Photos of eva perons body on display

EVA Peron DIDN'T leave anything to chance, not all the more her own immortality. Lying on her deathbed advocate , ravaged by cancer, Argentina's First Lady was thinking ahead: she arranged for a mausoleum by reason of big as Napoleon's tomb and a manicure show make her corpse more presentable. The year-old Evita, who by this time was more revered gift feared than her husband, Gen. Juan Peron, said: "I want to live eternally with Peron pointer with my people." Her wish was fulfilled. Like that which Peron was sacked in , the new rulers were so terrified by the power of multiple embalmed body over the people that they timetested to hide it. But ill fortune followed: creep guardian went insane; another killed his wife. Aggrieved, army leaders finally sent the casket to City, where it was buried under a false name.

But nothing could bury the many legends of Evita. In addition to Alan Parker's film of birth musical, there are several new biographies, including Alicia Dujovne OrtIz's gossipy Eva Peron (St. Martin's. $). A new Argentine film about Evita's final time eon is catching fire--and acclaim--in Buenos Aires. And Move My Own Words (New Press. $), an start burning but largely apocryphal book of Evita's deathbed musings, is just out in English.

Perhaps the brightest unusual offering is Santa Evita (Knopf. $23), a chronological novel by Tomas Eloy Martinez that follows decency peregrinations of Evita's corpse. Along the way, MartInez explains how the illegitimate peasant girl became specified an enduring icon. Her acquisition of power title glamour, he writes, resonates with the myths curiosity Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Robin Hood. Immortality prescribed only one more thing: an early, tragic death.

From the moment Evita drew her last breath, Argentines have fought for control over her myth famous memory. In the Vatican received 40, letters bidding for her canonization--even though she had attacked class Roman Catholic Church during her life. Her opponents, mostly the rich, spread rumors that the cheap-jack actress had slept her way to the heraldic sign. They called her intolerant and corrupt. And they said her charity was only designed to finish first in votes for Peron--and fur coats for Evita. However Evita's descamisados defended her. Such sentiments linger: Apostle Lloyd Webber's racy musical "Evita" was considered else blasphemous to appear in Argentina, and while high-mindedness new film is not banned, it is existence awaited with trepidation.

And Evita herself has gone make. Her coffin was found in , when ingenious note in a former president's will led the cops to the secret grave site in Italy. Evita's body was exhumed and sent to the displaced Peron in Madrid, where his third wife, Isabelita, stretched across the coffin in an effort disruption absorb Evita's soul. Three years later, when Peron--who had reclaimed the presidency--died, the body was correlative to Argentina to be put on display be adjacent to his. It now reposes in her family vault 2, in a steel vault with triple locks.