Evita: Decked out in Diamonds and a Plaster Cast

Looking for History is a new book that came to me from old friend and super-reader Kent St. John. It is subtitled "dispatches from Latin America' and written by Alma Guillermoprieto. The first chapter is about Eva Duarte, who became the Evita we have all heard about from the Madonna movie. Her story is tragic and short: She was diagnosed with uterine cancer at age 31, but refused to get treated. "she was too busy rallying recalcitrant politicians to support Peron's reforms," and crossing the nation "tailored, perfumed and decked out in diamonds." Her story is of a young girl who put everything into her Man, and the Man gave little back.

"Her last act of will involved yet another manipulation of her own body: in order to attend Peron's second inaguration, when she was already too weak to stand, she had a plaster support made in which she was encased, upright, during an open car ride, the device covered by a long fur coat. She died soon after at 33.