Who is Eva Perón?

I had an Eva Perón day in Buenos Aires. Eva - or Evita as she's better known on the west-end stage - campaigned for women's rights and social justice and was married to Argentina's President Juan Perón in the 1940s.

She was later declared spiritual leader of Argentina.
She died too young from cancer at just 33, but achieved a great deal in a short space of time.

As she's buried in the city's famous cemetery, Cementerio de la Recoleta, I went to take a look.

The cemetery is a vast grid of tombs - row after row of them - and it's easy to lose your bearings. Eva's tomb is the one that all the tourists ask for.

The guys in this picture are responsible for cleaning all the tombs.

There's 5,000 of them and some are like mini houses, so the cleaners are allowed a break for a photo shoot every so often.

Not all the tombs get cleaned though.

Maybe the families can't afford the service charge.

Or maybe they've just been forgotten.

There's heaps of stray cats in the cemetery, lounging around on tombs, sleeping, fighting with each other or posing for photos.

An old woman feeds them raw minced beef on polystyrene trays. They all flock round her when she calls them.

Then they get back to some more lounging and posing.

After the cemetery and a chorizo hotdog I go to the Museo Evita to find out more about her life.
There's some amazing archive footage and original newspaper clippings. You should definitely go there.

It tells you how she formed the Female Perónist Party and the Eva Perón Foundation - a charity that built housing for the poor and the homeless.

Before she married Perón she was a radio and film actress.

When I arrive back to San Telmo, Diego (who runs the bar) tells me that Eva's body is no longer entombed in Cementerio de la Recoleta, as it's since been moved to her home town elsewhere in Argentina. I'm not sure whether this is true.

He also tells me that he's 33 and not yet married. I politely finish my coffee and set off on my next mission.