Evita

by Eva Peron, Laura Dail, Joseph Page

Overview

In 1987, a small Argentine publishing house published a document that had recently been found in a government archive in Buenos Aires. The document was called "Mi mensaje," or "My message," and appeared to be the long-lost deathbed manuscript of Eva Perón, referred to by her and mentioned in several biographies of her. Rumor had it that the document, which is critical of the Argentine church and military, had been suppressed for thirty years after her death by her husband, Argentine President Juan Perón. With an extensive introduction by Joseph A. Page, In My Own Words offers English readers a firsthand glimpse of the woman who left an indelible mark on Argentina and the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565843530
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	07/14/2005
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	0.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 5.25(d)

Editorial Reviews

Eva Maria Duarte de Peron died of uterine cancer in 1952, but "Mi mensaje," "My Message," wasn't found until some 30 years later, in a government archive, and then published in 1987. Purported to be the deathbed manuscript spoken of in her biographies, it is disputed by surviving sisters and other family members, who claim that she did not write it. Joseph A. Page, in his lengthy introduction, states that this document is "probably based in part on dictation by" Eva Peron and "provides further evidence of how difficult it is to locate the real person behind the myths shrouding the figure the world knows simply as Evita." In My Own Words: Evita, translated from the Spanish by Laura Dail, contains facsimile pages, photos from the National Archive of Argentina and a chronology of Eva Peron's life, along with the translated document and introduction.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Neither of these two books answers the question, "Who really was Eva Pern?" Enshrouded in myth, this legendary First Lady of Argentina, dead in 1952 at 33 of uterine cancer, remains as mysterious to the reader after reading these books as she was before. From a poverty-stricken and illegitimate background, Eva Maria Duarte de Pern is portrayed in Argentine journalist Ortiz's vituperative book as a power-hungry politico, while the long-lost manuscript In My Own Words portrays an almost leftist Eva who rants for the overthrow of Argentina's tradition-bound oligarchy. Because of the controversy over the authorship, the book cannot legally be attributed directly to Eva Pern; hence the use of "Evita." In an introduction, historian and Pernist scholar Joseph A. Page states he believes the manuscript is legitimate. Unfortunately, much of the truth may never be known because from the time she doctored her birth certificate before her marriage to Pern, Eva was rewriting her personal history.Ortiz's book is an attack on the mythological Eve. Although it includes a bibliography, most of the works cited are in Spanish. Both titles illustrate the problem of biography, especially because Eva will be hot property once more as Madonna stars in the forthcoming film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's myth-perpetuating Evita. Recommended for Latin American collections and women's studies collections. [See also Tomas Eloy Martnez's novel Santa Evita, LJ 8/96.Ed.]Cynthia D. Bertelsen, Indexing Svcs., Blacksburg, Va.

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