The Most Enigmatic Actress of Latin America

María Félix was, and continues, to be one of the greatest movie stars of the golden era of cinema in Mexico. She was discovered in Mexico City when walking down the street by a movie director Fernando Palacios. Directors, actors, politicians, musicians, painters, and her beloved fans were mesmerized by her. She became the first prominent woman, back in the 1940s, to challenge the established image of the servant and submissive women of that time. With her strong and fierce personality, she inspired many women around the world, only choosing movie roles that represented strong and almost defiant women.

CHILDHOOD

María de Los Ángeles Félix Güereña, also known as María Félix, was born in Alamos Sonora, Mexico on April 8th, 1914. She was the daughter of Bernardo Félix Flores and Josefina Güereña Rosas; her father was a well-known politician and military member in their state and her mother was a housewife and home keeper of the family. María belonged to a numerous family of eleven siblings in total.

During her early years of life, she had already shown signs of her very strong and unique personality. She used to say that as a kid she enjoyed the most being with her brothers rather than with her sisters because she could feel more related to them (she would later say when she was already a star, that she had the “heart of a man”); she used to ride horses with her beloved brother Pablo, with whom she was the closest.

This closeness resulted in scandalous assumptions made by her parents, who thought the brother and sister were falling in love. And well, it was not a secret that María made it really clear numerous times during her lifetime that she saw ‘the ideal man’ in her brother: masculine, strong, handsome, and protective of her.

Her parents decided to sent Pablo Güereña away, to a military institution in order to prevent any possible incident or close encounter at home with María. This was a really sad moment for her, given that he was the one who understood and listened to what she was going through at any time and he was the one she had the most fun with amongst all of her siblings. But something tragic happened, something that would change her forever: Pablo died during his stay in the institution.

Many rumors were said including that he had committed suicide, but María never believed this statement and she knew that Pablo had been murdered by being shot on his back. After the incident, María confessed that her heart grew cold and she became fearless to live.

“I always looked for his image in another man that looked like him. When my parents found out they decided to put him into the military school. And there, after a little while, he was found dead”.

STARLET

She was popular because of her natural beauty ever since she was a child. When she was still a student, she was proclaimed “Queen of Beauty” in the Universidad de Guadalajara, chosen by her peers and classmates in 1930. It was clear that she was destined to shine from the start.

She got married at just seventeen to Enrique Álvarez Alatorre in January 1931. It was in this marriage that after 3 years she had her first child, a baby boy who she named Enrique Álvarez Félix, but four years later she decided to divorce and she moved to Mexico City.

While she was walking down the street Fernando Palacios, a movie director asked her if she was interested in acting. After some insisting, she accepted. It was the place where she was discovered. 

She got the starring role in her first movie “El Peñón de las Ánimas” in 1942, with another really famous actor at the time, Jorge Negrete, with whom she would get married ten years later. The movie was a success and the rest is history.

María starred in numerous movies from 1942 to 1951 and continued to appear in many T.V. shows for the rest of her life. She made movies in France, and she owned a home in Paris, that’s where she would keep coming back after spending time in Mexico every year.

FIERCE AND MYSTERIOUS SOUL

She was known and remembered the most because of her unique and strong personality. People either loved or hated her; in her own words, all she ever did was to keep her dignity and self-love as the true leaders of her life and choices. She would impersonate herself in movies, always expecting great offers and roles that dignified her.

When asked by Hollywood to be part of a movie starring as a “maid”, María turned down the offer by saying that while working abroad her movie roles had to be impersonating nothing less than the “royalty”.

The French composer Frances Cabrel fell for her as well and wrote “Je l’aime à mourir” the now-classic french song covered by many artists for a long time. Agustín Lara honored her with his “María Bonita”. Diego Rivera the emblematic Mexican painter was obsessed with her, proposing to marry her numerous times, each one in vain and he even gave her a painting of herself where she could be seen half-naked, as a gift.

Listen to “Je l’aime à mourir” by clicking here.

Many unauthorized biographies were written about her and it was until 1993 when she finally came together with the Mexican historian Enrique Krauze and together they wrote her final truth, the biography was called “María Félix: Todas Mis Guerras”, which is translated to “María Félix: All Of My Wars”. It is in this biography where we can find the answers to some of the most mysterious questions about the life of the actress and her unique life.

María had to endure the passing away of all of her husbands, and her only child Enrique. Those were the hardest moments of her life, but she still kept her lively personality and willingness to live and enjoy the present. She passed away on the same day as her birthday: April 8th, 2002 in Mexico City.

She will always be remembered by the many artists and people all around the world that she inspired with her words, her movies, her personality, and her life; she’s definitely the most enigmatic actress of Latin America and forever will be.

Sources consulted:

María Félix: Un Siglo de “La Doña” | Chicago Tribune

Los Amores de María Félix | Martha Debayle

María Félix, la cara más bella de la Época de Oro del cine mexicano | El País

María Félix: La vida e historia de una de las actrices mexicanas más famosas | VOGUE México