returned and was buried in the Recoleta Cemetery.  If you read the details about the lengths the government has gone to in order to make sure it stays buried there - it is funny.  It is two stories down in a crypt within a crypt covered by cement - and able to withstand a "nuclear attack".