Luisa Martínez Casado

Cuban actress, unanimously considered by the critics of her time one of the best in the Hispanic American world.

She was born in the city of Cienfuegos. Her father, Luis Martínez Casado, a Madrid-born actor established in Cuba, had five other children. An enterprising man and great lover of the stage, Don Luis founded El Telégrafo, the first Cienfuegos newspaper, and built the best theater the locality had.

On April 12, 1860, just four months before Luisa was born, the Cuban poetess Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, residing in Cienfuegos at that time, attended the inauguration ceremony of the new coliseum, which is honored by bearing her name. In such a theatrical environment (a good part of the family was dedicated to the stage) the girl received her scenic baptism in the cradle.

Starting at age three, she began appearing before the public in small scenes from various works. However, she performed her first starring role, as everything seems to indicate, at age eight, in the play La vaquera de la Finojosa, in a theater improvised in the hamlet of El Cobre, near Santiago de Cuba. From then on she would appear in the works El gorrión and La defensa de las Tunas (written by her father), which the Martínez Casado family took on their tours throughout the island.

In 1870, Don Luis traveled with the family to Havana. The Teatro Variedades-Albisu was nothing more, at that time, than a circus tent located on the grounds where today stands the palace of the National Museum of Fine Arts, facing one side of the Manzana de Gómez, adjacent to Havana's Central Park. There the future great actress made her Havana debut.

Six years later the family performed at the Gran Teatro de Tacón (today Gran Teatro de La Habana) with the work Los siete dolores de María Santísima, by José Julián Canero. This was not the first presentation of the Martínez Casado family at the important coliseum, as in 1858 they had staged the usual Vaquera de la Finojosa. Acting on the prestigious Havana stage was a goal for every artist, and by debuting there in a leading role at only 16 years old, the young actress achieved great success. From then on, Luisa's life changed entirely and, consequently, improved the situation of the entire family, as she received a contract for the entire month of February at the Albisu (now converted into a solid building located on the same site where the tent had been).

Later, the leading actor and director Ceferino Guerra included Luisa as a leading actress in his company, alongside the Camagüeyan Eloísa Agüero. Luisita, or la Casado (as she became known) distinguished herself in the role of young lady in the famous drama O locura o santidad by José Echegaray, presented for the first time in Cuba in 1877. In June, that theater rented another dramatic ensemble, and likewise contracted the Cienfuegos actress. During all those months the coliseum's dramatic companies alternated with a Spanish lyrical company, and in benefit performances works and actors from both genres were mixed. This allowed Luisa to demonstrate her versatility by interpreting the lead in the zarzuela Por seguir a una mujer (July 17), and, seven days later, playing the role of the Black girl Dorotea in the Creole comic piece Los negros catedráticos.

Don Luis, encouraged by his daughter's successes, decided to send her to study in Spain, where she began studying declamation. In a short time her academic performance was so remarkable that the esteemed actress and professor Matilde Diez proposed that she complete the four courses of the study plan in one year. In the end, Luisa graduated with the first prize from the competition, awarded unanimously.

The following year, Echegaray himself selected her to premiere the role of young lady in his play Mar sin orillas. Her performance had very favorable repercussions in specialized criticism, and she received countless accolades. The famous writer José Ortega Munilla wrote a flattering article about it in El Imparcial.

In 1880 she was contracted as a young lady for a season in Segovia. She returned to work for a year as a student of Matilde Diez and submitted herself to competition again. Public and critics recognized in her work a voice of pleasant and agreeable timbre, robust; full of feeling, presence, and ease of delivery. They praised her talent, and predicted for her a long life of triumphs.

In the subsequent years she performed successfully in the Alhambra theater in Madrid, in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Cádiz, Málaga, Seville, and Granada. She received the tribute of Zorrilla, who exclaimed moved by her presence: "Madam, allow me to kiss that forehead that God has kissed!" In 1884 she was contracted to inaugurate the season of the Madrid Teatro Español, in the company of the great actor Antonio Vico.

She returned to Cuba laden with laurels in 1888, as a member of the dramatic company of the Spanish actor Leopoldo Burón, who had become a regular figure on the stages of Central America and the Caribbean area. She performed before an emotional audience that filled the Tacón theater. She starred in La pasionaria, by Cano; El tanto por ciento, by López de Ayala; Bodas trágicas, by Echegaray; Un drama nuevo, by Tamayo y Baus, before departing to conquer the Aztec public.

In Mexico she debuted at the Teatro Arbeu. The President of the Republic, Porfirio Díaz, declared her a guest of his palace. Her benefit function took on the character of an apotheosis. The Mexican poet Juan de Dios Peza dedicated the monologue Tirar la llave to her, recited by the actress on stage. Thousands of flowers flooded the theater and the audience, standing on their feet, gave her an ovation for more than fifteen minutes. This would be the beginning of a succession of tours through the country of Juárez, the actress's favorite among the many other countries she visited during her tours of America. Mexican playwrights conceived their works for her: Gonzalo Larrañaga dedicated his drama Elodia to her, premiered that same year at the Teatro Principal; Francisco de P. Morales gave her La hija del ministro; José Peón Contreras, the drama Laureana. In 1891 Luisa decided to form her own company, composed essentially of her family, and performed at the Teatro Irijoa (today Teatro Martí) in Havana, with the usual repertoire of works by Echegaray, Tamayo y Baus, Dumas fils, and Sardou. She conducted a tour of the provinces and debuted in the new and splendid Teatro Terry of her native city.

Throughout the entire decade of the nineties, her presence in Cuban localities (teatro La Caridad, of Santa Clara; teatro Esteban [today teatro Sauto], of Matanzas; Principal, of Puerto Príncipe [Camagüey]) alternated with her performances in Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Santo Domingo, and Puerto Rico, where they paid her unlimited admiration and respect. Around 1897 she adopted the custom of certain European actresses of highlighting her ability to interpret any character by adding some male roles to her repertoire: the bandit Candelas, and especially the Tenorio of Zorrilla, which she resumed regularly on Havana stages. During the first decade of the twentieth century she renewed her American tours, and in 1911 decided to retire to domestic life in her native city. That same year she received the tribute of her fellow citizens, who named a new theater after her, the second in importance for the city. The Teatro Luisa was inaugurated on September 2 with the company of another idol of Cubans, the famous Mexican soprano Esperanza Iris, called "The empress of operetta."

The last fourteen years of Luisa's life passed peacefully, venerated by her family and fellow citizens. Shortly before her death, she lost her husband, also an actor, with whom she had several children. She died in her native Cienfuegos on September 28, 1925.

Luisa Martínez Casado was the last representative of the Spanish school of acting of the nineteenth century, characterized by a marked declamatory style, grandiose, considered in our day outdated and in bad taste. In her time, when no other way of speaking and moving on stage was conceived, Luisa unquestionably embodied the great tragedy of the Hispanic world.

Source: EnCaribe.org