Don't Cry For Me Argentina

 “Don't Cry For Me Argentina” as it was sung by Madonna in the 1996 film version of the musical Evita (1976), a work by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. If I were Argentinian I would cry too, but because of the musical. I'm not talking about technical or theatrical reasons, and even less about the music, I'm complaining for the historic facts that Evita represents, or rather for HOW these are represented.

It is true that, even if for me Eva Perón (1919-1952) was a fighter with very modern ideas, when she was alive she already was object of controversy and her followers were as many as her detractors; but that just gives even more reason to be careful when making a musical of her biography. However, the British duo based their work in The woman with a wipe, the first anti-peronist biography written by Mary Main in 1952 when cancer killed the Argentinian actress and politician. The result is a booklet in which the morality of our protagonist is in doubt: a woman who leaves home as the lover of a guitarist man, who uses men to move forward in her artistic career, who marries Juan Perón because of the social advantages and who runs charity events only for her own benefit. No wonder that shortly after the musical's première Nicholas Fraser and Marysa Navarro published a more neutral biography: The Real Lives of Eva Perón.

Hence Evita is one more example of the importance of the historians (Hollywood gives us examples with almost every historic film they produce). It is not enough to have a good story it also needs to be accurate with the historic facts; and that implies that one source of information isn't enough to get to the true. We can never know which flaws might have the source and that is why is necessary to contrast it. Even if in 1976 Rice and Webber could only count on Mary Main's work as the only written biography existent, sure they could had newspapers or even witnesses to talk to. Or at least they could have drawn a profile of the book's author so they could know how accurate it would be. But of course they chose a much easier path. And now I ask you: how would have British people reacted if two Argentinian had made a musical trivializing Margaret Thatcher? I guess it's something unthinkable in the 70's when the north hemisphere had some kind of absurd moral superiority against the south hemisphere, but what would happen nowadays? Has the situation changed enough?

Ricard Gispert
@ricardgispert