Irma Serrano

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Irma Serrano (born December 9, 1933) is a famous Mexican actress, who is known for her multiple scandals as well as for many controversies. Her nickname is "La Tigresa" or "The Tigress". She often appears in celebrity gossip magazines and TV shows because of her flashy, scandalous and amazing political career. It has been said that she is the equivalent of Dolly Parton, Hillary Clinton and Elvira (the Halloween witch character) all rolled into one. She is like Dolly Parton because she is a country singer and actress, like Hillary Clinton because she became a senator and like Elvira because many say she is really a witch. And she projects the glamour of all of them together.

Irma Serrano has participated in more than 100 movies, plays and Spanish soap operas combined. She was part of an era that many critics call the "golden age" of Mexican entertainment productions.

Despite having wide fame across Latin America, considerable wealth and multiple romantic involvements with well known Mexican men, Irma Serrano says she still feels a void in her life because she has never been able to have children. She has said that she still hopes to have a baby in the future. She claims to have frozen eggs and the sperm of one of her favorite paramours which are kept in Houston. In 2005, she claims to have had one of the fertilized eggs implanted in herself and one in a volunteer mother, a niece of hers who already has children of her own. Irma miscarried her embryo, but it has been kept a secret if her niece carried the other baby to term. Soon after that, Irma appeared semi-naked in a famous gossip magazine.

She has also been known for dating men much younger than her. In 2003, she dated singer and composer Jose Julian, who is some fifty years younger. Irma Serrano has been known for her public feuds with various Mexican actresses, and stories about Serrano being hard to work with and a hot-tempered person have appeared in some Spanish gossip magazines.

According to her own autobiography she was kidnapped (actually ran away) at the age of 13 or 14. A powerful politician whisked her away from the small town in southern Chiapas, Comitán de Domínguez, where she was born and raised. (She is a descendant of Dr. Belisario Domínguez, a well-known and celebrated Mexican political martyr. The town was named for him.)

The married man (surely a pedophile) who kidnapped her, kept her in a large house in Mexico City until at the age of 18 she found out he had found another "little girl". She was so jealous and disillusioned that she packed one suitcase of clothes and abandoned "her" house. She decided to become an actress, because many people told her that she was very beautiful. She maintained her contacts with politicians she had met through her kidnapper in Mexico City and back in the late 50's and early 60's she was the mistress of the Mexican president, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Bolaños Cacho. This only served to boost her show business career.

As with many actresses, the chances for roles in films diminish with their age. But Irma was not going to stay out of the limelight. In her 70's she ran for Senator for her home state of Chiapas and won. Her political opponents must have been very worried about her power to attract votes. She accused one of them, the governor of Chiapas at the time González Garrido, of masterminding her kidnapping. She was napping in the back of a van during a campaign trip through the state, when González's men took her dressed only in her nightgown. After a few days she escaped and walked for hours barefoot back to the highway to be rescued.

Irma Serrano, even in her 70's, maybe 80's, (her age is always kept a mystery) still appears in the headlines of magazines and newspapers. Her dynamic personality and image of a strong woman with "trashy class" capture the imagination of people all over the world.