Celia Odalys Fuentes Armas

She is a prominent former Cuban model and actress. Before the triumph of the revolution, she had an intense career as an advertising model for commercial brands, such as Hatuey beer, among other well-known brands of that decade. Her acting career is extensive and she has a notable trajectory in Radio, Television and Cinema. She is a member of the artistic catalog of the Artistic Agency of Performing Arts ACTUAR and of the Association of Performing Arts of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, UNEAC.

Odalys was born in Jarahueca, a municipality of Yaguajay, province of Sancti Spíritus. Her childhood took place among unproductive oil wells and beside an alcoholic grandfather. One morning she packed a suitcase, kissed her mother and took the train to Havana. She did everything: took care of children, cleaned floors. She cooked and washed clothes in the home of a middle-class family. With that she earned a salary, food, a uniform and a roof to sleep under.

One night, while doing her domestic chores, Odalys was frying ripe plantains, but got distracted watching the soap operas of the Martínez Casado brothers. The pan caught fire and she was thrown out of the house. With her meager savings she started over, taking refuge in a boarding house. In the newspaper Prensa Libre they announced a casting for girls; they would choose a girl who would accompany the king of bolero, the Chilean Lucho Gatica in his performances during his first trip to Cuba.

Gaspar Pumarejo, the businessman of the channel that would broadcast the program, showed up at the casting. The man took a look and discovered Odalys Fuentes among a crowd of about 200 candidates. The live performances with Lucho Gatica were a success and from then on the offers never stopped. The Hatuey brewery hired her, along with another Cuban woman, Ana Viñas, as exclusive models.

Odalys was able to rent an apartment, acquired a second-hand car and even bought herself an ermine coat, like the great stars of Hollywood. The dream factory had worked in her case.

Odalys's body was not exuberant, the prototype of the 1950s decade, like those of Rosita Fornés, Maricusa Cabrera, Marta Véliz, Ninón Sevilla, María Antonieta Pons or María de los Ángeles Santana. Her forms could rather be described as efficient, she lacked nothing. But her face, her smile and her skin were unique.

Frank Max Factor Junior, the same one from the Max Factor company, discovered her in Bohemia magazine and traveled to Cuba solely to hire her: "You have a perfect face and skin, I want you to be our model for Latin America," he proposed to her. From then on she appeared in the main newspapers and magazines, advertising everything, from cosmetics to car tires.

Her romances were the subject of speculation, she was assigned boyfriends and possible weddings, breakups and dark desires.

One day the famous Cuban television director, Roberto Garriga, told her that he was writing for her one of the characters in his novel Puerto Esperanza. Odalys told him she didn't know how to act. Garriga replied nobly that if she wanted to do it he would support her in everything. And so it was: with her character Odalys won over the audience and thus began her career as an actress.

Then came the staging for television of the novel Doña Bárbara, directed again by Roberto Garriga and with a cast made up of: Raquel Revuelta (Doña Bárbara), Manolo Coego (Santos Luzardo), Rafael Linares (Melquíades) and Manolo Alván (Juan Primito). She would be Marisela, savage, virginal and sturdy as the Venezuelan prairie. The series was a resounding success.

From 1959, after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, Odalys joined supporters of the new government. She married Commander Oscar Fernández Mell, mayor of Havana, and in addition to her work as an actress on Cuban television and radio, she also supports revolutionary actions.

She recalls with affection her encounter with Porfirio Rubirosa, then Dominican ambassador, and his wife, who invited her to Paris. She later travels to the United States and returns to Cuba in 1962. She takes on female characters created by writer Aleyda Maya, a collaborator with the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). In these stories they sought to set an example and promote a change in mindset against traditional macho attitudes and behaviors.

«I played characters of a new type that represent the emancipation of women. One of them was the mother of Nacho Capitán in the telenovela Tierra brava, through which the audience still identifies me and praises me, based on the work of Dora Alonso, one of the greatest writers in Cuba, which had more than one hundred episodes and was a great success, as was El naranjo del patio, original by Gerardo Fernández, where I also worked as an actress», Odalys recalls.

Odalys Fuentes was not only a successful model, whose beauty and magnetism attracted followers all over the world. She was also a disciplined actress who with effort and humility achieved everything she set out to do. Therefore, her image continues to enchant those who know her and admire her.

The actress has stayed away from the media, making only very sporadic appearances. With singer Ivette Cepeda she recorded in 2019 the video clip of the song País. That year she also received the National Television Prize for her trajectory. What they continue to maintain is the love for their homeland, their family and the profession that gave them so much fame.

Odalys Fuentes was not only a model whose beauty and magnetism attracted followers around the world, but a disciplined actress who achieved everything she set out to do with effort and humility, which is why her angel continues to enchant those of us who have the pleasure of knowing her and admiring her.

Television

Puerto esperanza
Cecilia Valdés
Doña Bárbara
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Anna Karenina
Antonia
Doctor on Call
The Importance of Being Earnest
Rats' Nest
A Streetcar Named Desire
Yerma
The Mousetrap
Caesar and Cleopatra
The Soul Has No Color
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Dolphins
The House of Bernarda Alba
Thanks for the Fire
The Stars Look Down
Juan Quinquín in Pueblo Mocho
White Fury
Order of Attack
Despite Everything
The Orange Tree in the Patio
Tierra brava
Forbidden Destiny
Point G
Dust in the Wind

Theater

El Cid (Under the direction of Pedro Álvarez and with Maritza Rosales)

Filmography

For Whom Havana Dances (First Cuban-Czechoslovak Co-production)

Radio

Yerma
Wuthering Heights (opened the space "Your Love Story" on Radio Liberación)
Doctor on Call
Monte libre
Between Heaven and Earth
Worked in almost all of Dora Alonso's radio novels
Worked on Radio Programas under the direction of Esmeralda Fernández, Xiomara Blanco, Gaspar Arias, Oscar Luis López, Julio Lot and Pablo Verbisky, among others.

Awards

ACTUAR Prize for Life's Work, awarded by the Artistic Agency of Performing Arts ACTUAR 2016
National Television Prize 2019