Visiting Evita

On our final day in Buenos Aires, we decided to visit the Cementerio de la Ricoleta, one of the most beautiful locations in the city and the final resting place of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron (better known as Evita). For those who don't know, Evita was the First Lady of Argentina in the pre-WW2 period, and, together with her husband Juan Peron, ushered in the first era of modern protections for working-class Argentines. On our walking tour of La Boca, we heard about how Evita fought for (and achieved) workers' rights such as a five-day work week, eight-hour work day, labor unionization rights, and was a catalyst for the rise of the first Argentine middle class. She is regarded as a heroine by all but the upper classes, and you'll find statues and graffiti in her memory all over the city.

This, however, presents an interesting anecdote - the Cementerio de la Ricoleta is the burial ground housing most of Argentina's richest and most upper-crust families. It is considered a great ill by the working-class in the city that Evita resides here in death; in Ricoleta, the wealthy famously celebrated her death from cancer by throwing lavish balls and toasting "viva la cancer." How truly abhorrent this must have been to those masses who saw her as a messiah for their troubled lives.Read more