ARGENTINA: Themed restaurant visits era of 1940s power couple Juan Domingo Peron and "Evita"

Record ID: 444558

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Themed restaurant visits era of 1940s power couple Juan Domingo Peron and "Evita"
  • Date: 7th April 2011
  • Summary: PERON EVA PERON RESTAURANT OWNER DANIEL NAREZO SPEAKING WITH WORKERS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) PERON, PERON RESTAURANT OWNER DANIEL NAREZO, SAYING: "I think that to think of the phenomenon of Peron as something that is fashionable is to not to give it its full significance, because no fashion lasts 65 years."
  • Embargoed: 22nd April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: History,Quirky,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA1HULLPO2GA64UIR4N8RHO0YJT
  • Story Text: There are few countries in the world where one can dine in a themed restaurant based entirely on the life of a famous politician, but Argentina is one such country.
    Juan Domingo Peron is not only one of Argentina's most beloved leaders, but he founded Peronism, a 60-year-old movement with such a huge impact that even on a weekday night in the bustling restaurant called 'Peron, Peron' diners belt out the lyrics to one of the Party's most popular rally chants.
    'Peron, Peron! You are the first worker,' they sing.
    This restaurant is not the only Peron-themed eatery in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, but one of several.
    Owner Daniel Narezo says the idea was a passion come true, rather than an attempt to bow to fashion.
    "I think that to think of the phenomenon of Peron as something that is fashionable is to not to give it its full significance, because no fashion lasts 65 years," Narezo told Reuters.
    Alongside his glamorous wife, "Evita," Peron took the Argentine presidency in the 1940s.
    He was swept into power by a factory boom and the rapid growth of a mass working class.
    A period of socialist economic policy endeared him and Evita to workers but infuriated the country's landed elite, who saw Peron as a demagogue.
    His memory and the people's love of Evita still looms over Argentine politics, and Peronist fervor was stoked yet again last November when former Peronist President Nestor Kirchner, also husband to the current President Cristina Fernandez, suddenly died.
    He, and all the great Peronist leaders are given tribute at Peron, Peron, even if it is on the way to the bathroom.
    "All of the great martyrs and great men and women of the Peron movement have a place in this bar, but Nestor [Kirchner] certainly has special place for us because we are young and he gave us the chance to fall in love with politics again," Narezo said.
    At El General, diners not only get to express their admiration for Peron - they can eat like the former leader too.
    The restaurant is run by a workers cooperative, where there are no bosses and each waiter, cleaner and manager gets a share of the business' profits.
    A set menu sold at a reasonable price brings in hundreds of people each day.
    It is all simple, Argentine food, like thin, beef schnitzels.
    Overseer Luis Peralta says it is a suitable, Peronist menu.
    "We have the favorite dish of the General, which is called the General's bife de chorizo [sirloin strip steak], mashed potato pie, and the 'floorboard' barbecue, because they say that when Peron gave houses to the poor people, his critics said, 'Why would you give houses to the poor? They are just going pull up the floorboards to make a barbecue fire.' So, we have the 'floorboard' barbecue," said El General Restaurant Manager, Luis Peralta.
    Peronism is more a way of doing politics than an ideology and the Peronist or Justicialist party has long had left- and right-wing factions.
    Indeed the movement's capacity for metamorphosis has guaranteed its survival, helping it fit the political mood of the moment, whether that be the free-market policies of 1990s President Carlos Menem or Kirchner's left-leaning government.
    It is thus no surprise that at the Peronist restaurants, diners of all political colors come to eat, their stomachs unturned by the ever-watchful eye of Juan Domingo Peron.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register