User:Arletis/sandbox

= Maria de los Angeles Santana =

María de los Ángeles Santana Soravilla. She was an actress, singer, and Cuban vedette, with an extensive and recognized artistic career. She was a representative figure in theater, film, radio, and television. She never dissociated herself from the Cuban scene: her leading role in Amparo in Nicolás Dorr's Una Casa Colonial provided her with extensive contact with the young audience. She has been one of the most beloved actresses by the Cuban public. She left her mark on the theaters in pieces such as: Un sorbo de miel, Algo no dicho, La verbena de la paloma, Tía Meim y Una casa colonial.

Biography
She was born on August 2, 1914, in Havana. She began her musical training within the family and later studied singing with Juan Elósegui and José Ojeda. Her mother started her in the study of music and, in her youth, she received guitar lessons from maestro González Rubiera, Guyún.

In 1930 she made her film debut and six years later, as a soprano, at the National Theater, under Ernesto Lecuona's direction. He introduced her to some of his most famous musical creations. At the age of 24 (1938), she worked on her first film, "Sucedió en La Habana," in which Santana was the rookie in Rita Montaner's group Alicia Rico and Candita Quintana. In 1942 she met Julio Vega at the farm of Miguel Gabriel, one of the owners of the first CMQ, and a year later, they got married.

Between 1943 and 1945, she made her first trip to Mexico and performed at the Lyric Theater, filmed two films, and shared the stage with Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante, and Mario Moreno (Cantinflas). She was praised for her versatility and stage projection and traveled to the United States, debuting in theaters and concerts.

In 1948 she returned to Cuba, where she performed at the Payret Theater performing zarzuelas, operettas, and operas from the Spanish repertoire. She traveled to Spain in 1951 and joined the Opera Company directed by Manuel Poza, with which she premiered the Tentación Magazine that shocked the Spanish public during the four years that it was on the billboard.

She traveled to Paris, invited by Manuel de Molina to perform at the Olimpia Theater in various shows. She alternated with famous artistic personalities: Josephine Baker, Maurice Chevalier, and María Félix. When she returned to Cuba in 1958, she performed on television and gave recitals and concerts; she filmed movies with Rita Montaner and did comedy seasons with Mario Martínez Casado.

She was the founder of Cuban television, in which she acted and sang in musical programs, series, novels, and humorous programs. Remigia, her character from the program San Nicolás del Peladero, was very celebrated for the torrent of humor that she unleashed, where she worked for 24 uninterrupted years.

She never disassociated herself from the Cuban scene: her leading role as Amparo in Una Casa Colonial by Nicolás Dorr provided her with extensive contact with young audiences. She has been one of the most beloved actresses by the Cuban public. She left her mark on theaters in pieces such as Un sorbo de miel, Algo no dicho, La verbena de la paloma, Tía Meim y Una casa colonial.

She died in Havana on February 7, 2011, at the age of 96.

Career
Her professional beginnings took place in Cuban cinematography. In 1938 she appeared in the films Sucedió en La Habana and El romance del palmar, directed by Ramón Peón García, and the following year she appeared in Mi tía de América, Estampas habaneras and Cancionero cubano, directed by Jaime Salvador. At the same time, she received acting classes with Guillermo de Mancha at the School of Declamation of Cuban Films. Maestro Ernesto Lecuona attracted her to her famous Cuban music concerts, where she premiered Te vas Juventud 's song. These and similar performances opened the radio doors for the fledgling star.

Radio
In 1940 when she appeared on the CMQ radio station. She perfected her vocal technique with teachers Lalo Elósegui and José Ojeda on Lecuona's recommendation in those years. In that year, she traveled to Mexico with Eliseo Grenet, hired, for seven years, by a company of comedies and musical magazines. Back in Cuba in January 1946, she appeared on the radio again and in various stage shows.

Theater
In February 1949, on the same stage, she joined the cast of the company Teatro Cubano Libre, led by Carlos Robreño and Rodrigo Prats. In November of that year, Mario Martínez Casado presented her in his triumphant French vaudeville season at the Principal de la Comedia theater. The Spanish businessman Manolo Paso, director of a magazine company operating in Havana in those days, attended the functions and offered the actress an advantageous contract. On February 9, 1950, the Santana made its noisy debut at the Madrid theater in the Spanish capital, starring in the magazine Tentación, by Antonio and Manuel Paso, with Daniel Montorio's music, which reached 2,800 and seventy-four performances. She also took part in the revival of Eres un sol by the same authors, and in November 1952, she premiered Conquístame, which remained on the bill for more than a thousand performances. During the three years of her stay in the Peninsula, the Creole actress toured several Spanish cities with these pieces.

After acting for the first time as a dramatic actress on stage, she centralized in the Martí theater the cast of the season of Garrido y Piñero, directed by Agustín Rodríguez, recognized by her as one of her trainers. There she debuted in La Habana nocturna, by Rodríguez himself, with music by Gonzalo Roig. Also, for several months she premiered numerous titles by Carlos Robreño and Francisco Meluzá Otero.

A few months after the end of that season, La Santana centralized the revival, after many years, of La Isla de las cotorras, by Villoch and Ackermann, directed by Francisco Morín, at the Amadeo Roldán Theater, during the I Festival of Cuban Popular Music. At that time also corresponds her fruitful collaboration with the playwright Rubén Vigón, who hired her to present in his Arlequín room the works Las mujeres se rebelan (June 1962); Un sorbo de miel (March 1963); Las cuatro verdades (August 1963), La más fuerte and Algo no dicho  (February 1964); Sara en el traspatio (May 1964) and La mamma (October 1964).

Television
On December 19, 1963, the costumbrista program Ritmos de Cuba began to be broadcast on channel 6 of Cuban Television, with a script by Carballido Rey, directed by Joaquín M. Condall and animation by Consuelo Vidal and Germán Pinelli.

The main characters of Plutarco, mayor of the imaginary town of San Nicolás del Peladero, and his wife, Mayor Remigia, who masterfully embodied Enrique Santiesteban and María de los Ángeles Santana, date from that time. This program, which soon after changed its name to San Nicolás del Peladero, remained in the public's preference for twenty years: its last broadcast took place on December 26, 1983. In those years, Santana shared his weekly appearances in San Nicolás with other television and theater work.

Among them, the telenovela La peña del león, by Maité Vera; her dynamic performance in the American musical Tía Meim (Spanish version of Auntie Mame, by P. Dennos, performed by Nelson Dorr, also director, and Abelardo Estorino) at the Musical Theater of Havana in June 1970, and the premiere of the comedy Una casa colonial, conceived for her by the playwright Nicolás Dorr, in the Covarrubias room of the National Theater, in August 1981. The following year Una casa colonial was filmed for television, under the direction of Miguel Torres. In November 1982, Nelson Dorr brought together La Santana and Santiesteban's strong stage personalities in Comedia a la Antigua by the Russian Arbúzov, presented at the Mella theater.

Despite so many years of intense work and a broken hip, the actress's activity did not stop. In June 1987, she played a supporting role in the zarzuela María la O, adapted especially for her by Dorr, and in 1989 she made her third trip to Spain to present this work in Madrid. During the performances, she was recognized and acclaimed by the public, who still remembered her previous visits. At that time she collaborated with the Plaza Vieja group, directed by Huberto Llamas, in the staging of Andoba, Santa Camila de La Habana Vieja and Las Yaguas. But it is to Nelson Dorr that the actress owes her best stage performances of this last stage.

Dorr wrote to her A toda Prueba (1993), inspired by her long conjugal existence with Julio Vega, who participated in the performances held in Havana, Santiago de Cuba, Matanzas, and Cienfuegos. The following year he selected her for his interpretation of Ocaña, infinite fire, by Andrés Ruiz, in the Avellaneda room of the National Theater of Cuba, and in 1999 she dedicated Vivir con mama’, premiered at the Mella theater. Her television work from that stage is no less important. In 1988 the serial Los abuelos se rebelan appeared, with a script by Hernández Savio and directed by Maritza Rodríguez. She acted alongside another of her usual stage companions, the actor Armando Soler.

Between 1990 and 1995 she recorded for the small screen the telenovelas Prefiero las rosas and Entre mamparas. Her great versatility and charisma, mastery of the scene, gesture, and diction have consistently earned this artist the respect and sympathy of her entire audience. In 1996 she received the Félix Varela Order. Later, the Ministry of Culture distinguished her with the 2001 National Theater Awards, together with Rosa Fornés; de Televisión, 2003 and Humor, 2005, shared with Armando Soler.

Filmography
•   Sucedió en La Habana. Romance del palmar, 1938 Dir. Ramón Peón

•  Asesinato en los estudios 1939 (México). Dir. Raphael J. Sevilla.

•  La última melodía, Cancionero cubano, Mi tía de América. Dir. Jaime Salvador.

•  Conga bar (México) 1944. Dir. Agustín P. Delgado.

•  La culpable. Dir. José Díaz Morales.

•  Una casa colonial 1984. Dir. Miguel Torres.

•   La vida en rosa 1989. Dir. Rolando Díaz.

•  La casa de Bernarda Alba 1999. Dir. Belkis Vega.

Awards and Honors
•  Three Sunflowers of Popularity and that of Special Glass awarded by the Opina Magazine.

•   Caricato special prize, awarded by the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

•   National Theater Award 2001, Television 2003, and Humor 2005.

•   Distinction for National Culture, awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.

•   Alejo Carpentier Medal awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba.

•   Felix Varela Order of the First Degree, granted by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba