Rosalía Lourdes Elisa Palet Bonavia

Actress, singer, and vedette. One of the most versatile Cuban artists, with more than sixty years of career. She has worked across all genres and has performed with extraordinary mastery in all media.

Rosita Fornés came to be identified as the great vedette of Cuba. Her real name is Rosalía Lourdes Elisa Palet Bonavia, but for the artistic world she has always been Rosita Fornés, or simply Rosita as many of her admirers call her.

Rosita is a singular Cuban artist. Her first performance took place when she was a teenager in an amateur program, but her professional debut was made alongside Ernesto Lecuona, whose company she joined when she was only 17 years old.

Throughout her artistic life, she has ventured into the most diverse musical genres, including zarzuela and operetta, as well as drama and comedy performed in theater, radio, television, and film.

Rosita Fornés has participated in the filming of numerous movies and has also been the lead figure in various shows presented in different countries.

She has received numerous awards: recognition as the First vedette of Mexico, of America, of Cuba, and of Spain, respectively, as well as the Distinction for National Culture, the Félix Varela Order of the First Degree, the Alejo Carpentier Medal, the National Theater Prize, Emeritus Member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba, and the National Television Prize.

She was born in New York. Brought to Havana at age two, her childhood was spent mostly in Cuba, although she also lived in Spain between 1933 and 1936. She changed her real name to the artistic name of Rosita, taking the surname of her foster father.

She began her professional career at only 15 years old, in the radio program La Corte Suprema del Arte, which gave amateurs from different artistic disciplines the opportunity to demonstrate their talents.

Her performance in that presentation, in which she sang a milonga, and in successive ones, made her in a short time a "rising star," a category the program gave to promising figures.

She undertook acting studies with Enriqueta Sierra, and singing with Mariano Meléndez, "Lalo" Elósegui, and Francisco F. Dominicis.

She stood out as a formidable interpreter of Spanish zarzuela from her debut in the genre in June 1941 at the Principal de la Comedia theater, with the work El asombro de Damasco, by Pablo Luna, directed by the great Spanish actor Antonio Palacios.

She participated in Cuban premieres of La del manojo de rosas, by Pablo Sorozábal, in 1941; Luisa Fernanda, by F. Moreno Torroba, and Don Gil de Alcalá, by Manuel Penella, in 1942; in addition to starring in an important revival of Doña Francisquita, by Amadeo Vives, in the same 1942. These initial successes were repeated insistently: the new star reestablished herself as the leading figure of the Spanish lyrical genre.

Another of her preferred genres was Viennese operetta; she stood out in the lead role—which she performed like few others—of La viuda alegre, by Léhar. Also during those years she ventured, though less frequently, into Cuban zarzuela, performing in Cecilia Valdés, by maestro Gonzalo Roig, in the role of Isabel Ilincheta; in Lola Cruz, by Ernesto Lecuona, as the Damsel, and premiered in 1944 La Plaza de la Catedral, also by Ernesto Lecuona.

Musical comedy, a genre that would be very much in line with her stage personality, she found in 1943, with the premiere of the first work of its kind written in Cuba: Vivimos hoy, by Mª J. Casanova and O. de Blanck. That same year she also took on her first dramatic role: Doña Inés in Zorrilla's Don Juan Tenorio, presented at the National Theater.

She was hired the following season by actor Mario Martínez Casado, and during several months she developed a successful season at the Principal de la Comedia theater, premiering, among others, the piece Morena Clara, by Guillén and Quintero, one of her favorites.

In Mexico, where she arrived at the hand of Mario Moreno "Cantinflas" in 1943, the artist married Mexican actor Manuel Medel, father of Rosa María, her only daughter. After the relationship ended, the vedette returned to Havana in 1952, where in time she married actor Armando Bianchi, from whom she was widowed in 1981.

Between 1945 and 1951 she toured several Spanish-speaking countries in companies of musical revues, zarzuelas, and operettas. In Mexico she made films and performed in the theaters Arbeu, Tívoli, Lírico, and Fábregas in Mexico City, and in the Degollados in Guadalajara, alongside Libertad Lamarque, Pedro Vargas, Hugo del Carrill, Carmen Montejo, Mario Moreno Cantinflas, and Jorge Negrete, among others. She was proclaimed First vedette of Mexico in 1947 and First vedette of America between 1949 and 1950.

She performed in several cities in the western United States in 1949; the following year, at the Latino theater in New York and also in Venezuela.

Back in Cuba, she organized a brief but successful season of operettas at the Martí theater, alongside Miguel de Grandy and Antonio Palacios, former collaborators of hers.

She made her television debut—a recently inaugurated medium in the country—starring with Mario Martínez Casado, another former stage partner, in the revue La Corona (1952) and the program Mi esposo favorito.

In 1956 she returned to Mexico City for a new two-year season, worked again alongside Libertad Lamarque and Pedro Vargas, and helped inaugurate Aztec television.

Her career achieved international projection with performances in Spain and Mexico, where she was part of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema with the films Deseo, Del can can al mambo, Cara sucia, and Se Acabaron las mujeres, not counting the co-productions with Cuba Tintán in Havana, No me olvides nunca, and Hotel Tropical.

Together with Bianchi she performed seasons in Spain at the Cómico Theater in Barcelona, the Madrid Theater, and the Alcázar Theater between 1957 and 1959.

In Spain, she performed at the Calderón Theater in Madrid in various musical revues and was chosen Best vedette of 1958.

The following year she decided to return to her country and canceled her foreign commitments. Between 1961 and 1962 she starred in a popular season of zarzuelas and operettas at the Payret and García Lorca theaters (formerly National), with the works La verbena de la Paloma, La revoltosa, and La viuda alegre, three significant titles from her extensive repertoire.

In September 1962 she participated in the founding of the National Lyrical Theater of Cuba and starred in the group's first production, Luisa Fernanda, premiered the following year at the García Lorca theater. This was followed by a revival of La viuda alegre and new productions of María la O—in which she sang the scene "Ronda del amor"—, La princesa de las czardas, and El conde de Luxemburgo.

In 1966 she toured the former Soviet Union (which she would return to in 1972), Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.

In Cuba she performed in nightclubs (Tropicana, Internacional de Varadero) and worked tirelessly for Cuban television performing dramas, comedies, and lyrical theater in the programs Teatro ICR, La Comedia del Domingo, Viernes de Gala, and numerous variety shows.

Notable is the vitality maintained by this actress, after such a long period of distinguished uninterrupted work in the forefront of Cuban cultural life. Throughout her very long career the vedette alternated with figures as prestigious as Ernesto Lecuona, Libertad Lamarque, Sarita Montiel, and Alfonso Arau.

In the 1980s she returned to dramatic theater, with new pieces conceived for her by renowned Cuban authors. She premiered the comedy La permuta, by Juan Carlos Tabío, in 1980, with the Bertolt Brecht Political Theater. She worked for the Teatro Irrumpe group in the work La canción de Rachel, a version of the novel of the same name by Miguel Barnet, created and directed by Roberto Blanco in 1982. She premiered, in the Covarrubias room of the National Theater of Cuba, Confesión en el barrio chino, by Nicolás Dorr, in 1984; the American musical Hello Dolly, directed by Octavio Cortázar, in 1985; the Cuban musical Vivir en Santa Fe, by Nicolás Dorr, with music by Juan Formell, in 1986, and the piece Para matar a Carmen, by José Milián, in 1990.

She gave numerous concert performances centered on her figure and designed for her to shine, at the Carlos Marx theater and other major Cuban venues: La Fornés tridimensional (1977), La Fornés en el musical (1979), Rosita en concierto (1981), De que gusta, gusta (1984); Ser artista (1987), Vedettísima (1989). In one of her most recent tours, undertaken in 2003, she traveled through all Cuban provinces.

Rosa Fornés' career has filled her admirers with enthusiasm. As recognition of appreciation for her sustained work, this artist has received a great number of trophies and titles. The Cuban State and its cultural institutions have honored her with the Félix Varela Order in 1995, and the national prizes for Theater in 2000, Television in 2003, and Music in 2005.

In April 2019 Rosita received a great tribute for her eight decades of career at the García Lorca room of the Gran Teatro de La Habana Alicia Alonso. During the performance, there was a tour through key pieces of her repertoire, such as El Pichi from the musical revue Las Leandras. Greetings from important figures such as Cuban composer Meme Solís, resident in New York and one of her close friends, were also shown. Her last performance took place at the Miami Dade-County Auditorium in October of that same year, during the gala celebrating the 60th anniversary of Solís' career.

Besides her daughter, her two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, Fornés is survived by her two siblings.

Filmography.

1939 Una aventura peligrosa (Cuba)

1941 Romance musical (Cuba)

1945 El deseo (Mexico)

1946 Se acabaron las mujeres (Mexico)

1947 La carne manda (Mexico)

1948 Cara sucia (Mexico)

1951 Mujeres de teatro (Mexico) Del can can al mambo (Mexico)

1953 Hotel Tropical o Me gustan todas (Mexico-Cuba) Piel canela (Mexico-Spain) El mariachi desconocido o Tin Tan en La Habana (Mexico-Cuba)

1956 No me olvides nunca (Mexico-Cuba)

1983 Se permuta (Cuba)

1986 Plácido (Cuba)

1987 Hoy como ayer (special performance. Cuba-Mexico)

1989 Papeles secundarios (Cuba)

1995 Quiéreme y verás (Cuba) Divas por amor (documentary, Cuba)

1996 Rosita Fornés, mis tres vidas (documentary, Cuba)

2001 Las noches de Constantinopla (Cuba) Al atardecer (Cuba)