Eva Perón

Born poor in the countryside, Eva Duarte went to Buenos Aires at fifteen to act. As the wife of Juan Perón she ran a foundation that built hospitals and schools, and campaigned for the law that gave Argentine women the vote in 1947.

She died of cancer at thirty-three. Her embalmed body was hidden abroad for sixteen years after a military coup and buried under a false name in Milan; it was returned in 1974 and now lies five metres underground in Recoleta.