My Opponent Is A Puppy Kicker
Eva Perón: the Myths of a Woman by J.M. Taylor is a very interesting book to me. It explains what "objectively" happened in Evita's life, and then the myths about her, and the differences inherent between these stories. To me, it is a book about what people believe, rather than what they feel. It reminds me of the comment in class that the woman made (amidst historians, of all people) stating that she doesn't care about the truth, she cares about what they believe. To me, that's the most interesting part of this book. Maybe the myths aren't right, but they still hold value because someone, somewhere, believes they're true, and is going to act on that belief. You can say, "Yes, but that belief is wrong" all you want, it doesn't change what their reactions will be. The way they think of Eva Peron will still be colored by the myths they believe.
And what is a myth but someone else's truth, anyway? Just because I don't personally believe that the world was created by Brahma, who sprung from Vishnu's navel at the beginning of time, doesn't mean no one else does, and no one else acts on those beliefs. The same goes for the myths of Evita Peron. Just because I don't believe in the Eva of "the black myth" doesn't mean someone else doesn't believe "Peron… [used] Evita's suffering as the focus for mass demonstrations of solidarity with the régime. But revolted by the [odors] and moans which issued from her room, he could not bear to comfort her… [Peron] arranged an operation on Eva's brain, silencing the cries of pain which so annoyed him" (84).
This passage of text was the most shocking to me in the entire book. It shows so clearly how the anti-peronists believed that Peron was such a horrible person he could give his wife what the author seems to be implying was a lobotomy so that he wouldn't have to listen to her die. I was shocked that people saw him and continue to see him as that much of a monster that, "having reduced her to insensibility he began clandestinely to remove her perfumes and jewels, destined later for the hands of his adolescent lovers, to another residence" (84). This goes beyond the usual political tactics of essentially yelling, "You're wrong!" "No, you're wrong!" from opposite sides of a room. This goes beyond the usual political tactics of essentially saying, "my opponent is an idiot," or, "my opponent is ugly, so obviously, that means he (or she) is wrong." No, this goes so far as to say that "for the inaugural parade of his second term, the President tied his dying wife to a special apparatus in his open car" (84), which implies it was against her will. This myth of the Peron's is the equivalent, to me, of standing on a table yelling, "My opponent is an inhuman monster that ties up dying women and kicks puppies!" No one is going to want to side with the puppy kicker, even if it's not true.
To continue with my description of politics as a shouting match, I would like to look at the "Eva the Bad" version of the "black myth." This Eva "was born in the ill-disguised brothel of her mother…already aggressive and ambitious at fifteen, she linked herself to the troupe of a tango singer whom she had probably seduced, and traveled to Buenos Aires to establish herself as a prostitute" (78). She is very different from the innocent dying woman being lobotomized by her husband. This story is all about how she "frantically [scrambled] up the social ladder" (78) to seize power for herself, "tortured her opponents with electric shocks" (79) and castrated men, and in various other ways used power for evil. "It was Eva Peron who imprisoned upper class women and adolescents accused of demonstrating against the government… Eva jailed the women with prostitutes and drug addicts" (80). This Eva is cold, cruel, vindictive, and frightening. She is someone to be feared; she is someone you don't want in power because she'll castrate you if you get on her bad side. This myth is like saying, "it's okay if you vote for my opponent, I just want you to know that he (or she) killed my father and tortured me in horrific ways. Also, she (or he) kicks puppies." Again, no one wants to side with a puppy kicker.
It seems like the opponents of Peron and his wife attacked them in the same way from two different sides: they either made the husband or the wife look like a monster. Sometimes, they made both of them look that way. The most interesting part about the way this book was written, for me, was that it showed the "objective" truth first, and then the myths, allowing the reader to compare, and then the author continued on to analyze it on her own, and one can see pretty clearly how belief in these myths, even if they aren't true, would color the way you view the world. "Sure," you might say, "they've got some good ideas, I agree on that point, but they give dying people lobotomies and castrate their enemies, and I just can't get behind that," and thus, another supporter of anti-peronism is created (by Brahma, from the navel of Vishnu).