In The Footsteps Of "Evita"
The showy suits, the heavy makeup, the spike heels. Argentina's newly-elected president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, made headlines by flaunting her femininity throughout her election campaign.
The long-time senator and wife of outgoing President Nestor Kirchner will become Argentina's first elected female president. She won election on Oct. 28.
She is a powerful speaker and has served in Argentina's upper and lower houses. But it is her boldly glamorous look, with bright red berets, old-fashioned fans and hair extensions, that has inspired everything from cartoon jabs and snide remarks to unabashed admiration.
"I love her look. Because she looks after herself," said one Argentine woman.
"The queen of botox" is how one of Fernandez's main rivals in the presidential race, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, referred to her this month. Many people speculate that Fernandez uses cosmetic touch-ups to look younger.
But cosmetic surgery, rampant among entertainers, is not necessarily frowned upon in Argentina. And older women can still be sexy in this country, which prides itself on having the most beautiful women in the world.
At a campaign event last month, Fernandez addressed her husband during
a speech: "Mr. President, you say people criticize you for wearing moccasins and double-breasted suits. Those same people criticize me for dressing up too much--exactly for the opposite of what they are criticizing you for. In reality, they aren't bothered by your moccasins or your suit, or my makeup or my hair. They are bothered because we've threatened their interests in Argentina."
Some of Fernandez's defenders say she gets superficial scrutiny because of machismo, or sexism. But her female credentials have also given her a boost in country that still fondly remembers "Evita," the wife of former President Juan Peron who helped women get the vote, championed labor benefits for miners and meat packers, and founded hospitals and orphanages.
Fernandez won the bulk of her support in poor and working class neighborhoods that are strongly Peronist, and where the cult of Evita persists, even though few people under the age of 65 can actually remember her.
Many of Cristina's supporters are thrilled that a woman is now leading the Peronist movement and hope she will carry on Evita's work. Others say no one can replace their golden woman. "She reminds me a lot of Evita. Her power, her conviction, the way she uses words. She's so smart. I admire her," said a 72-year-old voter.
During her campaign, Fernandez was careful to limit her references to Evita. The former first lady's nationalist speeches and emotional appeals to workers - her "shirtless ones" -- are a turnoff for the middle class Argentines that Fernandez struggled to win over.
Yet she has spoken fondly of the first time she found out who Evita was, in a book her grandfather kept hidden in the 1960s when Juan Peron was in exile. And, at an event commemorating Eva Peron on the 55th anniversary of her death in July, Fernandez said she says she likes to remember her not as a fairy godmother who founded hospitals and gave gifts to children, but as a militant who fought for social justice.
"The Evita of my youth stood with her hand raised before the microphone, flamboyant, announcing battles of the people and for the people. Evita should not just be remembered in speeches, but in how we govern. That is how one should keep her mind, honor and remember her," Fernandez said beneath a giant image of Evita and Peron.
According to Cristina Alvarez - Evita's great-niece and president ad honorem of the Evita Institute - Evita would be proud that Argentina's first elected woman president will be a Peronist.
The first lady takes over from husband Nestor Kirchner on Dec. 10 as Argentina's first elected female president. She finished 22 percentage points above her closest rival in the race -- also a woman.