Luisa María Jiménez

Cuban actress. Graduate of the National School of Art (ENA) and later the Higher Institute of Art (ISA), she holds a degree in Performing Arts. She has performed leading roles in numerous theatrical productions, as well as in television and film productions.

Her beginnings in art are intimately linked to the town of Trinidad where she spent her entire childhood and much of her adolescence. At 8 years old she had already decided to be an artist. Her passion for body movement, dance, and ballet led her to firmly think that one day she would be a dancer and she took classes in everything related to body movement, including Yoruba folklore, Latin American and European dance. She likewise received instruction in the plastic arts.

Her undefined artistic anxieties drove creation in a general sense. She was very involved in the amateur movement that was so important in those years. Theater instructor Pablo Dalmau planted the seed of acting in her, inviting her to join the amateur theater group, where along with her brother Néstor Jiménez, she participated in FEEM festivals of those years, winning a prize at the National Festival held in Havana, which earned them a presentation in the Hubert de Blanck hall. At 17 she entered the National School of Art, specializing in Performing Arts.

Theater
Theater came first. Once graduated, she joined the prestigious Bertolt Brecht Political Theater group with renowned actors from the Cuban stage such as Luis Alberto García (father), Litico Rodríguez, Samuel Claxton, René de la Cruz, Mario Balmaseda, Elvira Enríquez, Liliam Llerena, Idalia Anreus and many others. This meant a complete breakthrough and full understanding of the actor's role to command the stage and all its elements, with true consciousness.

Later she balanced working with studies to complete her years at the Higher Institute of Art that she had already begun, until graduating in 1984. She was totally devoted to her profession, to studies, rehearsals, performances. She spared no effort, time was no concern, nor did she think it was too much. She worked even while suffering from asthma, a disease she had since childhood and which she was determined to neutralize during that time.

Perhaps feeling so small among so many famous names, she managed to draw from within herself a force and absolute desire to be seen as an "actress," not merely as a recently graduated young woman with some talent to consider. She earned the confidence and consideration of directors who counted on her for their works and leading roles. She worked with foreign and domestic directors. Those were golden years for Cuban theater and artistic creation.

Television
Television came later. She was preparing to do a teleplay with the highly respected actor Enrique Santiesteban, directed by Silvano Suárez. At that time she was rehearsing the play Humboldt and Bolívar with Mario Balmaseda. She rushed out of those rehearsals as quickly as she could to get to this other one. Ten minutes late was enough for that man whose hair was already graying to shamefully expel her from her work for being undisciplined. The crying left her breathless, and even Enrique's intervention failed to soften the well-known Silvano Suárez. She came to fear being late.

Days later she was auditioning alone with the impactful Roberto Garriga who had her perform an entire wrenching love scene with the camera lens as her leading man, based on one of the already written scenes from the famous novel. Fortunately for her, when she was beginning to feel her resources running out, right there, he stopped the scene telling her with his cold blue eyes: You convinced me, you are la Tojosa. It aired in 1985.

Film
Film has been to Luisa like a platonic love until she declared it. It was always a difficult love. She saw it as something not meant for her. It only opened a small window and she could only aspire to touch it in movies where she was "just one more":

"Se Permuta" with Juan Carlos Tabío
"Flechazos" with Orlando Rojas
"Dónde está mi Hijo" with Lucio Gaudino
"Venir al Mundo" with Miguel Torres. She paired with her eternal companion and excellent actor Alberto Pujols.
"Rosa la China" with Valeria Sarmiento, a Chilean director based in France.
It was her first leading role in film given by a foreigner and about an absolutely Cuban theme. A story of base passions alongside famous Spanish actor Juan Luis Galiardo, she worked hard because this film coincided the whole time with the television series "Salir de Noche" where she played the role of an aging runway model. She worked 24 hours, stepping out of one character to enter into another completely different one. Her interpretation of the Rosa la China character took her to the Venice Film Festival. Her work as an actress also includes other co-productions with Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, and Spain.

Other aspects of her life
Attracted to the fashion world since childhood, she designed and drew the clothes she wanted to wear. She received modeling classes with Norka Méndez and spent three years working as a model at the fashion house La Maison.

She modeled clothing by renowned Cuban designers. She worked for collections by Paco Rabanne and the Marquéz de Pucci. She was photographed by the great Alberto Korda and other distinguished photographers. She was linked to this world for around three years, pressured by competitions, professional demands, costume fittings, makeup, rehearsals, theater, filming; she decided to end this stage of her professional life.

Filmography
Santa Camila de la Habana Vieja. 2002 Dir. Belkis Vega.
Rosa la China. Dir. Valeria Sarmiento.
Viva Cuba. 2005 Dir. Juan Carlos Cremata.
Barrio Cuba. Dir. Humberto Solás.

Awards and Recognition
Barrio Cuba
Best Female Performance Award (ex aequo). 27th International Festival of New Latin American Cinema. Havana, 2005.
Best Supporting Actress Award (ex aequo). 46th Cartagena Film Festival, 2006.
Best Female Performance Award. Ceará Festival. Fortaleza, Brazil, 2006.

In an interview she states:

-Look, I am very surprised. One doesn't expect those things. Even, one doesn't prepare for that type of event. I'm not, frankly I'm telling you, I'm not expecting them to give me awards. And, perhaps, that's why when they give them to me, the times that has happened, it catches me, look, it really surprises me. It takes me like that, disarmed, like I can't believe it.

The first international award I won was the Cuban Coral, which by the way, very few Cuban actresses have. And it's the Coral, incredible. Winning the Coral in our country, being Cuban, is very difficult. It has been given to many artists internationally. But it's difficult to give a Coral to Cubans. I don't know why such rigor with ourselves, among ourselves. But well, that's how we are.

-That also warrants it.

-Yes. And when they told me, Luisa you have a Coral (which arrives somewhat unofficially), I said: no, that has to be a mistake, surely there's some confusion because I wasn't expecting it. And besides, because in the film Barrio Cuba there are such good performances, I thought mine was just one more. But it turned out I had the Cuban Coral. Then an even bigger surprise when I won an award in Colombia, in Cartagena, the India Catalina. And after, what can I say when it was in Brazil, in Fortaleza.

And, look, I have to accept that it was my year. I have to accept it because that happens. I think that each person brings their quota to life. Each person brings their quota of satisfactions and misfortunes, of happiness and unhappiness. Everyone has their quota. And it seems mine was here in 2006, assigned for 2006 and not before. Well, I have won national awards, but international ones, that I certainly didn't expect. That's why I think it's good not to think, nor go looking for things. I even think that you can't search for luck. I believe luck is what chooses you, it's what searches for you, it's what picks you. You can't search for anything. What you have to do is walk. Walk and work. Grow, and life will already give you this or that. And time and life go placing each person in the place that corresponds to them. Whether for ill, whether for good, or even, after a blow, so that afterwards comes abundance, comes good. Even from blows you harvest fruit, you reap.

-The dramatic trajectory of the character impresses. When people talk about Barrio Cuba, many times they use it to focus on the film. There occurred a very interesting conjunction of your acting, of course, with the possibilities the character itself offered you, which was well conceived. But you have interpreted many others, a wide range of characters in television, in film and, of course, in theater. Which of them, or which ones, do you remember with special pleasure? A considerable part of the audience always associates you with la Tojosa from the telenovela Sol de batey.

-Well, I have to mention that one. Whether I like it today or not, or have my reservations about it, because there has been growth through time and through the years. I, for example, am an actress who renounces each time what I just did. I have that very strongly within me. I have an enormous capacity for renunciation. The last work for me closes a stage, and I'm already ready to start the next one almost from scratch. Each time I look back I renounce everything I've done, although that doesn't mean I reject it, nor that I'm disenchanted with what I've done, nor that I find fault with what I've done. But there is an attitude that what comes next cannot be like what came before, nor can I use the same paths I used in that.

That is, there is an intention of renunciation toward the last thing I do because, look, that's what gives us growth, that's what keeps you from stagnating, that keeps you always eager to improve, to grow, to change, to new proposals and to rejuvenate yourself. When you think you've already arrived, that you've already fulfilled, that you've already given everything, that you've already consecrated yourself, that's when you start to fall behind. That's precisely where, incredibly, a kind of regression begins. And that's what you perceive when you notice that there are artists who have gotten stuck in time.

And so, la Tojosa was a stage of my life, being very young and immature. However, I owe a debt to that character. I cannot be ungrateful for everything that character gave me, what I received, and it still gives me. Because, how many years have passed?, twenty years?, and I'm still la Tojosa in Cuba. And my daughter has already inherited it.

-Ah, yes?
-Yes, yes, yes. My daughter is la Tojosita.

-There's a lot of affection felt in that extension.

-So that's already a character that got away from my hands, that went beyond the narrow scope of a screen. That character already transcended and passed into the spirituality of people, into the heart and mind of people. And it became a memory that walks and will walk with you. Look, that's amazing, that's great. And I'm grateful to la Tojosa for that, and I'm grateful to this people who has given me so much. Frankly, I have nothing but the affection and admiration of this people, and I respect that very much. So I have to speak that way about that character.

I have others. I have Mariela from El naranjo del patio, for me it's unforgettable. I adore that character. I have a magnificent feeling and taste of Lala Contreras, of Santa Camila, like that.

-Perhaps there was one that was especially difficult for you to construct, to reach it?

-I played a controversial character in El año que viene, a telenovela that Héctor Quintero made. It was the character Estela Perdomo, a woman who becomes an alcoholic. Her mother expelled her from the house, her mother was a prostitute, a girl who became involved in prostitution. And that character made me suffer a lot, although I think it was a character that needed more work on my part, and it needed more maturity. Even so, it was very hard to do.

I remember the character of that mother in La botija. That character only appeared in three chapters but it was very strong, very strong. With that character from La botija I won an acting award from UNEAC. The character was very wrenching, it dragged me down.

The actress, in the living room of her house, with the awards won in the last year: the one from the Fortaleza Festival, the Coral, and the India Catalina.

The actress, in the living room of her house, with the awards won in the last year: the one from the Fortaleza Festival, the Coral, and the India Catalina.

Another character that did me in was Belkis from La cara oculta de la luna. Logically, I simply and plainly had to feel what Belkis felt. They are experiences that one hasn't had. They are emotions that one doesn't normally or commonly go through. And one has them as very foreign, and sees them as experiences of other people, experiences that one has seen in other people: in movies, in books. But certain things don't usually happen to one.

-If everything were to happen to you, imagine.

-Of course. And that's where it becomes more difficult. You have to truly appropriate that story, but in a fierce manner. And that's how I did Belkis: fiercely. But being careful not to go too far because there can be many reactions. Some people respond by doing nothing, some respond by keeping a sepulchral silence, or assuming that, or not. There are many reactions to the same event. And I had to choose what was appropriate for Belkis at that moment, according to her personality, her character, her culture, her education, Belkis's prejudices. So one has to select among possible reactions, also starting from what the author wrote. But besides, there are many ways to react, even when the work is well written and well told by the author. That character made me draw out an extra. In almost all strong, dramatically intense characters, you have to draw out an extra. Just like in Barrio Cuba. That is, they are characters that have marked me, that have left a sensitive imprint within me.

-In that commitment you have to your work, do you feel that the characters have left you something or have contributed to you humanly?

-Characters leave marks on all actors, big marks. Even I think it's difficult for an actress to say that she's not marked by some character she has played. And in her daily life, in all her walking through life, in her movement, come the reminiscences of those characters. It has to be that time passes, that years pass and the old marks are left behind. But then others come that are added to you. Because notice that your work instrument is yourself. It's your body, it's you. They are your inner resources and that stays within you.

-Your artistic inclinations, inevitably, have to be related to those of your brother Néstor. Do they have a family origin? That is, is there some relation with your parents and family relationships?

-No. In the family cradle there were no artists, although distantly there were. But in the nucleus of my family there were no artists. My father was a doctor and my mother was the doctor's wife. But it comes to us, I don't know, through the family tree where there are indeed artists in other generations and in other more distant families. Even, we are from Trinidad, and one day Helio Orovio, that Cuban musicologist, told us that we were descendants of Lico Jiménez who was a very important musician of the past century. We also have, well, a relationship with Luis Alberto García, you know, with that family that comes through the root of my mother. But I already tell you, in the center of our family there were no direct artists.

What there was was an atmosphere that fostered that attraction to beauty, to art. My sister wrote, drew, in my house there were a lot of old magazines, old magazines, where there were entire pages dedicated to famous artists, good music was heard. We were always, in some way, linked to the taste for things, for art, in that sensitivity, and surrounded by nature, and perhaps that atmosphere was the cradle where those ingredients were growing. And as a child I connected to art, from eight years old. My parents encouraged me. They were not a limitation. And I think that putting a little bit here and a little bit there, all the ingredients conducive to us being artists grew.

-Will you have passed the inheritance on to your daughter?

-Well, of course, my daughter is a dancer. How not, my daughter also started from childhood. She started in gymnastics, then went into dance. Then she entered the National School of Art and today is in the Television Ballet. Also, she worked with me, at eight years old, in that telenovela that was a success here, Tierra brava, where she played Lalita Contreras, the childhood of Lala Contreras. That was her debut. And today she has followed the paths of dance, which is what she likes most.

-And how is it going for you, Luisa, in that relationship of woman and actress, which can be as complicated as that of professional and mother? How does it all come together in you?

...And the relationship with my daughter has also been like that. She and I are great friends.

-Look, my whole life is contaminated by artistic influence. My world, as you see, is a world where I try for my space to be the shell, my small cave, where I can truly feel good. I like to be surrounded by beauty, harmony, peace. And everything I do, I try to do with beauty: cooking, any household task. I very much like the balance of all things, that everything flows with harmony, with elegance, to nourish myself from what surrounds me, and to be able to contemplate them even, and to communicate with each thing, with the colors of my house. That's part of my spirituality.

And the relationship with my daughter has also been like that. She and I are great friends. She is my companion. She is the energy I need to work. She is my light. She is the light of my life. So being a woman, being a mother, being an artist, I believe has been in me a special combination. I believe those three things in me have formed the trunk of a tree that has grown branches where everything is related to everything. There is nothing anachronistic within those three parts.

I think that's something important for being a good artist. The base you create, the trunk of everything, the foundations you create in life, are what will later lead to the construction, that building, that which you build truly being solid. And I have tried each day to seek the best within me, to fill myself with things that dignify me. And that, at the same time, people can see me as someone who is useful to them, someone who works for them in their mind, in their heart in a fruitful way. If not, what's the point of us being artists then. It's not just about standing on a screen and fulfilling something they give you.

That has to be full of a message and education, and of a deep observation of life. That is built from the base, from the family, from the cradle. Being a woman is important, but what kind of woman am I. Because that influences what kind of artist you are and what kind of mother you are. So those three things in me have gone as if very linked, perhaps they have created the personality I have today and the vision I have today of things.

- Within that same aspect, the position of women, I'm interested in knowing your criteria, your observations, on a somewhat delicate subject for some people, which is the problem of the dignity of the actress. The matter is not clear to everyone, particularly to men. Some have failed to understand it. And it's evident that for you it's a very important motto. Why don't you tell me a bit from your perspective, to enlighten people on this matter?

-The subject is very important, and besides it's difficult to explain, because it has a lot to do with lifestyle. The dignity of people is linked to their thinking, their morality, their education, their formation and with culture in general. Therefore, all of that forms like a lifestyle, which is what you transmit and is what people receive from you, from there you become a more dignified or less dignified person according to the characteristics that accompany you.

I think that if there's something very important regarding dignity, it's respect. People have to look at you and see in you values that make them respect you. You should feel that you transmit respect and that you receive respect. But to achieve this I think it's fundamental to respect yourself. If respect doesn't start with you, you can't receive it from anyone. If you don't respect people's lives, if you don't respect your things, if you don't respect yourself, if you don't go through life with dignity, with elegance, with common sense, you can't gather any fruits other than vulgarity, rudeness, disrespect. It's difficult. People's behavior is determining. How you talk, how you behave in all places, how you face the different events of your life, are the aspects that are creating for you a whole aura and a whole label. And all of us have a kind of label.

Although one is not perfect, the errors mark things. And perhaps not just the errors, but momentary behaviors, arbitrary behaviors, behaviors that come from other codes that are creating a whole lot of labels that in the end become the aura that accompanies you. But even those are interesting nuances. It's related to what they say around here, that the sun is perfect and has spots. But, well, it's the sun, perhaps. You also have to have idyll, you have to, without burning people, have your own light, a light that reaches people, and a light that also illuminates people a bit. And that's the pride that each person can have from their walk through life.

That is, all these things about dignity, about respect, about having high self-esteem, about giving, about feeling that you have an education that you yourself built, that you yourself sought, that you yourself have taken care to polish through life, to be better, to have a better image, to be able to give more of yourself, to know what I breathe into this character, what I put here or what I put there, all those things are creating an ethic, an ethic that is important for an artist. Because in any case, the artist shows an ideal, something that people want to imitate. It becomes a banner for many people, an idol. Artists become idols, and not for nothing. They have contributed to culture, to the development of humanity in many aspects and make up the spiritual nourishment of society. So notice that everything corresponds to a style, to a concept you have of life.

Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez is a woman with her feet on the ground who doesn't hide the person of deep sensitivity. From the excellence of her artistic trajectory she has found a certain dimension of happiness that, by accepting the brevity of each moment, the changing nature, expands her register as an actress and drives an organic professional evolution toward acting instruction and scenic direction. Around this latter specialty, she's preparing a second theatrical production after the good reception of the first, fascinated by the act of creation while one of her most vigorous dreams is being born.