Isabelita Peron: La Presidenta

From an object of curiosity, and even scorn, she has suddenly become the focus of her countrymen's attention. It was she who appeared on television to reveal the seriousness of her husband's illness. It was she who, choking back tears, announced that he had died. And it was again she--dressed in black unadorned with jewelry--who symbolized Argentina's sorrow. The icy smile, the tightly pulled-back hair dyed dark blonde and the slightly strident voice of Maria Estela ("Isabelita") Martinez de Peron, 43, last week dominated the thoughts of Argentines nearly as much as did the death of her husband Juan Peron.

Elected Argentine Vice President last September (at Peron's insistence), Isabelita constitutionally succeeded her husband as president, thus becoming the first woman chief of state in the history of Argentina and the Americas. Although her education never progressed beyond high school, she is not without political experience. During Peron's exile in Spain, she twice returned alone to Argentina to end squabbles among the Peronistas. She acted as Peron's intermediary with the endless stream of supporters who visited him in Spain, and even represented him in China, where she had talks with both Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Premier Chou Enlai.

As Vice President, she has presided at Cabinet meetings and sessions of the Argentine Senate, now speaking out boldly instead of whispering shyly as she used to do, thus confusing her early audiences. On the stump to support Peron's "social pact" economic program, she lashed out at black marketeers and hoarders. Last month, with a hairdresser and assistant hairdresser in tow, she made state visits to Spain's Generalissimo Francisco Franco and the Pope.

This increasingly impressive public performance eventually stilled much of the early criticism of Isabelita, especially by old Peronistas, who resented her obvious attempt to imitate Eva Duarte, Peron's immensely popular second wife.

Like Evita, Isabelita wears her hair in a bun and has courted the trade unions.

Even most of the left-whig Peronista youth, who suspected Isabelita of being too conservative, are now at least temporarily willing to give her a chance.

Yet many Argentines still feel uncomfortable with Isabelita as La Presidenta. They distrust a woman in such a high position and question her background. Born in Argentina's impoverished La Rioja province, the daughter of a bank executive, she left home in her 20s to join a troupe of traveling folk dancers. In 1956, after finishing a performance in a Panama City cabaret, she was introduced to the exiled Peron.

They soon began traveling together, living luxurious lives that took them from one Latin American city to another, until 1960, when they settled in Madrid. The following year they were married. During the years in Spain, Isabelita became indispensable to her husband as his confidante, secretary, nurse, dietician and even occasional chauffeur.

"Up to now, Argentines have always dismissed Isabelita as the pale shadow of her flamboyant husband and the dim echo of her exuberant predecessor," reports TIME Buenos Aires Bureau Chief Rudolph Rauch. "Until this week she has never had to stand alone. A good many of her countrymen are startled to find that 15 years of taunts and jeers have given the former dancer a steely and resilient will of her own. But to remain La Presidenta, she will need all the steel and resilience in her command."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.