# Aurora Basnuevo: "I am very Cuban, a royal woman and very much mulatta" **Date:** 07/23/2020 Aurora Basnuevo Hernández is always smiling; she carries joy like a banner. Among all the things she loves are family, country, and its people. She feels fulfilled, her body vibrates, and her spirit is reborn when she makes others laugh. Everyone wishes they could find a love like the one she has for Mario Limonta. He has been her companion, her support, and strength to keep going. The audience is the other. "When I go on stage I almost never know what I'm going to do; the people carry me along, especially my peculiar way of improvising. I feel so satisfied. When they ask me for something I don't think twice and I give it to them. My communication with them is great; I feel that they love me." And that's the truth. Who doesn't know Estervina Zuasnábar and Zubizarreta, the Mulatísima, or the wife of Sergeant Arencibia in San Nicolás del Peladero? Few know that Aurora Basnuevo dedicated many years to teaching, but she always had the desire to be an artist. "Lately I have pain in my knees, but the other day I raised my arms, bent down, and touched the floor. And that's at 82 years old, imagine what a feat! Out of those, over sixty years of uninterrupted work." *** -How do you react when all eyes are on you? "I feel proud, I think they're paying attention to me. When that happens I feel that what I'm doing is pleasing them. If they don't pay attention, well, I don't suffer because of what someone else enjoys." -How do other people define you? "I will always be the Mulatísima or Estervina. The people gave me that nickname." -How do you define yourself? "I'm a very normal person. I don't complain about anything, I always try to solve it when I have a problem. I don't like to turn to anyone, although there are many people who lend you a hand." In her childhood she was always at home. She was an obedient and studious little girl. That's why being at home doesn't bore her, because that's how she was raised. "I played jacks and hopscotch on the porch. I studied piano, I loved it. I made it to the fourth year of instruction, almost as a child." "My dad rented a house from a kindergarten teacher and she took me there before I was old enough. I learned to read and write at three and four years old, thanks to her. I was a very advanced child for my age. My mom never had to scold me. From kindergarten I went to elementary school and I remember they had me write the word 'park,' which was difficult because of the 'r,' and I did it well. I had a reputation for being intelligent since I was little." When she turned 12, her mother decided to come to Havana and look for other opportunities. Her parents rented a house and she continued eighth grade in the capital. "My little glasses would fall off the table from studying so much," she recalls. Later she spent four years at the Normal School for Teachers. "There were over a thousand positions and I got number 24. I graduated in '57 and immediately started working. After the triumph of the Revolution many teachers left, but I didn't. The work tripled and I had a classroom in the morning, another in the afternoon, and one more at night, in adult education." *** -What is the biggest mistake you've made? "Loving too much, because sometimes there are people who don't deserve it. But that's who I am." -How would you like to be remembered when you're gone? "As a Cuban woman who has dedicated her life to art and her people. Who adores her country and the Revolution. I'm an actress who sings, who dances, who acts, who loves her family and her son with all her soul." -What is your biggest flaw? "Sincerity. That can be a flaw or a virtue. I can't hold anything back. When I think something is wrong, I say it, no matter who's there." -How did you get to the stage? "I loved to sing and all the students at Normal School, at Infanta and San Joaquín, would egg me on to do it. I even sang in the school theater. "My mom didn't want me to be an artist because back then there were many prejudices and that profession was considered the worst. Without her knowing, with the help of my little friends, I appeared on José Antonio Alonso's program. I remember they lent me a little dress and I changed in the bathroom at the ICRT (Cuban Institute of Radio and Television), which was then CMQ. "I didn't perform alone at that appearance. I performed a song composed by a man who was painting my house at that time. I had asked him to teach it to me and he did. Later, he went with me to the program and accompanied me with the guitar. "It was live and I won first prize. The song was called Óigame; the chorus went: óigame…yo necesito que me escuches tú…quiero decirle lo que siento aquí…dentro del corazón. José Antonio told me: ʻYou stay as Rising Star, but he doesn't, because he's blackʼ, a color banned back then. "Then they had me give repertoire and singing classes with Isolina Carrillo. José Antonio Alonso would tell her: ʻmake sure she doesn't sing any songs that are trending on radio and television, find new themes for herʼ." -And how did you get into acting? "I don't even know how I got there. I started singing and singing. Besides Isolina, Zoila Gálvez also taught me, who was the first Cuban to be in Paris. I had everything to shine and I had people who could teach me well. "Later I left the stage for a while. I was pregnant and Celia ʻCuquiʼ Ponce de León, who was the director of Rita Montaner's group, called me and said: ʻAurora, don't you sing anymore?ʼ I told her I was pregnant and had lost all my connections. She answered: ʻif you acted like you sing, I would want you in my groupʼ. "I told her that all I wanted was to be an actress and singer, and that's why she asked me to be a listener at her group. I went every day, in addition to school and classes. Then the script for Las Yaguas came along, a musical comedy by Maité Vera, with music by Alberto Vera and Giraldo Piloto, known as the Piloto y Vera duo. I had to sing, dance, and act. They auditioned me and Piloto said that if I didn't play María Regla, he would take the show. The production won several awards. "Later I worked with Miguel Montesco in Room 406 and at the Arlequín Theater with Rubén Vigón. Everyone wanted me, I had a lot of support from Esther Borja, from Rosita Fornés, from José Antonio Rivero. After Las Yaguas I played Carmela, a young peasant woman, in La Pérgola de las Flores, a Chilean musical comedy. I weighed 110 pounds back then. Cuqui had me weighed every week so I wouldn't gain a pound. The only mulatto woman in the group was me." -And when did you meet Mario Limonta? "On José Antonio Alonso's program. He was a law student at the University and went there to recite poems. When I met him, the mulatto guy was a ladies' man. But I was also divine. He approached me, but oh no, I wasn't interested in that! He insisted, insisted, insisted and nothing. Then we became sweethearts, got married, and here we are still. I was 18 years old." *** -What would you like to do in your free time? "I like to watch television; read, although sometimes I don't have as much time as Mario. He is a lover of reading." -What are you afraid of? "I'm not afraid of anything." -If you could start over from scratch, what would you change? "Nothing. I think I've been building my life step by step." Aurora says she never completely abandoned teaching, she simply took another path. "I worked as a teacher for a very long time, almost five years. I was the director of kindergarten. I taught literacy. I've done everything and people don't even know half of it." From her experience, she has always given advice to budding artists, with the same love and patience she had in her teaching days. "You know something, I was Susana Pérez's teacher when she was in eighth grade." After Rita Montaner, she went to Jorge Anckerman's group at the Martí Theater, because she wanted to do vernacular theater. "There I learned a lot from Candita Quintana, Américo Castellano, Alicia Rico. All those people were tough and I was the young ingénue of Cuban theater. I did many plays like Love Was Born in the Square and The Respectful Oarsman. Again, the only mulatto woman there was me," she laughs out loud. Then came cinema, which meant for Aurora an incomparable means of expression. She remembers with special affection the short fiction film Adela, written and directed by Humberto Solás, which was part of Barrio Cuba and which he later separated as something special that premiered at the Poor Cinema Festival in Gibara, in Holguín. "I've also participated in European feature films, but I consider the most important ones to be Salsa, a French film by Joyce Buñuel, in which I was forced to speak French, and the Brazilian Estorbo, with text by Chico Buarque and directed by Ruy Guerra." *** -What advice would you give your version from 10 years ago? "Honestly, I think the version from 10 years ago has to be the same as now. It's my essence and what defines me." -What are your sacred principles and values? "Life, which is the beginning and end of everything." -What is something you would die for? "I'll die when it's my time." --she laughs again--. *** -How did you come to Alegrías de Sobremesa? "I came to that space also through an audition. Everything I've achieved has been like this. No one has given me anything, not even Mario. He didn't want me to sing in cabarets, he was jealous and told me I didn't need to do that, to quit. I was a star at Tropicana, I was an entertainer and I sang. "That's why Mario told Alberto Luberta that I had a great character for Alegrías de Sobremesa, which was ʻa banquetʼ. When I told him about Estervina and introduced her to him he said: ʻyou start tomorrowʼ. I was lucky in that regard, but not because of my pretty face, but because of what I did. "Estervina meant reaching the people and making them love me the way they do now. I always said that besides Estervina I had to do something else, but I was never going to leave her. Estervina is the people, it's how people want me. The audience cried when Alegrías… ended, they hugged me and said…ʻnot you, not youʼ. "San Nicolás del Peladero was also another program that marked me and I did it with Mario for years. I was the wife of Sergeant Arencibia, ʻthe goofball wifeʼ. I also worked for children, I have more than 30 recorded children's songs like Juan Me Tiene Sin Cuidado and Pavita Pechugona." *** -Have you ever set yourself a goal that you couldn't achieve? "No, when I set myself something I always achieve it. I count two and two until it happens. I don't rest. My life proves it: I wanted to sing, I sang; I wanted to be an actress, I acted; I wanted to marry him (looks at Mario) when he was Nacho Verdecia, and I got married. He didn't look like this, he was quite a handsome mulatto." -Have you ever thought about taking a sabbatical year? "No…I don't want to work like before because I can't anymore. It was too much. But when I have to work I do it, and if they give me a movie I buckle down to do it and if it's theater the same, and if it's singing I stand up and do it, with an orchestra or a capella." -At the end of this interview, what three things should I take away from you? "Three things is too little." Aurora feels equally satisfied as a professional making people cry or laugh. If you ask her what the Cuban people means to her, she says it's her guide. She adores every single applause and the love with which they treat her. "Two months after being in Paris, when I went to make the movie Salsa, I started crying to go back. They sent me home because I couldn't take the longing anymore. I don't allow anyone to say anything against Cuba to me, because it's the only thing that upsets me. I came to my country, I was there for a week, I got refreshed, and then I went back to that European city to finish the movie." In her career there are hundreds of works, including radio, film, theater, and television. "Oh my mother, how much I've worked. I don't know how I could do it, but I did. I worked with joy and happily." She has no preference among the media in which she has acted. "On the radio there's Estervina, but I've also done many soap operas. I've worked in everything. I always say, you give me the script, I read it, and without fear, I go over there and do it." The actress asserts that all roles are difficult because you have to go deep and internalize that character to make it organic." *** -What decision or project are you most proud of having made? "I'm proud of having gotten where I am. Having 82 years and maintaining myself like this is not easy. I know people who are in their 50s and they're destroyed. And me, right there at the forefront. If I have to sing, I sing, and if I have to cry, I cry." -What does acting mean to Aurora Basnuevo? "It's part of my life, and an important part. It's been a vehicle all these years, amid my personal problems. As long as I can and have the strength, I will act and fight for everything, for life and for this country. I'm just as happy eating a piece of meat or a fried egg. I'm very Cuban, very stubborn, and very mulatísima. If I weren't an actress... I'd be an actress, and again, an actress."