Ciudad Evita is perhaps the world’s weirdest marriage of urban planning and personality cult. Evita City was founded in 1947 by Argentinian President Juan Domingo Peron. By Presidential Decree No. 33221, he willed into existence this new suburb of Argentinia’s capital city Buenos Aires. Exceptionally, the perpendicular street lay-out so typical of new cities in the Americas for this project.
For not only was this suburb named after his wife Eva (’Evita’) Peron, nee Duarte, it was also shaped to resemble her profile. This map was sent in by Sergio Balbin, who is a current resident of Ciudad Evita: “Your recent post about the Southern Ontario Elephant (#340) brought to mind the place where I live. Ciudad Evita was founded by Peron for the working class. If you see the map, you will notice Eva Peron’s profile in it. It clearly shows Evita’s classic bun (…) Of course this wasn’t a coincidence.”
Maria Eva Duarte was born out of wedlock in 1919 and pursued a career in acting until she met and married Colonel Juan Peron in 1945. One year later, ‘Evita’ (literally Little Eva) became Argentina’s First Lady when Peron was elected president. To say she got involved in her husband’s presidency would be putting it mildly. Evita ran the Health and Labour ministries, the Eva Peron Foundation, and the Female Peronist Party.
In 1951, her candidacy for the vice-presidency received enthusiastic support from the lower classes, but was opposed by Argentina’s military and economic elite. She died in 1952, after the Argentine Congress bestowed the title Spiritual Leader of the Nation on her. In the years since, ‘Evita’ has become an icon in Argentina and beyond, as the subject of biographies, movies and – perhaps most famously – a musical.
Ciudad Evita currently has about 70,000 inhabitants. It’s part of Greater Buenos Aires, situated about 20 kilometres from the city centre and 6 kilometres from the International Airport. Evita City was declared a National Historical Place in 1997.
Awesome. It’s The Broom of the System in real life. Where’s the Great Ohio Desert?
Comment by Jason — December 14, 2008 @ 12:35 am
Is it really true to say that Evita means “little Eve”? It seems to me that the diminuitive in Spanish means something much more than “little”, something that’s not really translatable.
Certainly I think that parenthetical remark adds rather more confusion to your article than clarity.
Comment by Bill Mill — December 14, 2008 @ 12:49 am
And it’s ironic… Balbin is the last name of the #1 Juan Peron political opponent
Comment by Claus — December 14, 2008 @ 12:49 am
Ciudad Evita should not be confused with Ciudad Eva Perón, which from 1952 to 1955 was the name of La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires province (the national capital, the city of Buenos Aires, is a separate province-like entity unto itself).
Comment by Seth Gordon — December 14, 2008 @ 12:51 am
In some languages diminutives (words which mean a small whatever like Evita) connote something like fondness. Like in English you might refer to a dog as a ‘puppy’ even if it’s full grown or call your partner your ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ even though you are adults.
English doesn’t have quite the same regular system for forming diminutives as some, but think of it as an affectionate nickname.
Comment by srd — December 14, 2008 @ 1:03 am
Her name as married woman was “Eva Duarte de Perón”, following what is customary in most “latin” cultures.
She is internationally known as Eva Perón but the Duarte was still part of her name.
Comment by Jorge — December 14, 2008 @ 7:14 am
[...] Vía Strange Maps [...]
Pingback by Las calles más peronistas de la Argentina | ¡No deberías! — December 14, 2008 @ 8:28 am
Looks more like Snoopy than Evita.
Comment by Mrs. Davis — December 14, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
What is that stuff in her ears?? Anybody know?
Comment by Branka — December 14, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
#2
In another context, ”Evita” could also mean ”Avoids” or ”(do) Avoid!”, like in ”¡Evítala!” – ”Avoid her!”
Well, I’m sure the Argentinians have already exploited all the potential puns. ;-)
(Sorry for this silly comment, but it seemed in-evita-ble!)
Comment by Bjørn A. Bojesen — December 14, 2008 @ 10:08 pm
That is just…bizarre. Really bizarre. That woman must have been exceptional to inspire such a left-field memorial.
Comment by wayne — December 14, 2008 @ 11:52 pm
“Evita” means “little Eva” as much as “Annie” means “little Anne”.
Comment by Epaminondas — December 15, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
“What is that stuff in her ears?? Anybody know?”
I think it is a complex ear ornament of darker gemstones.
The image I found is a mirror of the one shown…
I’m pretty sure any contemporary color images of her had been hand-colored.
Comment by Erik — December 15, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
Can anyone organize a city that looks like me? I have a lot of offers for streets named after me, but I want a piece of this!
Comment by Barack Obama — December 15, 2008 @ 8:56 pm
yes
Can anyone organize a city that looks like me? I have a lot of offers for streets named after me, but I want a piece of this!
Comment by توب — December 16, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
@#2 “Is it really true to say that Evita means “little Eve”? It seems to me that the diminuitive in Spanish means something much more than “little”, something that’s not really translatable.”
I’m pretty sure -ito and -ita when attached to names is the same as a Bill becoming a Billy, or in this case, Eve becoming Evie/Evey and so on.
Anyhow onto the map. Do you think that the people that live there call their neighborhoods after where they live on the grid? Like “I live over in the Chin”, or “I grew up in the Bun, but now I’m residing in the Ear”?
Comment by BAT — December 16, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
Is that real? Really real?
Comment by AmbroseKalifornia — December 16, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
Am I the only one who doesn’t get this? I just can’t see her in the satellite photo and in the map she looks more like Wall-E.
Comment by Pat — December 16, 2008 @ 7:56 pm
@Bjorn (10)
There had been a lot of puns in Argentina based on the homophony between “Evita”, the nickname, and “evita” as a conjugation of the verb evitar.
The most interesting to me is one that ocurred in the early ’70s, when the left-wing peronist youth was about bringing Perón back to Argentina, and they used to chant:
“Perón! Evita! La Patria Socialista!”
…meaning: “Perón! Evita! A Socialist Country!”
Well, the non-peronist marxist youth used to mock them, singing the exact homophonous phrase:
“Perón… evita… la patria socialista!”
meaning: “Perón impedes the Socialist Country!”
If only were about slogans…
Sad to say.
@Wayne (11)
Yes, She is such an important symbol.
But, if you’re amazed about this, you’d better not find out the ordaly of her embalmed corpse for thirty years after the coup that overthrown Perón in 1955.
The best book about it (and about Evita as a symbol) is Tomás Eloy Martínez’s “Santa Evita”.
Comment by Argentine one — December 16, 2008 @ 8:09 pm
yes
Can anyone organize a city that looks like me? I have a lot of offers for streets named after me, but I want a piece of this!
Comment by الوليد — December 16, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
I saw a poster for Terminator: Salvation last night that looks like a satellite view of a city but also like the Terminator’s skull. There’s an animated version (showing LA devolving into the Terminator’s face) at http://rss.warnerbros.com/terminatorsalvation/2008/11/terminator_salvation_motion_po.html
Comment by Fred Sandsmark — December 17, 2008 @ 1:07 am
What a great find! Strangest urban layout concept ever!
Comment by michael5000 — December 19, 2008 @ 4:42 am
Am I the only one that sees absolutely no similarity between the city layout and Evita’s profile?
None whatsoever.
Comment by Bill — December 19, 2008 @ 9:25 pm
Wow…that must have been a slightly painful task to arrange a city in that manner…lovely and an honor, but also a bit odd…
Comment by lauren — December 21, 2008 @ 1:01 am
[...] Argentina, there’s a suburb designed to look like Evita’s face. How wierd but strangely neat is that? (via Strange [...]
Pingback by Internets Roundup 2 « 21dB — December 21, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
[...] Aires. Arriba, la foto aérea, a foto de perfil y un mapa, y la similitud no es coincidencia. La historia completa está en Strange Maps, un blog que acabo de descubrir y al que me volví adicto al instante. [...]
Pingback by Ciudad Evita y otros mapas raros — December 24, 2008 @ 4:51 am
Bill, I don’t see anything either.
Comment by Scott — December 24, 2008 @ 8:05 am
When archeologists dig this up in 500 years, they’ll probably think it was some kind of massive artifact in honor of some deity.
Comment by Watson Waterstone — December 31, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
She is a deity to those Nazis that escaped punishment for the Holocaust and WWII that Argentina accepted with open arms.
Comment by fuwano — January 2, 2009 @ 9:03 am
“Evita” means “little Eva” as much as “Annie” means “little Anne”.
Nice maps and evita
Comment by iMhatimi — January 5, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
Wow
it,s beautiful
thank you very much
Comment by جوک جک — January 7, 2009 @ 11:53 am
[...] blog “Strange Maps“. Hice click para ver unos mapas accidentales pero me encontré con una referencia al barrio Ciudad Evita y su parecido con el perfil de la Diosa peronista. Lo curioso también es que el mapa fue enviado [...]
Pingback by Mapas extraños | Sicrono — January 8, 2009 @ 9:28 am
Look at this website for more information:
http://www.taringa.net/posts/info/1050275/Ciudad-Evita-y-su-dise%C3%B1o.html
Comment by Delia — February 6, 2009 @ 2:28 pm
I actually live THERE!its a beatiful city and everyone in my town is proud of living here, i love my city and i do not care about your silly jokes, because you don’t even know where ARGENTINA is!
anyway thanks for posting our map, and people who realy liked it
Comment by Susana — April 27, 2009 @ 2:59 am
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 5:31 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 7:58 am