Ofelia Libertad Núñez Castro

Ofelita has dedicated her life to acting, recitation, commercial modeling, and directing programs in theater, television, radio, and film.

From childhood she revealed her artistic sensitivity in student activities and by painting landscapes and self-portraits. For this reason it was not surprising that in 1947 she enrolled in the Hubert de Blank Municipal Conservatory of Music, where she studied four years of piano.

In that institution, the Recitation classes by Hortensia Gelabert, integrated her into a theater group that, twice a month, usually performed in the afternoon and evening performances offered to members of Pro Arte musical, at the Auditorium Theater.

Around 1950, Gaspar Pumarejo founded the first television station, Unión Radio TV (Channel 4) and created "Buscando estrellas", a competition for amateur artists that, by virtue of talent, recruited cast for television. When Ofelita recited there and won her first prize, she gained her first television appearances as an extra. Thus began a fruitful and prolonged career that she had not anticipated.

She assumes her first audiovisual role in Ronda Infantil -alongside Spanish clowns Gaby, Fofo and Miliki- doing voice dubbing and sound effects, then interprets the character of a girl in television commercials for Cake Gran Vía and Nela cream cheese. At that time, she could not have suspected how much she would do in the future to guide, educate and entertain children and teenagers on radio and television.

Between 1950 and 1952 she acts in various formats on Channel 6 (CMQ TV): No pase ahí, deténgase, with an educational focus; the musical magazine El show del mediodía, where she debuts alongside Blanquita Amaro and Marta del Río.

She performs discretely in important dramatized programs broadcast in prime time: Tensión en el canal 6, by Marcos Behmaras; Estudio 15, a theatrical project, and the traditional El humo del recuerdo, where she stages originals from the legendary Teatro Alhambra.

In Conflictos Humanos, she finds her first significant role as an actress, alongside Spanish actress Adela Escartín. From then on, her innate talent accumulates varied roles, genres and audiovisual projects; but her stories, novels and television plays -even classics- proclaim her quality in dramatic acting throughout.

In the commercial era of Cuban television, Núñez became a founder of three television stations: from Channel 4 she moved to Channel 6 and then to Channel 2 (Telemundo), where in Teatro del hogar, she performs "Yerma", directed by Antonio Emilio Vázquez Gallo, La Comedia del domingo, by Roberto Garriga, Cuento universal and Filmoteca Philco.

During 1956, the advertising company Siboney of the Cuba brothers hired her as an actress and she continues to shine on the small screen.

From 1958, in the space Una luz en el camino, she acts alongside Ada Bejar in various telenovelas, directed by Vázquez Gallo; she has continued in the genre ever since.

Between 1962 and 1964 she shares with Alden Night, Reynaldo Miravalles and Verónica Lynn, in the Grupo Milanés, by Adolfo de Luis, which performs stagings based on the Stanislavsky Method, on the stage of the Teatro Nacional.

In the Teatro ICR, which Bhemaras created for television, she alternates with the best of national acting and interprets her most important character: Celeste, from "El dulce pájaro de la juventud".

From Radio Liberación, Julio Lot and Marta Jiménez Oropesa call her for La novela de las Dos -where she became the counterpart to Raquel Revuelta and works with Mary Munne and Carlos Badías-. She then arrives at Teatro del aire, on Sundays, and La novela Gravi, at 7:00 p.m., directed by José A. Caiñas Sierra.

She joins the group of artists who at CMQ, create TELE TEATRO -an experiment in arena theater, whose works were not broadcast- where Erdwin Fernández and Pedro Álvarez select works, direction was rotating and invited television directors valued performers for their regular spaces.

She also participates in the adventures broadcast live in two daily afternoon time slots: Los mambises, Los konsomoles, La calavera and El camarada.

Not even when her motherhood prevented her from continuing the usual intense work in radio and television did she abandon art.

During 1966, on Radio Liberación, she premieres "El diario de Ana Frank" -of great repercussion in audience and criticism- where she replaces Marina Rodríguez. She tells stories in La cajita de música, created by Maylin Carretero, and participates in Cuentos y canciones and El silbato dorado. When this station disappears, from Radio Arte she acts in various genres that nurture our provincial stations.

For Channel 4, in 1967, she acts in the telenovela Rumbos opuestos, by Iris Dávila, where she interprets a working urban woman.

This space alternated its live broadcast with Horizontes, by Aleyda Amaya, and the second stage of Grandes Novelas -where Garriga made impactful creations of classics of universal and national literature-; she acts in Papá Goriot, with Vázquez Gallo and in Las honradas, with Garriga himself.

Children's television programming calls on her for: El carrousell de las sorpresas, Variedades infantiles, Tía tata cuenta cuentos -TV and radio- and she specializes in dubbing children's voices and animal sounds.

During the seventies she made her first film appearance playing a teacher in El jíbaro; later she appears in Las profecías de Amanda.

During the X World Youth Festival, she participates in two radio programs: Hablando del festival and Festival a las 9 de la noche, alongside Manolo Riveiro.

By the 1980s, she had been evaluated as a children's and youth actress, radio announcer and program director, without ceasing to act for television.

She intervenes in the traditional scenes of Así era entonces, the police drama Día y noche, the story Tonos de verde, Es tiempo de partir and, of course, in a long list of telenovelas: Antonia, El naranjo del patio, Retrato de mujer, Hola Habana, Con palabras propias and La otra esquina.

Her retirement in 1990 did not prevent her from continuing:

When educational channels were created in 2002, Ofelita strengthened her founding role, acting in scenes for teleclasses and stories.

During 2003, on Habana Radio, she acts, recites, hosts and directs children's programs about José Martí's correspondence, cinema or Desde el corazón de La Habana, where her character is Havana itself.

That same year she obtained second place in the National Radio Festival, for the Cuban stories space that she directs on Radio Habana Cuba.

This woman, of proverbial simplicity, modesty and tenderness, has demonstrated monumental industriousness, firmness and perseverance.

Because she has more than enough desire to work and talent, today it is natural that, already in her eighties, she prepares to act in the telenovela En fin, el mar, and upon completing it, has planned another production where she will be the protagonist.

In this way she has earned, among many laurels, the distinction of Artist of Merit and the National Radio Prize.

Source: Portal de la Televisión Cubana