I originally wanted to write about the role of women in postcolonial Argentina. This topic, as expected, is too broad to be able to address in about fifteen pages. But it's an incredibly important and fascinating topic, and so I decided to focus instead on two women in particular who made Argentine history: Eva and Christina Fernández de Kirchner. This is, in a sense, a way to compare the role of women then and now in two different societies. Knowing the circumstances of Eva Perón's birth and youth, it seems inconceivable that she would become the unstoppable political firebrand whose memory evokes lament even today. . His father, Juan Duarte, worked as a ranch manager for a wealthy family. He received a portion of the estate's returns and owned a small ration of land. As such, he was influential: a distinguished estanciero, well-off in the context of the flat, desolate pampas in which he resided. When Eva was born, eighteen years had passed since he arrived in the village of Los Toldos, leaving behind his wife and three children in the nearby town of Chivilcoy. Although they visited him often, he managed to hide his relationship with a certain Juana Ibarguren. Together, Juan and Juana had five children; Eva, born in 1919, was the youngest. Although not legally, the family took the name Duarte. Father Duarte returned to Chivilcoy when Eva was a child, leaving her mother to sew clothes for the villagers to avoid starvation. The family's reputation as "illegitimate" afflicted them much more than poverty. Eventually, the family left Los Toldos for a town called Junín. And at the age of fifteen, Eva Duarte left for a city called Buenos Aires. Eva wanted to be an actress, like many g...... middle of paper ......der. University of Colorado, August 2007. Web. March 1, 2012. .Crassweller, David. Perón and the enigmas of Argentina. New York: WW NORTON&CO, 1988. Print. Dornbusch, Rüdiger and Sebastian Edwards. The macroeconomics of populism in Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991. Print."El Terremoto De San Juan." History of the Country. Network. 04 March 2012. .Fraser, Nicholas and Marysa Navarro. Avoid. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Print.Mirkin, Gabe. "Eva Peron and cervical cancer". DrMirkin.com. The Lancet, 3 June 2000. Web. 10 March 2012. .Page, Joseph A. Perón, a biography. New York: Random House, 1983. Print.