Buenos Aires - For some she is a hero of the poor, and for others she is a politician who led Argentina along a mistaken path: Evita Peron, who would have turned 90 years old Thursday, remains a controversial symbol even 57 years after her early death.

Particularly among the lower classes, she is considered to this day a champion for the social rights of the property-less and for the participation of women in political life. Indeed, her most important achievement - acknowledged by all - was the fact that women were granted the right to vote.

Her eventful though short life inspired the musical Evita, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, which was later made into a film starring Madonna.

Born in 1919 as Eva Maria Ibarguren near the town of Los Toldos, in the province of Buenos Aires adjoining the capital, Evita was one of five children that the farmer Juan Duarte had with his lover Juana Ibarguren.

Her wealthy and conservative father also had an official family with his wife, something that was not rare in Argentina at the time. Eva only took the name Duarte years later, although the man supported his unofficial family until his death. When he died, however, Eva's family fell into poverty.

Even then, however, her ambition was evident, and she is said to have told one of her sisters that she would either go on to become an actress or be the country's president.

Following a career as a rather average singer and actress in Buenos Aires, she met Juan Domingo Peron in 1944. The two got married in October of the following year, and in 1946, following Peron's electoral triumph, Eva became first lady.

While presidents' wives had until then not played very public roles, Evita developed her own political ambitions. She particularly clashed with the often arrogant higher classes, whom she upset as often as possible.

Evita fashioned herself as an advocate of the poor, whom she described as her "descamisados," her shirt-less followers. A foundation under her name redistributed resources from the rich to the poor with great pomp.

The collection of "donations" caused great rage among the Argentine right wing, and opponents of Peronism accused Peron and Evita of having misunderstood welfare as something to be handed out rather than earned.

Her early death of cancer on July 26, 1952 immortalized Evita in the hearts of many Argentines. Millions of people were devastated by the death of "Saint Evita," and some remain saddened by it many decades later.

The woman was very controversial during her lifetime, and even in death her remains were not left to rest in peace. After a military coup in 1955, her body was stolen, taken to Europe and not finally laid to rest until 1976 in the upper-class Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

Like Peronism more generally, Evita was the issue of many disputes. She effectively fought for the rights of women, although she saw the home as their "natural" place as "women and mothers," in line with Roman Catholic and conservative discourse.

The self-styled advocate of the "shirt-less" workers herself wore extremely expensive clothes from Paris and extravagant jewellery, all paid for by the state.

Indeed, behind the social-revolutionary pathos stood a conservative-authoritarian lifestyle.

To this day, mentioning Evita's name remains a safe bet. The current government, under Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner - the first woman ever to be elected as Argentina's president - recently chose actress Nacha Guevara as a candidate to a seat in the legislature in the elections scheduled for June 28.

According to some media reports, Guevara, who starred in a musical on the legendary social and political leader, was chosen "because she looks like Evita."

"Evita could only be herself when she died, when her heritage started to be filled with the countless meanings that the imagination of Argentines gradually attributed to it," said the author Tomas Eloy Martinez, who wrote the novel Santa Evita.