Leocadia Daisy Granados López

Recognized Cuban actress. Cataloged as "The Face of Cuban Cinema". Granados studied at the National School of Art in Havana and made her debut in 1964 in the film The Decision. The actress has won several international awards. She represented Cuba at international events. Granados is the widow of film director Pastor Vega who died in June 2005 in Havana.

Daysi obtained among others the National Film Prize of Havana and the Best Female Performance Award at the International Festival of Troia, Portugal. As a recognized actress she became known for the film "Memories of Underdevelopment" in 1967.

In 1964, when she was a clerk at the 'Fin de Siglo' store and was part of its amateur theater group, she was discovered by José Massip who offered her the leading role in his film "The Decision".

From that moment on and to the present, she has worked as a lead actress in numerous films, becoming the most internationally known feminine face of Cuban cinema.

She studied at the National School of Art. Her performances in dramatic theater and musical comedy productions have been equally successful. She has represented Cuban cinematography at important international events and has participated as a jury member in numerous festivals.

She has received numerous awards and recognitions both in Cuba and abroad, in keeping with her high level of acting.

Acting
The Decision (1965)
/ Fiction
Racial discrimination and class differences frustrate the love relationship of two young people. Mario must choose between his love and the struggle for workers' rights. ...

Habanera (1984)
/ Fiction
A married psychiatrist with children faces a marital crisis with an unconventional attitude that predicts new forms of coexistence. ...

The Elephant and the Bicycle (1994)
/ Fiction
A young man seeking to make his fortune to get married brings the cinematograph for the first time to a small town surrounded by the sea and connected to the mainland only by a bridge. This singular experience is inserted into the personal life of each inhabitant. ...

Tulipa (1967)
/ Fiction
Tulipa, a mature stripper from a traveling circus, is replaced by a young rumba dancer. She must teach her successor the trade or cling to an act she values as "true art". ...

A Man of Success (1987)
/ Fiction
An ambitious young man, committed to the failed revolution of the thirties, devotes himself to achieving personal success. His capacity for seduction and his lack of scruples allow him a brilliant social and political career against all odds and against ...

Esther Somewhere (2013)
/ Fiction
A year after his wife's death, a serious and formal elderly man is approached by Larry Pó, an eccentric elderly man with multiple personalities, who tells him that his wife led a double life: by day an ordinary housewife, and by night a striking ...

Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)
/ Fiction
A bourgeois dilettante remains in Cuba in 1962 while his family departs into exile in the United States. His ideological inconsistency keeps him as a mere spectator of a turbulent society. Having lost his old world, he fails to integrate into ...

Love in a Minefield (1987)
/ Fiction
Brazil, 1964. A left-wing intellectual, during the coup against President João Goulart, lives through anguishing moments of definition. ...

From the American War (1969)
/ Fiction
Two peasants must choose their destiny faced with the three alternatives of Latin American peasantry: continue in misery, become a soldier of repression, or join the guerrillas. ...

Plaff or Too Much Fear of Life (1989)
/ Fiction
A mature woman, believer in African religion, wishes to get rid of her son's wife. Burdened by prejudices and her fear of life, she does not dare accept a suitor who offers her marriage. Mysteriously eggs begin to be thrown at the ...

Pages from the Diary of José Martí (1972)
/ Fiction
Recreation of several passages from the Campaign Diary of José Martí, Cuban intellectual organizer of the War of Independence. ...

A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (1990)
/ Fiction
During a hurricane, a very old man with enormous wings falls on the coast near a settlement. A married couple accommodates him in the henhouse of their ranch. From that moment on unusual events occur that transform the life of the couple and all the ...

Portrait of Teresa (1979)
/ Fiction
A textile worker, union delegate, becomes a cultural promoter. Her chauvinist husband believes that these tasks take away time from household duties and accuses her of negligence, but she reacts in defense of her emancipation. ...

The Loneliness of the Office Manager (1990)
/ Fiction
A woman in crisis reflects on her behavior through the years. Trapped in her contradictions, she understands that she has lost ethical values in exchange for privileges. ...

They Are... or They Aren't (1980)
/ Fiction
Criticism of the trivialization of mass culture and the distortion of national cultures through the intricacies surrounding the staging of a cabaret show. ...

Tropical Dream (1992)
/ Fiction
After a party a chauvinist man, drunk, mistreats his wife, a traditional housewife, then falls asleep. He dreams that the roles are reversed: he becomes a "housewife" and his wife assumes the masculine role. ...

Cecilia (1982)
/ Fiction
In Havana in the first half of the nineteenth century, the love affairs of the mulatto Cecilia and the white Leonardo, from an aristocratic family, serve as a starting point to learn about the reverse side of the splendor of slave society ...

Parallel Lives (1992)
/ Fiction
Rubén lives in Cuba. Andy lives exiled in the United States. Both are trapped by history on opposite poles and want to change places, but they cannot. ...
1993 — The Elephant and the Bicycle. Dir. Juan Carlos Tabío.
1996 — El rizo (Venezuela). Dir. Luis Sosa.
1997 — Things I Left in Havana (Spain). Dir. Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón.
1998 — Quartet of Havana (Spain-Cuba). Dir. Fernando Colombo.
1999 — A Paradise Under the Stars. Dir. Gerardo Chijona.
1999 — Amanda's Prophecies. Dir. Pastor Vega.
2000 — @Festival.Ron. Dir. Lourdes Elizarrarás and Gabriel Retes.
2001 — Nothing. Dir. Juan Carlos Cremata.
2001 — Julia All My Life (Puerto Rico). Dir. Ivonne Belén.
2001 — Only Once (Mexico). Dir. Pastor Vega.
2001 — Hate Games (Costa Rica). Dir. Gabriel Retes and Pastor Vega.
2002 — Meteor (Brazil). Dir. Diego de la Teixeira.
2003 — 90 Miles (Short film. Spain-United States). Dir. Paco Rodríguez.
2008 — Mother Courage and Her Children (Feature fiction). Dir. Enrique Álvarez.

Recognition
National Film Prize. Havana, Cuba, 2007.
Medal for National Culture awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba. Havana, 1989.
Prize for her film career, Trieste Festival. Italy, 2000.
Love in a Minefield, Best Female Performance Award International Festival of Troia. Portugal, 1988.
Cecilia, Best Female Performance Award at the Panama Film Festival, 1983.
Habanera, Best Female Performance Award at the International Santarem Festival. Portugal, 1986.
The Decision, Best Director of Actors Award at the Young Cinematography Symposium at the Karlovy Vary International Festival, Czechoslovakia, 1964.
Amanda's Prophecies, Caricato Award for Best Female Performance. UNEAC (Cinema). Cuba. Havana, 2000.
Kikito de Oro Prize, best actress, Gramados. Brazil, 2000.
Pitirre Award for Best Female Performance. San Juan Film Festival of Puerto Rico. 2000.
Plaff or Too Much Fear of Life, Best Female Performance Award at the Contest of the Performing Arts Section of UNEAC (Cinema). Havana, 1989.
Best Female Performance Award at the International Festival of Troia. Portugal, 1989.
Fipresci Award for best fiction feature film with female mention in the role of Concha at the X International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
Requiem for Yarini, Best Female Performance Award at the Contest of the Performing Arts Section of UNEAC (Theater). Havana, 1989.
Portrait of Teresa, Best Female Performance Award given by the public at the Young Film Festival in Hyeres. France, 1980.
Best Female Performance Catalina de Plata Award at the XX Festival of Cartagena de Indias. Colombia, 1980.
Special Jury Mention for Female Performance V Ibero-American Film Week Huelva. Spain, 1979.
Award from the Soviet Women's Committee XI Moscow Festival. Soviet Union, 1979.
Best Female Performance Award at the XI Moscow Film Festival. USSR, 1979.
Caracol Award for Best Female Performance at the First Contest Section of Performing Arts of UNEAC. Havana, 1979.
A Man of Success, Special Mention for Female Performance Contest of the Performing Arts Section UNEAC. Havana, 1987.
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, Best Soundtrack Award at the Venice Festival, Italy, 1989.
Coral Prize at the Festival of New Latin American Cinema, for Best Set Design. Havana, 1989.