Juan Domingo Perón was elected president three times, overthrown in 1955, spent seventeen years in exile and came back to win again. Eighty years on, his movement still divides Argentina and has produced governments of almost opposite stripes. Twelve stops between the square of 17 October, the balcony of the speeches, the facades that still show the marks of the bombs, Evita's foundation, the union building where her body lay, the avenue of her renunciation, the Congress of votes and wakes, the cemetery of the elite, the Duarte family vault, the palace where Evita died, the shelter that is now her museum and the tomb of the stolen hands. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
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Peronismo: el movimiento más estudiado y menos entendido de América
Juan Domingo Perón fue elegido presidente tres veces, derrocado en 1955, pasó diecisiete años en el exilio y volvió para ganar otra vez. Ochenta años después, su movimiento sigue dividiendo a la Argentina y ha tenido gobiernos de signos casi opuestos. Doce paradas entre la plaza del 17 de octubre, el balcón de los discursos, las fachadas que todavía muestran las marcas de las bombas, la fundación de Evita, el edificio sindical donde se veló su cuerpo, la avenida del renunciamiento, el Congreso de los votos y de los velorios, el cementerio de la elite, la bóveda de los Duarte, el palacio donde murió Evita, el hogar que hoy es su museo y la tumba de las manos robadas. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~22 min of audio · 14.45 km on foot (~3 h 35 min walking) · about 4 h in total
You are standing in Plaza de Mayo, beside the Pyramid. Look around: the Casa Rosada, the Cabildo, the Cathedral. Almost everything in Argentine history began here. And here, in 1945, Peronism began.
On 17 October 1945, thousands of workers arrived on foot from the southern districts and the industrial suburbs. Many crossed the Riachuelo river walking. They had come to demand the release of a colonel.
That colonel was Juan Domingo Perón. He had been labour secretary, war minister and vice president of a military government. From the labour office he had pushed through a year-end bonus, a stat…
2
The Balcony of the Speeches
Look at the balcony of the Casa Rosada facing the square. From there Perón addressed crowds for three decades. Few places on earth have heard so much political oratory.
Perón won the election of 24 February 1946 and took office in June. In 1949 a constitutional reform allowed immediate re-election, and in 1951 he won again. It was the first presidential election in which women voted.
His government nationalised the railways, promoted industry and expanded labour rights. Millions of workers gained paid holidays, pensions and housing.
It was also a government that persecuted opponents, contro…
3
The Scars of 16 June
Go up to the facade of the Ministry of Economy on Hipólito Yrigoyen. Notice the small holes in the stone. They are not wear and tear: they are shrapnel marks, deliberately preserved.
On 16 June 1955, shortly after midday, Navy aircraft, backed by some Air Force pilots, bombed and strafed this square. The goal was to kill Perón and topple the government.
Perón was not in the Casa Rosada: he had taken shelter in the War Ministry. The bombs fell on the square, on a trolleybus full of passengers and on people going about their business downtown on a weekday.
More than three hundred people died,…
4
Evita's Foundation
In front of you is a huge building with Greek columns. Today it is the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires. It was built as the headquarters of the Eva Perón Foundation.
Eva Duarte was born in 1919 in Los Toldos, in Buenos Aires province, the unacknowledged daughter of a landowner. She came to the capital at fifteen and worked as a radio and film actress. She met Perón in 1944 and they married in 1945.
In 1948 she created the foundation that later bore her name. It built shelters, hospitals, schools and housing estates. It handed out sewing machines, toys, clothes and me…
5
The Body in the Union Building
You are in front of the headquarters of the General Confederation of Labour, at Azopardo 802. It is Argentina's largest trade union federation. The building opened in 1950, under the Peronist government.
Organised labour is the backbone of Peronism, as its own activists like to say. Under Perón union membership grew enormously, and the unions gained a power they never entirely lost.
But this building holds a stranger story. Evita died of cancer on 26 July 1952, aged only thirty-three. Her body was embalmed by the Spanish doctor Pedro Ara.
For three years the body lay here, on the second flo…
6
The Avenue of the Renunciation
Look up at the tall building on 9 de Julio, the former Ministry of Public Works. On its two side facades are two huge steel silhouettes of Evita. They were installed in 2011, the work of artist Alejandro Marmo.
In one she is smiling. In the other she has her fist clenched and stands at a microphone, mid-speech. They are the two faces her followers ascribe to her: tenderness and combat.
In front of this building took place one of the most famous scenes of her life. On 22 August 1951 the CGT held a mass rally on this avenue to ask that Evita run for vice president alongside Perón.
The crowd b…
7
Votes, Wakes and an Old Adversary
You are in front of the Palace of Congress, with its green dome. Some of the key laws of early Peronism were passed here. And here its two main figures were laid in state.
On 9 September 1947 Congress passed Law 13,010, which gave women the right to vote. Evita was its great champion. Women voted for the first time in the 1951 election, and she cast her ballot from a hospital bed.
After her death in 1952, Evita's body lay in state for almost two weeks. First at the Labour Secretariat, then in this Congress, and finally at the CGT. The queues of mourners stretched for blocks, even in the rain…
8
The Cemetery of the Elite
You are in front of the columned portico of Recoleta Cemetery, opened in 1822. Inside are streets, marble mausoleums and family vaults that look like small chapels. Presidents, generals and great landowning families rest here.
For many of those families, Peronism was a threat. Perón spoke of the oligarchy as the enemy, and Evita did so even more fiercely. Many of the surnames carved on these vaults belong to circles that opposed them bitterly.
That is why there is an irony in the fact that the most visited tomb in this cemetery is Evita's. Tourists come from all over the world, and Argentine…
9
The Duarte Family Vault
You are in front of a dark vault, rather modest compared with its neighbours. It reads Familia Duarte. Notice the bronze plaques and the flowers, which are almost never missing.
Perón's name does not appear on the door. Evita rests with the family she was born into, not with her husband. It is one of the oddities of this story.
After so many years of being moved around, the family and the state wanted to make sure no one could ever take her again. The body lies in a reinforced underground chamber, several metres below ground level.
Among the plaques is one with a line attributed to her: I w…
10
The Palace That Disappeared
In front of you is the National Library, a concrete building that seems to hover on its columns. It was designed by Clorindo Testa, Francisco Bullrich and Alicia Cazzaniga, and only opened in 1992, after thirty years of construction.
But before that, on this very plot, stood something else: the Unzué Palace, a mansion used as the presidential residence. Perón and Evita lived there.
Evita spent her final months in that palace. She died there on 26 July 1952 at 8.25 in the evening. For years, official radio announced every day that at that hour she had passed into immortality.
After 1955 the …
11
The Shelter That Became a Museum
You are in front of a Spanish-style mansion at Lafinur 2988, in Palermo. Today it is the Evita Museum. It opened on 26 July 2002, fifty years after her death.
The house has a history of its own. The Eva Perón Foundation turned it into a transit shelter: a refuge for women and children arriving from the provinces with nowhere to live, while they found work or housing.
Inside you will find dresses, photographs, documents and film footage. What stands out is the contrast between the haute couture she wore at official events and the tone of her speeches against the oligarchy.
Her enemies used t…
12
The Stolen Hands and a Movement with No Owner
You are in front of the portico of Chacarita Cemetery, the largest in the city. If Recoleta is the cemetery of the elite, Chacarita belongs to everyone. For three decades, Perón's body lay here.
In 1987 caretakers discovered that someone had opened the coffin and cut off his hands. No one ever found out who did it or why, and the hands were never recovered. Theories range from a political message to an extortion attempt.
In 2006 the remains were moved to a mausoleum at San Vicente, on Perón's country estate, some fifty kilometres from here. The transfer ended in gunfire between rival Peronis…
How long does the "Peronism: the Most Studied and Least Understood Movement in the Americas" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 14.45 km walking route (~3 h 35 min on foot). Plan roughly 4 h in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Day the Square Changed Hands" (coordinates -34.60837, -58.37223). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Buenos Aires and pick "Peronism: the Most Studied and Least Understood Movement in the Americas". No account required to start.
