Eva’s musical graveyards!
QUESTION What happened to the body of Eva Peron?
Maria Eva ‘Evita’ Duarte de Peron (1919
1952), the second wife of argentine President Juan Domingo Peron, was one of argentina’s most beloved political figures. Upon her untimely demise, her body was embalmed, then embarked on a bizarre decades-long journey, before finally being laid to rest in the family tomb.
a former model and actress, Evita was best known for championing the descamisados (‘the shirtless ones’ — labourers). When she died at 33 on July 26, 1952, from cervical cancer, there was a mass outpouring of grief.
The Spanish embalmer Dr Pedro ara was tasked with perfectly preserving Evita, ready for her body to be placed in a mausoleum which would be bigger than the Statue of Liberty. Her hair was dyed blonde and nails painted and then two million people filed past her open coffin.
These grand plans fell apart in 1955 when the Peron regime was overthrown by the military and the president fled to Spain.
Fearing Evita’s body would become a rallying point for revolt, it was seized by the junta. it was hidden in a crate marked ‘radio equipment’ and moved to various locations around the city. However, wherever it went its position was leaked and impromptu shrines were built, and stories of miracles would occur.
rumours that the soldiers were dancing with the body spread across the city. Eventually, the military junta ordered the body be transported to Europe.
it was first buried in the ambassador’s garden in Bonn, West Germany. Then it travelled to Milan.
Finally, in 1971, argentina’s military leader, General alejandro Lanusse, struck a deal with Peron, where the exiled president would give his blessing to the regime if Evita’s body was returned to him.
When the body arrived in Madrid with Peron and his new wife isabel, he is supposed to have cried: ‘She is not dead. She is only sleeping.’
The coffin was kept at the Peron mansion, often on the dining room table. isabel would converse with the body while combing its hair and, it was said, would even lie inside the coffin ‘to soak up Evita’s magical vibrations’.
Juan Peron returned to power in 1973 but Evita did not come home until a year later, when he died and was succeeded as president by isabel. another junta overthrew isabel in 1976. The remains of Eva Peron now lie in a family crypt in the recoleta Cemetery in Buenos aires.
Diane Clarkson, Warwick. WHiLE in Buenos aires a few years ago, we took a city tour. The coach stopped outside the main cemetery and we followed our guide along the various pathways until we reached the mausoleum of the Duarte family. This was the family name of Eva Peron and we were shown the casket that allegedly contains the remains of Eva.
as i recall, there is no reference to the Peron name and her plaque shows the name ‘Eva Duarte’.
To someone familiar only with British cemeteries, i found the experience quite revealing. Many of the burial constructions are the size of bungalows and houses; some are multi-storey.
in an area of much poverty, these edifices are worth many thousands of pounds. Clearly, housing the dead is more important than housing the living in that part of the world.
Alan Horwell, Paignton, Devon.
QUESTION Do the days draw in more quickly in autumn than they lengthen in spring?
THE feeling that the days get shorter faster in autumn than they lengthen in spring is something of an illusion. From midwinter’s day on December 21, the days begin to get longer as the Earth starts a new orbit around the Sun.
The angle at which the Sun’s rays hit the Earth changes fractionally, making each day longer by approximately four minutes (in London — it is different the farther north or south you go). Sunrise is about two minutes earlier each day and sunset about two minutes later.
This continues until the summer solstice on June 21.
after that date the days begin to shorten by the same amount. What makes a significant impact, however, is when the clocks go back at the end of October and dusk is suddenly an hour earlier.
The weather will have an impact on how we view the length of the day. Heavy clouds, common in autumn, make it feel as though darkness has arrived earlier, even though the sun hasn’t actually set.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
QUESTION Who coined the term rubbernecking?
THE word rubberneck was invented in the United States in the 1890s to describe tourists who stared about with unbridled curiosity. The term rubberneck developed a negative connotation, especially when related to gazing at an accident. Exactly who coined it is unknown.
The earliest reference to the word in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from the Marion Daily Star in Ohio in 1894: ‘ “rubberneck” is one of the latest words that has sprung into the language of slang. it . . . is defined as one who is continually peeping around or attending to someone else’s business.’
U.S. satirist H. L. Mencken observed that rubberneck entered the american language in a wave of american compound words invented during the late 1800s and the early 1900s:
‘The old american faculty [read skill] for making picturesque compounds shows no sign of abating today [1937]. Many of them come in on the attitude of slang, e.g., gladhand, rahrah-boy, coffin-nail (cigarette), hang-out, and pin-head, and never attain to polite usage . . . but others are taken into the language almost as soon as they appear, e.g., sky-scraper and rubberneck (c. 1890), loan- shark (c. 1900), hot- dog (1905), joy-ride (1908), love-nest, jaywalker (c. 1890), and brain-trust (1932).’
Paul Gerrard, Leeds.
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