“Santa Evita”: the miniseries on the mysterious story of the body of Evita Perón

On Disney + the series produced by Salma Hayek retraces the vicissitudes of the body after death, from Buenos Aires to Milan

Valentina Barzaghi
July 26, 2022 at 08:20

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Debuts on Disney + on July 26 “Santa Evita”, The seven-episode story based on the Argentine author’s bestseller of the same name Tomás Eloy Martínezwhich follows the intricate story, which has become a legend, of the body of Avoid Perón. Died July 26, 1952 of cancer, the woman remained without burial for three years, waiting for the construction of a monument in her honor which was never completed.

The series, directed by Rodrigo García and Alejandro Maci, was shot in over 40 locations in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with over 120 actors and 1300 extras.

That’s not all: in 1955, after a coup d’état overthrew the then president Juan Domingo Perón, Evita’s body was hidden for sixteen years, so as to avoid it becoming a symbol against the regime. Before her disappearance, in fact, she had acquired more and more power and the favor of the people, leading the political arena to be obsessed with it. In those years it was forbidden even to own an image of Evita.

The series produced by Salma Hayek And José Tamez, retraces the long pilgrimage of the embalmed body of Evita Perón, with some flashbacks focused on her life before her death. It is a historical series and an intriguing political thriller. The woman’s body, which was perceived by the post-Peron military regime as almost more dangerous when dead than alive, was finally buried in secret in Milan in 1957 and then returned to the Perons after exile in Spain.

The series, like Martínez’s novel, also develops by telling the stories of many of those who had to deal with the corpse: from those who were persecuted or spied on for years, to those who mysteriously disappeared. “Santa Evita”, whose title takes inspiration from the way in which the Argentine people perceived Perón, brings the political figure back to the screen, narrating her influence through one of the most intriguing, though less explored, parentheses of her extraordinary existence .

The cast

“Santa Evita” boasts an internationally renowned cast led by Natalia Oreiro in the role of Evita Perón, Ernesto Alterio in that of Colonel Moori Koenig e Diego Velázquez in that of Mariano. Francesc Orella is Doctor Pedro Ara e Darío Grandinetti is Juan Domingo Perón.