Juan Perón

On 5 January 1929 Juan Peron got married to Aurelia Tizon but she died of uterine cancer nine years after their marriage. They had no children.

Juan Peron married actress Eva Peron, better known as ‘Evita’, on 22 October 1945. Eva Peron died seven years later in 1952. They had no children.

During his exile in Spain, Peron came into contact with singer and dancer Maria Estela Martinez, better known as Isabel and they got married in 1961. When Peron assumed presidency in 1973, Isabel became the Vice President of Argentina.

Juan Domingo Peron was born to Mario Tomas Peron and Juana Sosa Toledo in Lobos, Argentina, on 8 October 1895. His family had their roots in Sardinia and his father owned his own sheep ranch in Patagonia in Argentina.

Juan Peron was sent off to Buenos Aires in 1904 to a boarding school for his education and during his years as a student he proved to be an excellent athlete and fence player. He was not that good in academics.

When Juan Peron was 16 years old he took admission in the National Military College in El Palomar, Buenos Aires and graduated from there two years later in 1913. Peron was appointed as a member of the infantry and was sent to Parana, Entre Rios.

Juan Peron entered the army when he was only 18 years old but he quickly rose through the ranks and after a stint at the Superior War School he took up a position at the Army General Staff Headquarters in 1929. Two years later he was promoted to the post of Major and became a faculty at the Superior War School.

Peron served in the Argentine Embassy in Chile for two years starting from 1936 as the Military Attaché before going to Italy in order to learn the intricacies of mountain warfare. During his time in Italy, he studied the Fascist regime in Italy and the Nazi Regime in Germany. Peron became convinced that social democracy could be the most effective form of governance after that experience.

Following his return from Italy, in 1941, Peron became a Colonel. Two years later in 1943, as one of the member of the secretive United Officers Group, Juan Peron became an active participant in the coup that dismissed the existing elected government of the country then headed up by Ramon Castillo.

Following the coup, Juan Peron was appointed as the head of the Department of Labour. Peron was close to the then de-facto President General Edelmiro J. Farrell. In 1944, Peron was appointed Vice President and Secretary of War; he also retained his Labour portfolio.

In his capacity as head of the Department of Labour, Juan Peron brought in a lot of measures that were welcomed by blue collar workers. In addition to the introduction of social benefits, he took care of some industrial disputes as well. When Juan Peron was jailed and stripped of his position by another group of army officers in a coup in 1945; the labour unions revolted and he was released within a matter of days.

Juan Peron served as the President of Argentina for roughly 11 years across two stints and during that time his biggest contribution was in industrialising the country and making sure that the economically weaker sections of the Argentine workforce were able to get a wage that they deserved.