Obituary — The word legend becomes small when it comes to paying tribute to Silvia Pinal, the legendary actress who died today in Mexico City at the age of 94. The actress, considered a film and television icon, died after suffering and facing several health complications that had worsened in recent hours.
And it is that when a woman who made so much history, lived so many lives, fulfilled so many dreams and suffered so many tragedies undertakes her final journey, language falls short and all that remains is to thank and remember to try to portray, probably in an imperfect and incomplete way, what that was his time on this planet.
Yes! Planet, because Silvia Pinal belongs not to one, but to several worlds. So many that neither the series about his life nor his own autobiography managed to tell them all.
Her book, which she titled “This is me,” begins with her mother, a 15-year-old teenager who on September 13, 1931 gave birth to a baby girl, the daughter of the rich and good-looking conductor Moisés Pasquel, who refused to know her until she was older. That dramatic beginning, which could have been taken from a classic soap opera, continued with little Silvia accompanying her mother to the store where she was a salesperson until she married politician Luis G. Pinal. From him he received his last name and from both, mother and adoptive father, discipline and work ethic.
Perhaps imagining the world of her biological father, or because blood calls, Silvia Pinal’s youthful dream was to be an opera singer. He also dreamed of leaving home and he achieved it. She was barely 16 years old when she married Rafael Banquells, an actor and director twice her age and whom she ended up supporting. Despite that, he controlled her “and I realized that it wasn’t so bad with my family,” the star recalled in her book.” The actress Sylvia Pasquel is a product of that union. Sylvita, as she is called in the family, adopted the surname Pasquel in her stage name to underline the never admitted connection with her maternal grandfather.
Bel Canto resisted her, but her passion for the arts took her first to the theater and then to the flourishing film sector that was experiencing what we know today as the golden era of Mexican cinema.
In those times he shared posters with the greatest. From Pedro Infante – who tried a relationship with her with such determination that he even had his car stolen so that Silvia had no choice but to accept rides on her motorcycle – to Mario Moreno “Cantinflas”, passing by Germán Valdés, better known as “Tin Tán”, whom new generations will be able to better identify as brother of Don Ramón and uncle of Cristian Castro.
THE MUSE OF BUÑUEL
When she divorced Banquells, Silvia Pinal continued to shine and fall in love. The number of romances he revealed included the owner of Televisa Emilio “El Tigre” Azcárraga Milmo. Eventually, she married furniture magnate Gustavo Alatriste, whom she calls “The love of my life.” The story between them was as beautiful as it was sad, because their love ran out. Not before having had Viridiana Alatriste, Pinal’s second daughter, who died in a car accident when she was 18 years old. “Doña Silvia never recovered from Viridiana’s death. “She shared it with me herself,” Itatí Cantoral said when she was starring in the bioseries about Pinal’s life.
But long before that great tragedy, Alatriste became the producer of Silvia Pinal’s most internationally awarded films. These were “Viridiana” (1961) and “The Exterminating Angel” (1962) and “Simón del Desierto”, directed by the Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel. While the first received the “Palm d’Or” award, the highest European film award, which is awarded at the Cannes Festival, the second was defined by Buñuel himself as one of his most personal works. The relationship between the Alatriste/Pinal and Buñuel families was such that the filmmaker and his wife were the godparents of the girl Viridiana and remained united until his death in 1983.
THE ULTIMATE SUCCESS AND THE ABUSE
After her European work, Silvia Pinal returned to Mexican productions and even worked with Ricardo Montalbán, who later moved to Los Angeles and succeeded in Hollywood. The Diva was flooded with proposals, but after one attempt she gave up. “My English is horrible,” he admitted. So much so that in that movie called “Shark” his voice was completely dubbed. He starred in it with Burt Reynolds, one of the great leading men of the 1960s. At that time he also worked in Italian and Argentine productions.
During those years Pinal went from star to businesswoman in the entertainment industry, financing and producing musicals and comedies in the theater. In addition, she set up an Avon-type cosmetics company, which eventually ended up closing because it had grown too large to be managed alone.
Although she had promised herself not to remarry, a young man fell in love with her and insisted so much that he managed to win her over. It was the pop star of the moment: Enrique Guzmán. The couple married in 1967 and had two children: Alejandra and Luis Enrique.
The union came to television in the format of a variety show hosted by Pinal and Guzmán, but while on screen everything was honey, in private it was pure bitterness. His jealousy became obsessive and his reaction was often violent. One of the most desired women in Mexico was being physically abused by her husband without anyone knowing. In the series about her life, the star revealed that her then-husband even raped her.
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, because all abused women feel trapped, it was not until she discovered him being unfaithful that she made the decision to leave him and after a very hard-fought divorce she managed to get rid of him.
THE HOUSE OF PEDREGAL, WOMEN AND POLITICS
The house that is seen at the family gatherings of the Pinal dynasty is the one that the artist built on land in the Jardínes del Pedregal neighborhood, in the southern area of Mexico City. The purchase was recommended to him by his father and there he built the mansion of his dreams. She lived almost her entire adult life there, with the exception of the epic in which she was the first lady of the state of Tlaxcala and the nine months she spent in Miami, while an arrest warrant was pending against her, for alleged embezzlement of funds. of the Association of Artists of Mexico. Eventually, the situation was cleared up and the charges were dropped.
In that mansion are the portraits that Latin American masters of painting such as the Mexican Diego Rivera and the Ecuadorian Oswaldo Guayasamín made of him. Also the great gifts he has received throughout his life. There he also meets his children, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The famous Frida Sofía and Stephanie Salas are her granddaughters. Michelle Salas, daughter of Luis Miguel, is his great-granddaughter.
Despite her bad luck in love, including a boyfriend she lost to her own daughter Silvita – other romances included actor Omar Sharif and hotel businessman Conrad “Nicky” Hilton (Elizabeth Taylor’s first husband and great-uncle of Paris Hilton) – Silvia Pinal continued to believe in love.
In 1983 she married for the fourth and last time with the politician Julio Hernández Gómez, then governor of Tlaxcala. After her divorce, Pinal was bitten by the political bug and after winning the elections she became a representative, a position she held for four years.
THE SILVIA OF TV AND THE FAMILY
The good generations knew Silvia Pinal thanks to her multiple appearances on television. The project she is “most proud of” is “Women, real life stories,” which she produced for 15 years, telling many of the stories her fans told her and that she experienced herself.
However, his record on the small screen was almost as prestigious as that of cinema. His first telenovela was “Los caudillos”, which in 1968 told the story of the historical leaders of Mexico. Among those that she produced herself, “Tomorrow is Spring” and “Eclipse” stand out. In fact, his last job was in a soap opera: “My husband has more family” in 2018.
“My mom can’t stop working. As soon as he left the hospital he started to see what new projects he could do. “She continues to learn the scripts by heart, she is the hardest working woman I have ever met,” said Alejandra Guzmán in an interview, shortly after the artist left the hospital in 2020 after falling and breaking her hip.
Furthermore, she has been the only one in the family who has remained calm in the face of the great family crisis that Frida Sofía unleashed and the only one who has not gotten involved. In fact, grandmother Silvia has said that she identifies with her. Regarding her other public life granddaughter Stephanie, Silvia Pinal has limited herself to supporting her, even when at 15 she became pregnant with Sol de México. He even went so far as to say that he was happy that Luis Miguel was the father “because the baby was going to be very beautiful.” Needless to say, he was right.
The last great Mexican diva has been loyal to her friends, a defender to the death of her children and a lover of her audience.
His death leaves a great void among his loved ones, his fans and in the world of Mexican, Latin American and global entertainment. Thank you for everything Silvia Pinal.
Alicia Civita worked as a contributor for the Los Angeles Times en Español