ZT
Maria Eva Duarte Peron, the second wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron, was born in the small town of Los Toldos into a poor family. At the age of 16, she came to the capitol city of Buenos Aires and rapidly achieved stardom as a radio and motion picture personality.
Her Cinderella story background and her personal charisma helped her establish an enormous popular following in Argentina. She used this popularity to help her husband be elected President of Argentina in 1946. The Maria Eva Duarte de Peron Welfare Foundation, which she founded in 1947, provided millions of dollars for poverty relief, in a fund-raising effort clouded by scandals. When she died of cancer in 1952 at the age of 33, she achieved national status of virtual sainthood.
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