Chapter 8, The Gift of Giving Summary and Analysis

Evita soon thereafter created the Eva Peron Foundation, a charitable giving organization that aimed to supplement the country's poor social service distribution network. She started distributing clothes and food as early as 1945. When she formed the foundation it provided working tools and scholarships, built houses, created schools and hospitals and local welfare distribution systems. The foundation remained wholly in Evita's hands and was effectively a government department, running its own works. Its creation corresponded with the richest years of Peron's rule. The Foundation was corrupt in some ways; it often threatened corporations that refused to contribute. Evita saw the Foundation as a vocation; she could usually easily find funds not only from the private sector but from the government. When people wanted something from Evita, they frequently went to see her directly. Petitions...