Buenos Aires means "fine weather", but there are also cloudy days. The fog condensed by water molecules in the air is wet and cold. However, it is still appropriate to visit the cemetery in foggy days. Even though the atmosphere was strange, many people gathered at the entrance of Duarte family, an aristocratic cemetery in the city center, and watched the tomb card of a female deceased who had little to do with this family with curiosity. This person is the famous "Mrs. Veron" Ai Weita.
With the release of the song 1976 "Don't cry for me in Argentina" and the subsequent global best-selling musical, Ai Weita has already become a popular symbol, and even become a common avatar on Argentine tourist souvenirs like Ernesto Guevara. In the real world, how does Mrs. Veron interact with Argentines?
Ai Weita's graffiti in Buenos Aires.
"Cinderella got on the pumpkin cart."
Ai Weita's experience after his death was quite tragic: the body originally handled by Lenin mysteriously disappeared and was rebuilt under the tombstone of a strange Italian name more than ten years later; Later, the body was returned to her husband in Spain. In the end, they were not buried together, but separated from Buenos Aires, far away from each other.
Ai Weita, born in 19 19, is an illegitimate daughter. The father of the upper-class landlord family abandoned the original match and lived with Ai Weita's mother and the daughter of a coachman in a small town hundreds of kilometers away from Buenos Aires. A few years later, his father died. /kloc-at the age of 0/5, Ai Weita went to Buenos Aires alone to work hard and worked as an actor in several theaters and film companies.
In Ai Weita's ninth largest city, a military coup overthrew the government. Due to the military government's involvement in propaganda, Ai Weita, who was gradually emerging in the broadcasting field at that time, met many military government officials, including juan veron.
1945, peron, who was increasingly consolidated in the military government, was unexpectedly overthrown, and peron, who served as vice president, minister of labor and minister of national defense, was exiled. A few days later, thousands of low-level workers, whom Peron called "topless", gathered in May Square in front of the presidential palace. Great pressure failed the coup and Peron was able to rise again. Later, Peron and Ai Weita joined together, and Cinderella from a small town became the first lady.
There will inevitably be some controversy about this story. Some people say that two political allies of Veron successfully manipulated politics in the deadlock of government formation after the coup, and let Veron go out of the mountain; Others (including Ai Weita herself) said that she mobilized the "bare-chested" and directed a large-scale demonstration in May Square.
The second statement is not groundless. At that time, Argentina, whose industry and commerce were initially developed, faced new social contradictions. The wealthy class composed of traditional farmers occupies a lot of wealth in Argentina; Poor people from remote areas flocked to the capital to become industrial workers. These poor people are eager for wealth redistribution and success. At this time, Ai Weita appeared in their field of vision: he also came from the bottom and experienced the same suffering. By the way, she is still so beautiful and charming.
The Duarte family cemetery in Recotta Cemetery is filled with flowers dedicated to Ai Weita.
Ai Weita is Veron's "one thigh"
After becoming the "first lady", Ai Weita did many things and became a dazzling Argentine star. Even the recorder of later generations said: "In that marriage, she was a man and he was a woman."
Ai Weita became the de facto leader of the trade union. On the one hand, she promotes the government to formulate labor policies, on the other hand, she supervises the government through a labor organization composed of millions of people. Perhaps it is difficult for Ai Weita to attract the attention of the upper class to which her biological father belongs, but the workers are very enthusiastic about her. She visited the workshop to be caring and attentive, received complaints from workers regularly every week, and sent money and meals extensively. This way has even become the main way for Peron government to communicate with the people at the bottom.
In fact, the Peron government, regarded as the enemy by the traditional peasant class, has two pillars, one is the army and the other is the workers. In other words, Ai Weita is Veron's "one thigh".
Of course, being a "thigh" also means taking a "dirty road". She succeeded in crowding out the original leader of the trade union and put the new person she trusted in an important position. For example, the janitor of the apartment where Veron once lived, although not a worker, became the general secretary of the trade union.
She took a photo with the workers at the Ai Weita Museum.
Ai Weita took over the charity from the rich Argentine woman and the church. She presided over the construction of nursing homes, orphanages, hospitals and disaster relief. Although the opposition accused the newly-built hospital of being inoperable and the children's village lacked facilities, the poor still regarded Ai Weita as a protector, and even regarded her as a saint when she died. Some people built temples in the inland to commemorate her.
You can also say that Ai Weita is a "feminist". She cast her first vote for Argentine women before she died. She really led the women's campaign for the right to vote and became the chairman of the women's party. On the one hand, she called for women's economic independence, on the other hand, she called on women to stick to their family roles. Of course, women's participation in politics is social progress, which also means that Veron won almost all the more than 2 million female votes in the election of 195 1.
For Veron, Ai Weita is not only a wife, but also a political ally and the most effective channel for the populist government to communicate with the bottom people. Of course, Ai Weita became Veron's biggest worry.
Like "first lady" or "first family"
In the block where the fine weather city botanical garden and zoo meet, a classical building became the Ai Weita Museum in 2002. In the video materials circulated here, the scene of Ai Weita's body returning to China to accept a large number of people's condolences is moving.
After Ai Weita's death, Veron did one thing: put those titles on Ai Weita's head. This seems understandable, but it became the fuse for Veron to be overthrown a few years later. According to the analysis of scholars, Veron is most worried that fanatical supporters love Ai Weita, not the Veron regime, so he distrusts those who follow Ai Weita, including the secretary-general of the trade union who once guarded his apartment and deeply admired Ai Weita.
The photo of her waving to people on the train in Ai Weita Museum.
Jumping out of the fanaticism at that time, regardless of Ai Weita's life, it was unclear and mixed. She must be the politician who owns Chris Ma. From a political point of view, Ai Weita has two different supporters. One is the person who is so impressed by Ai Weita's personal charm that she admires her superhuman character and regards her as a leader; And another real person will attach love to her to a regime or a movement.
In the eyes of the first group of supporters, Veron will never reach the status of Ai Weita. Many Peronists came because of Ai Weita's personal charm, and their support for Peron gradually faded because of Ai Weita's death. 1954, Peron ordered the suspension of the construction of Ai Weita's Mausoleum, in order to break the political fanaticism about Ai Weita, because this fanaticism has begun to have a negative impact on the support rate of the Peron regime.
In the eyes of the second kind of supporters, the enthusiasm for Ai Weita can be extended to Veron. After Veron's exile, many people insisted on voting blank in the elections of 1957, 1960 and 1963 to show their support for Veron's doctrine, which showed that some supporters of Ai Weita continued to stick to their loyalty to the former "first family".
Max Weber once said in his works that a politician's Chris Ma is difficult to pass on to people around him or his successor. Ai Weita made similar efforts when she was alive. She publicized her obedience and attachment to Peron in many places, and even compared Peron with Jesus. Judging from the results, the charm of Veron is far less intense and overwhelming than that of his wife.
Be realistic, "wonder woman"
Ai Weita's life is full of dramatic plots. In the eyes of scholars, drama is an important source to promote the formation of popular culture and populism. Because of this feature, Ai Weita's autobiography My Mission is frequently quoted. Argentina's pink presidential balcony seems to have her shadow hanging all the time; Every time the Argentine football team loses, there is always a song "Argentina don't cry for me" echoing sadly over the stadium.
However, longing for those beautiful stories and infatuation with epic images are like a needle of spiritual heroin full of youth and passion, but it is just a simple and paranoid emotion of human beings. What did that wonderful "Peron era", or simply "Ai Weita era", bring to Argentina?
The gorgeous clothes that Ai Weita wore before his death.
1952, Ai Weita is still alive, and there are still several years before the collapse of the peron regime. An academic journal published by the Royal Institute of International Relations predicts that Argentina's economic situation will not be so pleasant for a long time before the economy returns to the track of prosperity.
The background of Veron's coming to power is the transition from agriculture to industry and commerce in Argentina. Inflation has been increasing, and a large number of people at the bottom expect to get food and raise their wages. As a soldier, besides the "thigh" of the people at the bottom represented by Ai Weita, Veron has vital support from the military. In order to consolidate the support of the military, Veron can only continue to give unprecedented preferential treatment to the military and police forces. The new official who lacks experience in economic management encourages Veron to gain wealth and maintain his rule by continuing to raise inflation.
In fact, Veron is not without people who understand the economy. At that time, a senior economic adviser strongly opposed the purchase of railways from Britain, but the adviser was hostile to Ai Weita and had to resign. After that, only Argentina, with foreign exchange reserves equivalent to 6 billion pesos, spent 2.5 billion pesos to make this railway sale.
Analysts at that time said rudely that Ai Weita's participation in government affairs may have given her husband advice that many professionals would not give. Inflation has made the Peron government's five-year economic development plan have little effect. Coupled with drought, Buenos Aires, located in a rich agricultural area, is actually short of food.
It seems that this is not the beautiful Ai Weita that we remember, nor the "wonder woman" that fell from the sky in the hearts of Argentines. After returning to realism, I found that Latin America didn't have that much magic.