Teresa María Rojas

Teresa María Rojas is a Cuban writer, educator, director, and actress.​ She has ventured into the worlds of telenovelas and cinema. Her work in theater has been widely recognized in Cuba, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela, United States, and Spain.

Teresa María was orphaned by her mother at an early age due to her death from tuberculosis. Today the actress has two children, two grandchildren, a lovely daughter-in-law, and a beloved little dog.

She graduated from the University of Havana in 1957 and studied theater at Sala Prometeo in Havana with Francisco Morín. She began at the University Theater and almost immediately jumped to television.

She left Cuba via Brazil on the eve of Christmas 1960. But when the plane stopped in Caracas, she decided to stay in Venezuela, a country that welcomed her with open arms and where she was able to work in television, until she settled in Miami in 1962. She has never returned to the island.

Rojas began working as a theater and acting professor at Miami Dade College (MDC, also formerly known as Miami Dade Community College) in 1972. In 1985, Rojas founded the Prometeo Theatre, a bilingual theater group at MDC, serving as its artistic director. More than four hundred students worked in Prometeo Theatre each year.

In recognition of her teaching, she has been awarded three professorships. One of her former students, Nilo Cruz, wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning play in the drama category, Anna in the Tropics. Rojas acted in the play when she returned to Miami following its Broadway debut.

About her arrival in Miami, Teresa María has said: "Back then, admirable things were being done. I participated in one or another play; I recorded two or three radio novels in a studio that was, precisely, at the top of the Freedom Tower. Along with other Cuban artists, we were beginning this long journey. With Griselda Nogueras, inside an old garage, we began to teach. From there I moved to the classrooms of Miami Dade College, and that's where Prometeo was born".​

She has produced, directed, and acted in more than 90 plays as the artistic director of the group.​ In 1981 she acted in the role of Luz Marina Romaguera in the play Aire frío by Cuban writer Virgilio Piñera, directed by Eduardo Corbé.​

Awards and Recognition
At the XXVII International Hispanic Theater Festival she was honored with the well-deserved laurel "Life Dedicated to the Performing Arts"«2​» (2012)
Baco Award for her artistic trajectory, at the first edition of the Local Theater Festival TEMFest (2010)
Professor Emerita of Miami Dade College.
Plays in which she has acted
Moon Bath by Nilo Cruz, Martina (2017). With this play she announced her farewell to the stage [1]
Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, Ofelia (2005)2​
Electra Garrigó (1987)
Mimi and Fifi in the Orinoco. Mimi (1986)
The Sacred Monsters by Jean Cocteau. Esther (1983-84)
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche (1982)
Aire frío by Virgilio Piñera, Luz Marina Romaguera (1982)2​
The Enchanting Bliss Family, Judy, The Mother (1977)
Paper Flowers, Eva (1975)
Fifth Heaven to the Right, Wife (1974)
Barefoot in the Park by Neil Simon, Jane (1974)
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, Laura (1973)
Doña Diabla, Cándida, (1972)
Bus Stop and High Politics, by William Inge (1969)
The Living Flame, by John Steinbeck
Crime on Goat Island, by Ugo Betti
Antigone, by Jean Anouilh, Antigone
Represented Cuba during the First Ibero-American Theater Festival (1958).
Hay Fever by Noël Coward, Judy
Filmography
(2014) Criminal Deranged (television series) Osiris Sandoval
(2006) With Two Heels (television series)
Whatever Has to Be...
The Commissioner (television series)
Better Not to Know
Taste of Betrayal
(2002) Welcome to America
(1996) Bitter Sugar
(1990) The Tycoon (television series)
(1989) Cat Chaser
Nightmare Beach
(1986) Charley Hannah (TV movie)
Invasion U.S.A.
(1961) Five Destinies (television series)
The Failed One (television series)

Publications
Signal in the Water (1968) (Poetry)​
Root in the Desert (1971) (Poetry)
The House of Water (1977) (Poetry)
Dark Field (1979) (Poetry)
Burning Chapel (1981) (Poetry)6
Well of Thirst (2004) (Poetry)
The Nearby Days (2013) Eriginal Books, (Poetry)

"When they ask me what my greatest contribution to Miami's theater movement has been, they put me on the spot. However, to be fair, I would say that I am the one who has received the contributions from people like Dr. Padrón, Dr. Mercy Quiroga, the students, my loved ones, and the people on the street," she confessed.

"Teresa has left us an immeasurable educational legacy. She did not settle for being a first lady of theater." "Teresa María is muse and poetry. Her legacy is inscribed in indelible characters at Miami Dade College," said Eduardo J. Padrón, president of MDC.