María Eva Duarte de Perón (1919–1952), usually referred to as Eva Perón or by the affectionate diminutive Evita, was the second wife of President Juan Perón (1895–1974) and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death. Over the years, she became a part of international pop culture, most famously as the subject of Tim Rice's musical, Evita.
Born is the village of Los Toldos in rural Argentina, she moved to Buenos Aires at the age of 15 to pursue a career in stage, radio and film. After meeting and marrying Colonel Perón, her influence grew within the pro-Peronist trade unions. She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party. In 1951, she announced her candidacy for the office of Vice President, behind the support of the workling class descamisados or "shirtless ones", but withdrew as a result of declining health and opposition from the nation's military and bourgeoisie.
After receiving a state funeral, plans were made to construct a memorial in Evita's honor, with her body to be stored in the base. While waiting for construction, Juan Perón was overthrown in a military coup, the Revolución Libertadora, in 1955 and plans were not made to secure arrangements for Evita's embalmed body, which had been on public display in her office at the GCT building for 2 years. After Peronist activity was banned by the new regime, her body was smuggled out and buried in a crypt in Milan under the name "María Maggi." In 1971, her body was exhumed and flown to Spain where Juan Perón maintained it in his home before it was finally returned to Argentina and interred in the Duarte family tomb.
La Cementerio de la Recoleta (Recoleta Cemetery), set in 5.5 hectares or the equivalent of about four city blocks, has more than 350,000 people buried in an estimated 4,7000 vaults--all above ground, and many of which have been declared National historical Monuments. Many of the elaborate marble mausoleums are decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles such as Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Baroque, and Neo-Gothic The cemetery was inaugurated under the name Cementerio del Norte (Northern Cemetery) on November 17, 1822, around Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Pilar, the church and convent built in 1732 and abandoned in 1822 by the monks of the Order of the Recoletos. The original 1822 layout was designed by architect and civil engineer Próspero Catelin, and an 1881 remodeling was handled by Italian architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo.
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