Bianca Jagger
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Bianca Jagger (born Bianca Pérez-Mora Macías [1] on May 2, 1950 [2], in Managua, Nicaragua) is a social and human rights advocate and a former actress. Jagger is a Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador, Chair of the World Future Council, Chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, and a member of the Director's Leadership Council of Amnesty International US. [2]
She was formerly married to Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones.
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[edit] Biography
Jagger's father was a businessman and her mother a housewife. They divorced when Jagger was ten and she stayed with her mother, who had to take care of three children on a small income. When Jagger was studying political science at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, she demonstrated against the Somoza regime after the massacre of students perpetrated by Somoza's National Guard. In Paris, she also became acquainted with French literature, among which especially Voltaire, Rousseau and Camus influenced her. She has also been fascinated by Gandhi's non-violent success and the eastern philosophy at large. She traveled extensively in India. She received a scholarship to study in France and became involved with actor Michael Caine. In addition to her extensive charitable works, in the 1970s and early 1980s, Jagger had a public reputation as a jet-setter and party-goer, being closely associated in the public mind with New York City's nightclub Studio 54. She has had relationships with two US Democratic politicians, Robert Torricelli and Christopher Dodd.[1]
[edit] Marriage to Mick Jagger
She met Mick Jagger at a party after a Rolling Stones concert in September 1970 [3] where she reportedly impressed him with her French [4]. On May 12, 1971, while she was four months pregnant, the couple married in a Roman Catholic ceremony in Saint Tropez, France, and she became his first wife. At this time Jagger became concerned with women's rights. The couple had one daughter, Jade Jagger (born on October 21, 1971), but they divorced in 1980.
[edit] Activism
In early 1979, Jagger visited Nicaragua with an International Red Cross delegation and was shocked by the brutality and oppression that the Somoza regime carried out there. This persuaded her to commit herself to the issues of justice and human rights.
In the 1980s, she worked to oppose US government intervention in Nicaragua after the Sandinista revolution. She has also opposed the death penalty and defended the rights of women and of indigenous peoples in Latin America, notably the Yanomami tribe in Brazil against the invasion of gold miners. She spoke up for victims of the conflicts in Bosnia and Serbia. Her writings were published in several newspapers (including the New York Times and the Sunday Express). From the late 1970s she collaborated with many humanitarian organizations including:
- Amnesty International
- Human Rights Watch/America
- Coalition For International Justice
- Indigenous Development International
- People for the American Way
She is also a member of the Twentieth Century Task Force to Apprehend War Criminals. She gave a reading at the start of the memorial service in London's Westminster Cathedral, which was timed to coincide with the funeral in Brazil of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot eight times on a tube-train after being mistaken for a suicide bomber in London. In March 2007 she became involved with Sarah Teather and the campaign to close Guantanamo Bay.
On December 16, 2003 Jagger was nominated Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador.[5]
On July 7, 2007, Jagger presented at the German leg of Live Earth in Hamburg.
On May 12, 2007 she was elected Chair of the World Future Council.
[edit] Awards
For her work, Jagger has earned several awards,[2] including:
- 1983 Honorary Doctorate of Humanities degree from Stone Hill College in Massachusetts
- 1994 United Nations Earth Day award
- 1996 Hispanic Federation of New York City’s Humanitarian Award
- 1996 Woman of the Year Title from the Boys Town of Italy
- 1996 Abolitionist of the Year Award from the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
- 1997 Green Globe award from the Rain Forest Alliance
- 1997 Amnesty International USA Media Spotlight Award for Leadership
- 1997 Inducted to the Hall of Fame in Miami Children’s Hospital Foundation
- 1998 American Civil Liberties Union Award
- 2000 Champion of Justice Award
- 2003 International Award from International Services
- 2004 World Achievement Award from Mikhail Gorbachev
- 2004 Right Livelihood Award
- 2006 World Citizenship Award from The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
- 2006 Office of the Americas Peace and Justice Award
- 2008 Honorary Doctorate of Human Rights degree from Simmons College in Massachusetts
[edit] Films
Bianca Jagger also appeared in several movies:
- Cocksucker Blues (1972)
- The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978, as Martini)
- The American Success Company (1979; as Corrine)
- The Cannonball Run (1981, as sheik's sister)
- In Our Hands (1984)
- C.H.U.D. 2 (1989)
- The Party's Over (2003, a documentary movie on American politics)
