Revitalised Peronist voters adopt Evita as their heroine
For the first time in four years the neon lights tracing the face of Eva Peron beamed across the Buenos Aires skyline.
‘‘Peronism has returned. Happiness has returned. How was she ever not going to return to us? ... We have turned our Evita back on, dear comrades,’’ a union worker said as news reached the crowds that the Left-wing Peronist coalition, led by Alberto Fernandez and former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, 66, had swept to victory.
The vast sculpture of ‘‘Evita’’, the former first lady who died in 1952, adorns the 93-metre-high health ministry building along the Argentine capital’s main thoroughfare.
Under Mauricio Macri, the conservative president who left office on December 10 to make way for Fernandez, the sculpture remained in darkness at night, ostensibly to save energy in a chronic economic crisis.
Yet for many voters it was seen as a political move by Macri’s Rightwing administration to conceal Evita’s face because she continues to unite the Peronist movement that has ruled Argentina for all but six of the past 30 years.
In a secret operation, health ministry workers restored LED lights behind the mural of Evita before the presidential election on October 27, won decisively by the Left-wing coalition.
After four years in power Macri, 60, had failed to reform the economy and convince voters of his argument that their financial hardship was mainly the fault of his predecessor.
Evita has made a comeback as a figure for a new generation of Argentinian voters, Tatiana Depetris from the Evita Museum in Buenos Aires told The Times.
‘‘Evita would be a social media influencer today.
‘‘And that is why many identify with her and with Peronism,’’ Depetris said.
Human rights groups have adopted the former first lady as a symbol of their campaigns, brandishing Evita’s face on flags,
T-shirts and tattoos while fighting for abortion to be decriminalised in a country where the Roman Catholic church remains influential and machismo is embedded in its culture.
Evita has similarly become a cult figure among gay rights advocates.
‘‘She would be at the forefront of transgender rights if still alive because as a collective we have zero opportunities ... we have never been included and are the most marginalised group in the country,’’ Lara Maria Bertolini, 49, a transgender activist and law student at the University of
Avellaneda in Buenos Aires, said.
Peronism as a mass political movement began with the presidency of Juan Domingo Peron, who took office after a landslide election victory in 1946.
Encompassing extremes of both left and right, Peron was aided by his second wife, Eva, a charismatic first lady from a humble background who came to be adored by millions as a champion of the poor.
She died of cancer in 1952, at the age of 33, cementing her legacy.
Her image in Argentina is directly linked, Bertolini said, to the defence of the ‘‘desclasados’’ or ‘‘descamisados’’ – the ‘‘shirtless ones’’.
During his rise to power, Peron skilfully managed relations with the country’s powerful unions and successfully mobilised working-class support.
But he has since become an unattractive historical figure for modern-day Argentina – ‘‘a military man’’, ‘‘a fascist’’, ‘‘a classist philanderer’’ is how he is often described.
The idea that LGBTQ and proabortion groups embrace his wife as a cult symbol for their causes would be ‘‘unthinkable’’ to Juan Peron, according to Luis Mass, 28, a consultant underprivileged in Buenos Aires.
Evita – unlike her husband – is difficult to categorise and that is part of her appeal.
‘‘She did not have a strict political ideology,’’ Depetris from the museum said, much like the 12 million people who voted for the Left-wing coalition in this October’s election, ousting Macri.
Evita left her Catholic home at 15 to pursue an acting career and was progressive.
She never declared herself a feminist but her actions were.
She became the country’s first female vice-president, opening schools and healthcare centres for women.
Lorena Mac Coll, 32, an advocate for women’s rights, has been helping to promote a popular wristband that reads ‘‘Elegi Ser Evita’’, or ‘‘Choose to be Evita’’.
Launched in September as part of an online campaign to promote equality, the rubber bracelets raise funds for disadvantaged students.
Mac Coll said Evita was ‘‘undoubtedly’’ the face of Peronism in Argentina. ‘‘She gave women the vote and has transcended time as a figure for the working classes,’’ she said. – The Times
It is one of the great questions of railway etiquette in a country crisscrossed by long-distance trains: can people who sleep on top bunks sit on bottom bunks during the day?
Trivial as it may sound, it is a serious issue for travellers embarking on rail journeys of up to 160 hours in Russia.
With no right to sit below, a passenger would have to sleep, eat and drink tea on a bunk jiggling under the ceiling or take their chances in the corridor.
Now Russian Railways (RZhD) has settled the debate with new tickets that tell those below: ‘‘During day time, allow passengers from above to sit on your bunk.’’ Upper bunk tickets state: ‘‘It is allowed to sit on the lower bunk during the day.’’
The tickets represent a reverse of the position the RZhD took two years ago when questioned on the bunk policy.
The company said then that passengers could occupy a place paid for by another traveller only if the latter gave permission.
The new policy was welcomed as a triumph of common sense.
In practice, most lower-berth passengers allow fellow passengers, or sputniks, to sit next to them during the day.
But everybody who has travelled in an upper berth has a story about being refused a place below by a drowsy, hung-over or simply rude neighbour who wanted to stretch out or sleep during the day.
Howard Gethin, 53, a British journalist who worked for many years in Russia, said: ‘‘Ninety per cent of people do give up a place anyway but just occasionally someone won’t and it makes it a misery.
‘‘Imagine being on the TransSiberian in summer for a week and being stuck on the top bunk.
‘‘You would want to kill somebody by the end of it.’’ – The Times
‘‘Evita would be a social media influencer today. And that is why many identify with her and with Peronism.’’