Generosa Margarita Gómez Balboa

Actress, radio announcer, commercial model, and host of Cuban radio and television programs. National Television Prize winner.

She was born in La Habana. She received singing and ballet classes at the Escuela Vocacional Aguayo. Among her classmates were Amelita Pita and Omara Portuondo.

She worked in the ADAD group, created in the forties by disciples of Spanish José Rubia Barcia, who directed the Academia de Arte Dramático for four years until his departure to the United States of America, in the middle of that decade.

She also collaborated with the Patronato del Teatro group, founded in 1942, and to which several theater personalities of Spanish origin were associated, such as Luis Amado Blanco, Isabel Fernández, Francisco Parés Canels, among others; as well as Cuban author Cuqui Ponce de León. There, works of classical theater and others that described the context and reality of Cuban life were staged, for example: El qué dirán (1944) and Lo que no se dice (1946).

Within these prestigious groups were great personalities in both acting and theater direction, many of whom later became major stars in the media.

Margarita Balboa also trained as a teacher at the Escuela Normal para Maestros, where she received classes from another of the most important figures in Cuban media: Violeta Casals.

She graduated in 1949 and obtained employment as a Spanish teacher in a private school. That same year she began her artistic career at Unión Radio, which was one of the most important national radio networks of the period and brought together great actors and directors such as Roberto Garriga, Antonio Vázquez Gallo, and Gina Cabrera.

From this stage of her artistic career, a commercial jingle is remembered that promoted the changes of the Competidora Gaditana cigarette brand, performed as a duet with Alfredo Brito. It was precisely at this stage when she shortened her extensive name to Margarita Balboa, to make it easier for listeners to remember.

In 1950 she passed her exam as a radio announcer and thanks to her enormous talent and professionalism, she was recognized as one of the best voices of the era. Her characteristic timbre, in addition to her slim and petite figure, opened doors for her and placed her in the catalog of many directors.

She worked at Unión Radio until mid-1953, while at the same time alternating with jobs at the Telemundo channel and Channel 2, which belonged to the same owners. She then moved to RHC Cadena Azul, while also working on Channels 4 and 2 of television.

At RHC Cadena Azul, owned by former tobacco businessman Amado Trinidad, Margarita was part of the cast of the novel Yo quiero ser madre alongside Raúl Selis; and later worked on La Novela del Aire. This latter program, which was broadcast Monday through Friday at eight thirty in the evening, led national broadcasting for a long time.

Laboratorios Gravi offered her a contract as an actress and announcer to advertise their products on radio and television. She thus became an exclusive artist for Pasta Gravi and Jabón Suave from the advertising company Siboney. This moment marked her entry into the powerful CMQ Radio and Television circuit, by then located in the Radiocentro building.

At CMQ, the historic competitor of RHC Cadena Azul, her interpretations of negative characters in radio novels directed by the renowned director and writer Roberto Garriga were famous.

She was a founder of Cuban Television. Her face was the first to appear on the small screen, on October 24, 1950. These first images, in which she appeared singing the bolero Noche by Mexican author Gabriel Ruíz, were seen by the people on television sets located in storefronts in La Habana.

In the early years of television she appeared on programs such as Matinée Malta Hatuey and El teatro de lunes. Additionally, she performed work for children's audiences; for example, Gaby, Fofó y Miliki, on channel 4, under the direction of Antonio Vázquez Gallo.

Margarita Balboa never abandoned radio. Her voice accompanied the main dramatic programs of Cuban radio. Her participation was very successful in programs such as La novela de las dos, Tu novela de amor, Agente especial, and Clave ocho treinta from Radio Progreso. Through all these programs, which remain in that station's programming, adaptations of great works of universal literature have been brought to the Cuban people; as well as the best works of Cuban and Latin American writers.

She also worked as an announcer in the early days of Radio Taíno. She recorded the first station identification, which was broadcast for the first time on November 3, 1985, in duet with José Antonio Cepero Brito.

During her time in television, she left several interpretations of leading roles in the memory of audiences, many of which were broadcast in the Grandes novelas program. Among them stands out the television version of El Siglo de las Luces, by Cuban author Alejo Carpentier. On that occasion, under the direction of Carlos Piñeiro, Margarita played the character of "Sofía," accompanied by television leading man Pedro Álvarez in the role of "Víctor Hugues". This novel was broadcast on channel 6 during 1968. She followed with other leading roles in classic works of literature adapted for television. Such are the cases of the novels Ana Karenina and Madame Bovary. Both were directed by Loly Buján and co-starred Ángel Toraño.

Another program where Margarita shone was the popular humorous-musical program La comedia del domingo, directed by Roberto Garriga, and which featured performances by major stars such as Rosita Fornés, Maritza Rosales, and Consuelito Vidal. The program aired at nine in the evening and each of the main actresses hosted one broadcast per month. As part of the male cast were Raúl Selis, the leading man Eduardo Egea, and later Enrique Almirante.

Directed once again by Roberto Garriga, Margarita reappeared on the small screen, this time in the television adaptation of the novels Las Impuras (1984) and Las Honradas (1990), based on works by Cuban writer Miguel de Carrión. There she shared scenes with José Antonio Rodríguez and Susana Pérez.

She also had a place in the history of Cuban cinema. In 1974 she participated in the film El otro Francisco, accompanied by figures such as Miguel Benavides, Alina Sánchez, Ramoncito Veloz, Adolfo Llauradó, Alden Knight, and Armando Bianchi. Directed by Sergio Giralt, the film is an adaptation for cinema of the novel Francisco, by nineteenth-century Cuban author Anselmo Suárez y Romero, which denounces the injustices of slavery: it relates, beginning with the suicide of the slave Francisco, romantic involvements with a domestic slave coveted by the master.

Throughout her career, Margarita Balboa shared scenes, stages, and booths with great figures of Cuban media. A short list would include personalities such as Alfonso Beltrán, Santiago García Ortega, and Ernesto Galindo; directors and writers such as Caridad Martínez, Abelardo Rodríguez, Moraima Osa, Carmen Solar, Julio Lot; and actresses such as Marta Martínez Casado, Hortensia Gelabert, Marta Muñiz, Consuelito Vidal, Aurora Pita, Marta Velazco, and Marta del Río.

Among the honors her work in the media merited are the National Television Prize; the Distinction for Cuban Culture; the distinctions Artist of Merit of Radio and Television, Raúl Gómez García, and 40th Anniversary of Television; the Nicolás Guillén Diploma; the Medal of Fine Arts; the National Radio Microphone and Television Actress prizes; and the Accreditation Seal 50th Anniversary of Television. She was also honored on several occasions as Best Actress and Best Radio Announcer for her participation in radio and television programs.

In 1995, when Adolfo Llauradó paid tribute to eleven stars of Cuban media with a documentary called Divas por Amor, Margarita Balboa was one of them.

She died in La Habana on January 24, 2010, at the age of 80.