The feminine side to the Peronism movement was Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, or, as she preferred to be known, Evita. To whom was born in a small mud hut in the tiny village of Los Toldos on May 7, 1919. She was the fifth child of Juana Ibarguren and Juan Duarte, all of whom were illegitimate children (Floras 1952). So basically, since the Argentine countryside offered her no more pleasant prospects than that of her mother, Evita moved to Buenos Aires as soon as she was sixteen much in this same manner as an American girl would go to Hollywood in search of a better future. At this time she was already a "pale-skinned, dark-eyed, dazzling blond", (Floras 1952), and this was very promising in the entertainment sphere.
When she left Los Toldos she
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She did not represent a threat to him or to his relationship with the descamisados precisely because she was a woman. Furthermore, as his wife, she was part of him, an extension of him, and since all her actions appeared endorsed by him, from the very first moment, she had a substantial latitude to exert her influence. She strengthened her position by asserting her power to influence decisions and by contributing to the Peronization of labor unions. Her activities in the ministry of labor were the basis of the political power she accumulated from 1948 onward. In so doing she defined a new identity for herself. She gradually made herself into the indispensable link between Peron and the descamisados, the only means to reach him outside normal channels, or, as she would call herself, the intermediary between the leader and the descamisados, "the bridge between Peron and the people." While he remained "the undisputed Leader," by 1950 she had become "the standard-bearer" and even "the plenipotentiary" of the descamisados. Her titles reflected her own relationship with labor, as charismatic as his own, and adjacent to his. She was Peron's complement, but to the workers she was also their