How could someone so loved be so despised?.
Imagine, if you will, growing up in a barren town in Argentina with your mother and four other brothers and sisters. You once had a father but he abandoned all of you to take care of his "other" family. After the loss of your father, your family is left impoverished. The entire town contemns you and your family. They laugh every time you walk the street, and gossip about you behind your backs. When you grow up, however, you miraculously turn your life around. You become the most successful and recognizable woman in Argentine history only to find that many people still despise you. This was a very brief interpretation of the life of Eva Peron, or the person known around the world as Evita. Because Eva grew up part of the poor class, she was always despised by the oligarchy, even after she became the most dynamic woman in Argentine history.
As a child, her entire community hated Eva for something she had no control over. When Eva's father Duarte died in a car accident in Chivilcoy, Eva's mother thought it best to attend his funeral. She dressed her children in mourning, but when they arrived at Duarte's funeral, his "real" wife would not allow them to come in. There was an enormous dispute between the two, and the children were finally allowed to see briefly the only father they had ever known. The family was also allowed to walk in the very back of the line to Duarte's graveside, which was supposed to be considered a privilege. The events surrounding her father's funeral were complete eye openers for Eva. They allowed her to finally see her family through the eyes of others. "While she could not have understood the noise and the passions aroused by her mother's wish to see the body, nor indeed why she should see it, she did understand that there were people who hated her mother and hated her, and she was perhaps angry with her mother for having exposed her to that hatred" (Fraser Navarro 6).
