A few days later, Perón, who was a widower, married Eva Duarte, who had been an undistinguished stage and radio actress. Perón’s politics and his meteoric rise have often been attributed to this powerful lady. Eva Duarte de Perón participated in her husband's 1945–46 presidential campaign, winning the adulation of the working-class masses, which she addressed as los descamisados.

Evita was to become a powerful political ally of her husband, revered by the lower economic classes.

Evita never held an official government post but acted as her husband’s de facto minister of health and labour, and was successful in influencing wage increases to the unions, who responded with greater political support for Perón. These sweeping reforms alienated him from the Argentine ruling elite, their external masters and military classes in Argentina.

Perón cut off government subsidies to the traditional and corrupt Sociedad de Beneficencia (Aid Society) and replaced it with Eva Perón Foundation, which was supported by “voluntary” union and business contributions, plus a substantial cut of the national lottery.

These resources were better used to establish hospitals, schools, orphanages and homes for the elderly. Evita was also largely responsible for the passage of the woman suffrage law and she formed the Perónista Feminist Party in 1949. In 1951, although dying of cancer, she obtained the nomination for vice president, but the army forced her to withdraw her candidacy. It should be realised that Argentina’s political system was often subject to military control until 1983.

Even after her death, Evita is still a formidable influence in Argentina’s society and a great iconic figure of Argentine history. Christina Kirchner’s recent presidential campaign had more than just a mention and flavour of Eva Duarte de Perón.

Evita’s working-class followers tried unsuccessfully to have her canonised, and her enemies in the military, in an effort to exorcise her as a national symbol of Perónism, exported Eva Duarte de Perón’s embalmed body in 1955 after Juan Perón was overthrown and secreted it in Italy for 16 years. 

In 1971, the military government, bowing to Perónist demands, turned over her remains to her exiled widower in Madrid. After Juan Perón died in office in 1974, his third wife and vice-president, Isabel Perón, hoping to gain favour among the populace, repatriated the remains and installed them next to the deceased leader in a crypt in the presidential palace.

Two years later a new military junta hostile to Perónism removed their bodies and it is sometimes claimed that their remains are still missing.

Evita’s remains were finally interred in the Duarte family crypt in Recoleta Cemetery. Eva Duarte Perón’s story and her memory are held very close to Argentina’s heart and a pilgrimage to Evita’s resting place in Recoleta Cemetery is a must on your list of things to do in Buenos Aires.