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When the corpse was removed from the ground in Italy, the grave digger shouted, "Miracle!" They could not believe the woman was dead because of the condition of Evita's body nearly 20 years after her death. Incredibly she looked almost the same as the day she died.
When Evita died Buenos Aires and Argentina instantly went into the deepest and most heartfelt state of mourning. Cinemas stopped their movies, theatres interrupted their plays, restaurants and bars immediately showed customers to the door, their shutters slamming down over suddenly darkened street fronts. People wandered idly in the streets, waiting for the extra editions of the evening papers, which contained for the first time information about the medical aspects of Evita's illness. To millions of Argentinians Evita had come to represent a hope for the future, a promise for a better life. And they mourned her with deep and heartfelt grief.
One of the greatest crowds in Argentina's history fought to pay last respects to Evita. It was a mob scene that first day. More than eight died and hundreds were injured in the crush to file past her coffin. The lines that finally formed literally stretched for miles. When she was alive Evita said her greatest fear was to be forgotten. She begged her husband not to let that happen. And he came up with a bizarre solution. He decided to preserve her body forever. Just as the Russians had preserved Lenin's corpse. Peron planned to build a huge mausoleum three times higher than the Statue of Liberty to put Evita on display.
Peron hired a Spanish pathologist, Dr. Ara, who had perfected a technique for preserving human flesh. Dr. Ara spent two years preserving her entire body including her brain and other internal organs which embalmers normally remove. By 1955 Ara had completed his masterpiece. But before Peron could build the mausoleum, to house his wife's body, his administration came under attack.
Peron was forced to flee the country to Spain, leaving Evita's body behind. When the new military leaders took over they were faced with a dilemma. What should they do with Evita's body, this great symbol of Peronism? To prevent Evita's body from being used to rally opposition they arranged to hide it in a small cemetery in Milan, Italy. As the people of Argentina wondered what had happened to Evita, she laid buried under a simple headstone, engraved with a false name.
She would remain there for fourteen years until 1971 when Juan Peron came back into favour in Argentina. As a gesture of reconciliation, the Argentine government decided to return Evita's body to the exiled dictator.
When the corpse was removed from the ground in Italy, the grave digger shouted, "Miracle!" They could not believe the woman was dead because of the condition of Evita's body nearly 20 years after her death. Incredibly she looked almost the same as the day she died. Dr. Ara's work has stood the test of time. After being buried for so long the entire body was almost intact. When the body was delivered to Peron he seemed pleased to be reunited with Evita. He cried when he saw her again.
In 1973, Peron returned to Argentina to run one last time for president. By now he had remarried and his third wife, Isabel, a former nightclub dancer, ran for vice president. Throughout the campaign Peron never missed a chance to invoke the image of his dead wife. He won his election and ironically Isabel won the office that Evita had been denied. But Juan Peron's presidency was short-lived. He died of a heart attack on July 1, 1974, nine months after taking office.
Isabel took over for a short time and it was on her insistence that Evita's body be returned to her family in Argentina. On October 22, 1976, Eva was laid to rest in the Duarte family tomb in the famous Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. It is said in Argentina that you can be from the best family, but if you weren't buried in Recoleta, you were nobody. Evita, a child of poverty had finally made it.
Evita
Maradona
Juan Peron