Breathe
By Claudia Pérez Atamoros
The end. With point...?
The origins of Rosa Castro Hernandez continue to be on the edge of truth and ...lies. Because with Rosa Castro, nothing is true, nothing is a lie, everything depends on the version that is told. Not so her trajectory as an actress and journalist in Mexico.
In the Rosa Castro woman, there will always remain the dilemma of her real origin in spite of the official documents found for this series, which is why I chose to show the Rosa Castro, a Venezuelan, who made her career as an actress and journalist in Mexico.
Rosa Castro, the daughter of the Venezuelan ex-dictator, took on an identity until 1975 when she obtained her identity card. When and how did she change her name from Cándida Rosa Hernández to Rosa Castro? According to a document found by Juan Bello, in 1915 when she leaves with her mother and sister to Cuba. How to clear reasonable doubt as to whether or not she is Castro's illegitimate daughter? Only through, perhaps, a DNA test... Lorenia Castro commented to me that when in doubt about her origins she had taken one, but at the time of the publication of this fourth and last part, the results did not arrive...
Several media in Venezuela have propagated the version that Rosa Castro and Lucila Mendez are one and the same. Confusion arose or increased because on April 6, 1946 the newspaper Últimas Noticias published an article in 8 columns, signed by a debutant reporter OSCAR YANES (sic), in which Rosa is attributed to have acted in Hollywood and to be a movie star in Mexico.
Putting an end to this sustained confusion that she is the pseudonym of the Venezuelan actress, naturalized American, Lucille Ince or Lucila Mendez, was very easy compared to the absolute mess that is and was her life until the end. I used facial recognition programs to corroborate that what I thought was true: Rosa Castro is not Lucila Mendez.
To tell the truth, Rosa Castro never obtained the title of star in Mexico. Her roles did not become leading roles although she participated in very important films for Mexican cinematography as an extra in Santa (released in 1932), starring Lupita Tovar; and, the last one, Vértigo (filmed in 1945), in which as a supporting actress, she played the character of Augusta, with María Félix and Lilia Michel.
Emilio García Riera, researcher, in the Historia Documental del Cine Mexicano only refers to her in his first three volumes -from nine, from 1932 to 1948- for a total of 10 films and does not mention any performance in the United States, Venezuela or any other country; neither does he mention the other actress, Lucila Méndez, although in this encyclopedia he dedicates space to those who act in Mexico, in the United States of America or in some other part of the world, being Hispanic-Americans.
"Too many unknowns for a pen and too many mistakes for a description..."
Marilú Acosta
In the article by Oscar Yanes, who would later become an important journalist and politician in Venezuela - addicted to saying "suck this tangerine" -he mentions that Rosa Castro filmed for Paramount and that there she met "an important Mexican film producer" who imported her to our country, facts that do not correspond to reality.
She met Alberto Manrique Páramo in the United States, who, exiled from Colombia, lived with his wife (and would do so until his death) in Mexico, but made constant trips to the United States to visit his mother, Soledad Páramo.
Artemisa Castro shared a photograph of the newspaper copy mentioned in which on the far left, in Rosa's own handwriting, is written: "...disparates aqui..."; this being, perhaps, the only time that Rosa Castro expressed her discomfort with the inaccuracies that were said about her.
Alberto Manrique Páramo, as already mentioned, was a journalist and publicist and had made important contacts and friendships in Mexico in film and journalism. He was almost 20 years ahead of her. They gave birth to Alberto, who was born in May 1927 in the state of New York and died, at the age of 45, victim of leukemia, in 1972, in the former Mexico City.
This was a hard blow for her and another blow to her fragile physical and mental health. Her firstborn died the following month when Excélsior published, in Section B, what until now is the only interview granted by Rosa Castro and which, as a curious fact, only revolves around her journalistic trajectory and which was granted in the framework of the First Exhibition of Women's Journalism in Mexico.
In 1930 her second son Edmundo was born, who would see her through to the end. Upon express question, once I obtained the original birth certificate and found Edmundo's baptismal certificate, they denied that they were real or that both documents corresponded to their father and grandmother. They assured that Rosa was not religious and it was impossible for her to have baptized a son. These papers transcended history and today they tell us a parallel story since according to Lorenia, they have a birth certificate of their father where he appears as Edmundo Castro Hernandez.
The "talking paper" thing doesn't seem to work in this story.
For this journalistic work I located in the Civil Registry of Arcos de Belen, a birth certificate of Edmundo in which he appears registered with the surnames Manrique and Castro, born on January 9, 1930, the general information of the parents, including their professions in addition to the original certificate, in handwriting obtained in the page of Ancestry after a thorough search in which the lineage of both appears; As well as their baptismal certificate, in a church in Colonia Roma, where Rosa Castro de Manrique declares that Edmundo is a natural son. That is to say that in that ecclesiastical document she uses the name De Manrique but she says she is a single mother and signs as a witness Luis Manrique who a couple of years later and for decades will be one of the most important film producers of our country and whom I confess, I did not trace but I suppose that the surname is more than a mere coincidence.
By the way, in the civil document, Rosa Castro claims to be the daughter of Vicente Castro and Domitila Hernández... while in the marriage certificate of her first child, her parents are Alberto Castro (deceased) and Rosa Hernández... Could it be melon, could it be watermelon?
I shared the above information with genealogist Juan Bello with whom we were able to obtain other information and he accompanied me on this journey in search of the origins of Rosa Castro Hernandez, not Martinez as so many media outlets insist on calling her.
In fact, the Rosa Castro that the books on cinema in her homeland refer to the film made in Venezuela (1924) The Creeperoriginal by Rómulo Gallegos. If it were the same Rosa, she would have just come of age. Unfortunately it is not possible to prove that it is her, since only two copies of that film were made, which have disappeared today.
Rosa Castro with her beauty, certainly, illuminated the sets of the national cinematography as a supporting actress. A support that she herself never obtained for her own life.
"People always leave footprints. No person is exempt from a shadow."
Henning Mankell
However, today, thanks to those years and those confusions woven around her, she, the actress, the journalist and the woman, flourishes with the intensity of the 21st century -thirty years after her death-, when we have almost all reached a wider, freer and more egalitarian port.
To the port of authentic recognition, not myth. In Rosa's case, justice and truth, at least in her journalistic work.
Today we know who Rosa Castro is, the reporter whom Elenita Poniatowska, survivor of those golden years with those masters of journalism, mentions and with whom she shares awards recognizing her courage.
As published in the first part of this series, Rosa Castro died in Cuernavaca, Morelos on November 1, 1994 according to the death certificate I was able to obtain thanks to the help of @Ele caricaturist.
Artemisa and Lorenia, her granddaughters, remember well that she passed away in a nursing home, although they do not know the name of it. There, assisted and sheltered, they confirmed to me, she spent perhaps the last ten or twelve years of her life.
It was imperative that she reside in that place because, as the psychiatrist had said, -Rosa could not contain herself. -Rosa could not contain herself. Her mind was already playing tricks on her and her mood was volatile.
Entering her apartment in Colonia Juárez, they remember, was to enter a world of chaos, decorated with pictures, books and small pieces of paper pasted everywhere with reminders or meaningless information. There was no household worker or nurse that she did not run; she ate poorly and, to top it all off, a close relative began to "disappear valuable objects from her home", as the granddaughters confessed to me.
"She used to get too many pills," they recalled. Rosa Castro, alone, could no longer live. The roller coaster that had been her life until then, began to derail one by one the cars.
This investigation sought to clarify the truth and leave a record of Rosa Castro, the journalist who typed and typed on pages that became agate lines and notes of interest. About what she contributed to the history of women's journalism that remained forgotten.
"There is no memory no matter how intense that does not fade. And what a sadness but what a relief."
Juan Rulfo
Remembering her without confusion, without detracting from her or that "first Venezuelan actress in Hollywood", Lucila Méndez, of whom, by the way, Miguel Méndez Rodulfo, Venezuelan journalist and researcher, is a great-nephew and who also listened to my arguments, questioned them and acted as a spur to not take anything for granted, finally accepting that they were not the same. Despite this, doors and clues remain open and others will have to follow...
Rosa Castro was a mother, actress, and journalist, in that order, but without a doubt, the ink, the pages and the ploc ploc of her typewriter gave her reason to enjoy journalism to the fullest until the physical and mental demons won the battle...
Her machine stopped typing, but her voice echoes loudly in her own texts, in those written about her; in the mentions that are made and, above all, in the memory of women's journalism that cannot stop being told, despite the many unknowns surrounding these advanced women....
Colophon.
I thank my friend Guadalupe Calatayud for acting as liaison with Lorenia Castro.
To Juan Bello who for almost 6 months collaborated with me to understand documents and origins and who from the beginning supported my thesis that Rosa was not Lucila but a journalist. And who in a disinterested way found invaluable clues and put up with "vara" at all times.
To Miguel Méndez Rodulfo, who talked with me about Lucila and listened to my arguments, agreeing with me but never giving me a hard time, as the neat journalist that he is.
And especially to Artemisa Castro who provided me with valuable data.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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