Eslinda Núñez Pérez

Eslinda is a Cuban film and television actress. Recognized for her performance in the second story of the film Lucía by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. In 2011 she received the National Film Prize.

She was born in the city of Santa Clara. Daughter of Celia (homemaker) and Ciro (bus driver), between 1950 and 1954 she lived in Sagua la Grande, where her father had moved to work. In her adolescence she wrote poems and painted pictures, but later she would not develop that vocation.

In Santa Clara, Eslinda studied secondary and pre-university education. At age 14 she fell in love with Manuel Herrera (who would become a filmmaker). In 1960, Herrera moved to La Habana, hired at ICAIC as a directing assistant. In 1961 they married in Santa Clara and moved to La Habana.

At the University of La Habana, Núñez enrolled in Hispanic Literature and Spanish Language. Enthusiastic about Herrera, Nelson Rodríguez, Humberto Solás and Saúl Yelín, Eslinda Núñez began studying at the drama academy of Teatro Estudio (on Neptuno and Campanario streets, in La Habana), where she studied with Vicente Revuelta, Raquel Revuelta (1925-2004) and Ernestina Linares. Later she placed herself under professor Julio Matas, at Casa de las Américas. The first theatrical work in which she performed was Nuestro pueblito (Our town, by Thornton Wilder).

In 1962 she joined the cast of Teatro Musical de La Habana as a singer, actress and dancer, directed by Mexican Alfonso Arau. That same year she made her film debut in the Cuban-French film El otro Cristóbal, directed by Armand Gatti. Carrying out her theatrical and film careers simultaneously.

She stars in now classic films such as Lucía (1968), Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968) and La primera carga al machete (1969), while in theater she achieves resounding successes for her interpretations in works such as La casa de Bernarda Alba, Los días de la guerra and especially Santa Camila de la Habana Vieja.

Her film career extends outward and she films in countries such as the Soviet Union (1972), Mexico (1974) and Peru (1986). In 1983 she achieved significant success when her work in the film Amada by Humberto Solás received the acting award at the Ibero-American Film Festival in Huelva (Spain).

She joined television, where she participated in numerous theater spaces, teleplays and telenovelas such as: El Chino, Pasión y prejuicio, La otra cara, No parqueo, Ana and others.

She has worked in more than 50 theatrical productions.

She has participated in numerous international film festivals such as Moscow, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastián, Biarritz, Huelva, Bogotá, Amiens and Nantes and in international events such as Cuban culture weeks in Europe and Brazil or CICLa (International Center for Latin American Culture) in Peru.

She has been a jury member, among others, in the following festivals: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czechoslovakia), Ibero-American Film Festival in Huelva, José Antonio Ramos Theater Acting Competition. She was president of the acting jury of the Festival Caracol of UNEAC.

Filmography
1963: El otro Cristóbal (France), directed by Armand Gatti.
1963: Para quién baila La Habana, directed by Vladimir Cech.
1968: Lucía, directed by Humberto Solás.
1968: Memorias del subdesarrollo, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea.
1969: La primera carga al machete, directed by Manuel Octavio Gómez.
1972: El jinete sin cabeza (Soviet Union), directed by Vladímir Vainstock.
1972: Un día de noviembre, directed by Humberto Solás.
1974: Próximamente en esta sala (Mexico), directed by Sergio García.
1976: Mina, viento de libertad, directed by Antonio Eceiza.
1979: No hay sábado sin sol, directed by Manuel Herrera.
1980: Son... o no son, directed by Julio García Espinosa.
1981: Cecilia, directed by Humberto Solás, as Isabel Lincheta.
1983: Amada, directed by Humberto Solás.
1986: Capablanca, directed by Manuel Herrera.
1986: El socio de Dios (Peru), directed by Federico García.
1990: Mujer transparente (Laura Story), directed by Ana Rodríguez.
1997: Mambí (Spain), directed by Santiago and Teodoro Ríos.
2001: Parte de mi alma (short film) directed by Guillermo Centeno.
2005: Bailando cha cha chá, directed by Manuel Herrera.
2005: Viva Cuba, directed by Juan Carlos Cremata.
2005: Mi caballero de París, directed by Consuelo Ramírez.
2006: La pared, directed by Alejandro Gil.
2008: El viajero inmóvil, directed by Tomás Piard.
2012: Esther en alguna parte, directed by Gerardo Chijona.

Awards and Recognition
"Distinction for National Culture," awarded by the State Council of the Republic of Cuba.
1992: Guest of honor at the Bogotá Film Festival (Colombia) on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Spanish Invasion of America.
Medal "Laureada Seal," for El niño de la bota infortunada.
Distinguished guest of the city of Nantes (France).
Medal for the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city of Santa Clara.
2001: Tribute for her film career at the La Habana Film Festival (in New York).
Acting award from the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.
Acting award at the International Film Festival in Huelva (Spain).
Award in the acting competition of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.
Mention in the acting competition of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.
2011: National Film Prize (Cuba)
2016: ACTUAR Prize for a Life's Work, awarded by the ACTUAR Artistic Agency of Performing Arts
2019: The International Film Festival of Gibara presents her the Lucía de Honor.

Her husband, filmmaker Manuel Herrera from Villa Clara (Un sábado sin sol, Capablanca, Bailando chachachá), is currently the director of the Cinemateca de Cuba. Her only son, Inti Herrera Núñez, is a filmmaker. Although at first he said he was not going to dedicate himself to the seventh art, little by little he decided to go to film school, presented himself and was accepted. Imagine, since childhood he had seen the country's great filmmakers discussing their scripts in my house. I also have an adorable granddaughter, and the family is completed with my son's wife, who is an oncologist.