Evita

In 1987, a small Argentine publishing house published a document that had recently been found in a government archive in Buenos Aires. The document was called "Mi mensaje", or "My Message", and appeared to be the long-lost deathbed manuscript of Eva Peron, referred to by her and mentioned in several biographies of her. Rumor had it that the document, which is critical of the Argentine church and military, had been suppressed for thirty years after her death by her husband, Argentine President Juan Peron. Like everything about Evita, "My Message" is shrouded in mystery and myth. Leading Peron scholars disagree about whether Evita wrote every word herself and about whether it is an accurate reflection of Evita's thinking at the time of her death. Her estate, however, insists that the work is not by Evita. In In My Own Words, "My Message" appears in English for the first time, published with an extensive introduction by Peron scholar Joseph A. Page, who weighs all the claims and counterclaims about the document's authenticity and concludes that "My Message" is "a vital document...probably based in part on dictation by the wife of Argentine President Juan Peron".