Andrés Dueñas-Torres
Rosalía Palet Bonavía, our Rosita Fornés, first vedette of Cuba and America, belongs to the lineage of the great Cuban artists who, for their human values, in the first place, and professionals have transcended their time and generation, respected and admired by all of us who have had the privilege of knowing their art without peer, which is a very difficult task to condense in brief synthesis, without running the inevitable risk of repeating what many or almost everyone knows.
Beautiful woman of face and body, but especially in her soul, of exquisite sensitivity, Rosita was born on February 11, 1923 in New York, United States, Spanish progeny and art lover, and resided for several years in Mexico, where He had his greatest treasure: his only daughter, Rosa María Medel Palet, Chiquitina. But, as she herself has expressed on more than one occasion, she is authentically Cuban. In 1938, when she was only fifteen years old, she triumphed as a rising star in the Supreme Court of Art, a space of happy memory in the annals of the national radio, and, from that moment, her career took place in an unstoppable rise: theater, cinema, television, shows and music magazines.
He made his debut in Cuban cinema in 1939, in the feature film Una aventura peligroso, directed by Ramón Peón, which was only the beginning of a brilliant performance, which included the golden age of Mexican cinematography - in which he shared with his main figures. and, later, ours (how can we not remember, among other characters, his very own Gloria, in Se permuta, a character that he embroidered with gold threads, as he has accustomed us, and his Rosa, in secondary roles, in an acting duel of high carats with the late Spanish actor Juan Luis Galiardo?). In the theater, in which he debuted in 1940, with the zarzuela El amaro de Damasco, he cultivated with great success ─the hand of renowned directors such as Antonio Palacios, his artistic father, and sharing the scene with the best of Cuban theater art. ─ diverse genres such as zarzuela, operetta, musical comedy, drama. Suffice it to mention, among many other titles, The Chaste Susana, The Merry Widow (her Ana de Glavary is, truly, classical and, therefore, a memorable reference in the Cuban scene), Hello, Dolly !, La Fornés three-dimensional, La Fornés en the Musical, Being an artist, Vedetima and Confessions in the Chinatown. In television, popular means of communication par excellence, its presence ─for that angel of the authentic artists─ was essential since the 50s of the last century, in dramatic, comedy and musical spaces, hand in hand with the most demanding directors. Some examples: My favorite husband (in a duet of high artistic carat with whom he was, for many years, his partner in art and life, the first actor Armando Bianchi), Casino de la Alegría, Jueves de Partagás, La comedia Sunday, Suddenly on TV, Appointment with Rosita, ICR Theater (in the latter, in multiple works, among which are The Wolf, The Tattooed Rose and Filomena Marturano).
The versatility and high quality of its art, together with its beauty, glamor and exquisite taste, have not been for the enjoyment of only us Cubans. In addition to Mexico -some as well as her second homeland, where she developed a very important part of her theatrical and cinematographic career-, she is known in Spain (the land of her ancestors), and in the member countries of the former Euro-Eastern socialist community and states. United, particularly in Miami and New York. For her unquestionable artistic merits, throughout her more than eighty years of artistic life she has been credited with the bestowal of numerous national and foreign decorations, among which we can mention the Distinction for National Culture, the Felix Varela Order, the Alejo Medal Carpentier, the National Theater, Television and Music Awards, the condition of Merit Artist of Cuban Radio and Television and the ACTUAR Award, for the work of life.
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