The strangest aspect of this story is that it is true. Eva Perón, Argentina's beloved First Lady, died of cancer at the age of thirty-three in 1952. The grieving Juan Perón commissioned a renowned embalmer to preserve her body for display, and Argentines flocked to be near "Evita." When his government was overthrown by a military coup three years later, Perón fled the country before he could arrange for the transportation of his wife's body. The corpse was kidnapped by the military junta, who were so afraid of Eva's symbolic power that they made it illegal to mention her name. Thus began Eva's body's two-decade journey through Europe and eventually back to Argentina.
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The strangest aspect of this story is that it is true. Eva Perón, Argentina's beloved First Lady, died of cancer at the age of thirty-three in 1952. The grieving Juan Perón commissioned a renowned embalmer to preserve her body for display, and Argentines flocked to be near "Evita." When his government was overthrown by a military coup three years later, Perón fled the country before he could arrange for the transportation of his wife's body. The corpse was kidnapped by the military junta, who were so afraid of Eva's symbolic power that they made it illegal to mention her name. Thus began Eva's body's two-decade journey through Europe and eventually back to Argentina.
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