Argentina's iconic first lady Evita Peron was so loved or hated when she was alive that long after her death, passionate arguments about her character drowned out more serious efforts to examine her legacy.
Some historians say that only now, 60 years after Gen. Juan Domingo Peron's firebrand wife succumbed to cancer at the age of 33, are many beginning to consider how much her actions shaped the society they live in today.
Setting aside the social-climber image fostered by the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and misogynistic biographers of years past, many now credit her activism and passion for things that are central to Argentine culture today, from widespread desires for social justice and equal rights to a shared assumption that society's poorest need and deserve the government's help.
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