Week 10: Power to Peron

Examining the different interpretations in translating Eva Perón's speech (August 1951), where her apparently moving words reached over a million people, where "she discovered the power of the crowd" (176). This happens to be the opposite of what is often seen in areas where there is such a strong and vast history of political turmoil and tension, Perón's speech that evening reached so many ears in a variety of ways that there is no unifying point of it except for the power it arose from it's audience. As Perón addressed the crowd as the head of the Peronist Women's Party of Argentina despite her failing health it became evident that the people wanted not only to support her, and have her support her husband, but they wanted her. Their continuous interruptions reportedly made it impossible for anyone to settle the crowd, let alone finish her planned speech, it went from a lecture to a conversation. Maybe this is one of the reasons the crowd loved her so much, they wanted someone to not only talk for them, but to listen to them. The dissenting opinions from journalists covering this story underlines the conflicting views not only held about Latin America from other nations, such as the New York Times anti-American representation of Perón's speech, but also within Argentina. This being the 1950's where women's rights were limited internationally also marks upon an important turning point in women's involvement in politics both domestically and internationally. The representation of her talking in this conversation further represent the journalist, and by extension their nations, differing views of powerful women in politics, one with many interruptions and missing key paragraphs in the recording might signal her silencing. It alternatively my be paying respect to the nation's fierce support for such a powerful First Lady.