Eva’s Last Wish

Alejandra Mastro Sesenna
Guatemala 1997

“33 years old, 33 kilos; that’s it. Listen Sara, this is an order, because I am going to die, afterwards they will call you to get me ready. You will take away this wishy washy red that I am wearing, and you will replace it with the transparent Queen of Diamonds that you bought for me yesterday, the one from Revlon.”

These were the last words of Eva Perón to Sara Gatti, who used to take care of her hands.

I combined three elements in this box:

• Cards we all play with. The most elegant queen on the deck, surrounded by a special touch of distinction: diamonds.
• As a metaphor of adherent beauty, I have interpreted acrylic nails shops, which are very popular in Guatemala nowadays.
• Evita is the heroine, the saint, the prostitute, a character that still touches many a heart.

Queen of diamonds. An embalmed body with painted fingernails. Symbol of a moment in which she took care of history. Every story has had an Evita, a woman who rules, loves, orders, and rouses from her fingernails, the power of her own world, her own story, her own time.

Evas, to the end; queens, not forever.