María Elena Velasco
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María Elena Velasco, better known as La India María (born 1940) is a famous Mexican actress and comedian, and one of Mexico's few major female film directors. Not much about India María's private life has been open to the public's eye; she prefers to be seen by the public as the character she usually plays in her movies: that of a countryside Indian who tries to make the most with what she has.
India María has said publicly that she wants to represent Mexico's poor social classes, and she has tried to carry out social messages in most of the movies she has made. The character she portrays is a typical southwestern Mexican Indian (her characters usually say they are from the State of Guanajuato), dressed in traditional garb consisting of traditionally braided and ribboned hair, colorful native-type blouses and skirts. In her films, she often goes out of her way to speak at least a few lines in native languages, such as Chichimecan, Zapotecan or Nahuatlan.
Velasco invented the India María character in 1972 for Mexican TV network Telesistema Mexicano (now Televisa) for a comic segment of the weekly program Siempre en domingo. It quickly became a hit and in the same year, Velasco began starring in an enormously successful series of low budget comedies that became a mainstay in Mexican movie theaters through the mid 1980s.
[edit] Filmography
India María has starred in approximately 20 movies in Mexico, and a number of television series. Among her most important movies are "Ay Madrecita" ("Oh, Little Mother"), 1972, "Sor Tequila" ("Sister Tequila"), 1973, "¡El que no corre...vuela!" ("He who doesn't run, flies"), and "La Presidenta Municipal" ("The female mayor"). As her career advanced, she began collaborating not only as actress, but also as director of such films as Ni Chana, ni Juana ("Neither Chana nor Juana") and Ni de aquí, ni de allá ("Neither from here nor there"), and also as a screenwriter. She received an Ariel Award in 2004 for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film Huapango (a film not of the India María series).
