don’t get me wrong, eva peron was an amazing woman who did many great things, especially for an illegitimate soap opera star. in an era when women’s rights were lacking, especially in latin american areas, she created sections of parties and labor unions just for females. she led or was a member of many charitable organizations for the homeless, workers, women, and children she also fought for the working class, her roots, as did her musically-all-but-forgotten-about husband. you know, the president, juan peron, the guy who actually ruled argentina.

juan peron was an ex-military president in a country that over-throws it’s government every couple of years. va juan! he was not communist, nor was he capitalist, instead following a somewhat socialist line between the two (republicans read: damn commie!). he was, as i stated earlier, a huge advocate for the poor. i have never been a poor worker in mid-1900’s argentina, but i’m willing to bet that it sucks, and you want people in power on your side. he was even jailed once for his views on the working class, as the other government officials grew nervous about giving the po’ folk too much power. this is something that, as an american, i think we can look up to. especially in the era of tax breaks for the rich and the ever-shrinking middle class. but, something we should perhaps idolize a little less, is the fact that president peron was unapologetically anti-american. he also hated the british, but that really doesn’t effect my view of him, other than to assume he didn’t eat a lot of crumpets. also, and actually much more interestingly, juan peron was the president during the immigration of a certain jew-hating group of people from war torn europe to argentina. no proof has ever come to surface, that i know of, that juan was down with the nazi regime, but there certainly has been no evidence that he did anything to halt the influx of aryans, or that he aided in any way with their capture for war crime trials.

now, i’m not saying that we should hate eva peron. i’m not even saying we shouldn’t respect her. a woman, with no education, grew to be a larger than life figure by helping out the little guy. there should be more stories like that.. but, given our nations extreme hatred for the nazi’s, and it’s hatred and bizarre fear of communism (which, as far as i can tell, is both more contagious and more serious than ebola, avian flu, and aids combined), it seems somewhat odd that we place on a pedestal a woman who was the devout wife of a socialist nazi-sympathizer who hated us.

but, maybe that’s just me.

** keep in mind that i am far from an expert on the perons. in fact, i don’t know very much about them at all, other than he was a president, and she had some creepy hair styles. they could have been really cool, or complete assholes. i have no idea.