Mapy Cortés (March 1, 1910 – August 2, 1998), born Maria del Pilar Cordero in Santurce, Puerto Rico, was a famous actress that participated in many films during the Mexican film industry's golden era. Contrary to popular belief, Cortes was not Mexican; she was Puerto Rican, but she adopted Mexico as her residential country from her youth and almost until she died.
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Mapy Cortés began experimenting as an actress since an early age, working in various Puerto Rican radio shows, with lukewarm success. Never considered a superstar, glamour girl, or actress of merit, she was a beloved fan favorite.
During the early 1930s, Cortes decided to look for fame in other places, and she arrived in Mexico, where she met and married the already famous Puerto Rican actor and producer Fernando Cortes who has already adopted the Mexican citizenship. This marriage proved to be a blessing for the Puerto Rican actress, both romantically and professionally speaking. By 1933, Mapy Cortés participated in the first of over 50 films she would make in Mexico and in Puerto Rico. Her film debut was in a movie named Dos Mujeres y un Don Juan (Two Women and a Womanizer). By the time this movie was released, Cortes had a nephew, Paquito Cordero, who himself became a legendary figure in Puerto Rican show-business. Paquito was only two years old when Mapy's first movie was released.
The Cortes couple became a phenomenon across Latin America, when, after 1940, they set out to film movies in practically every Latin American country that was into the movie making industry. Mapy Cortés was able to gain celebrity in places like Cuba and Argentina, where she filmed some movies that are considered classics among those movies produced there. Cortes, who was also a comedian and a musicals actress, parlayed her acting career into a singing one, recording various albums while still active as an actress. In 1944, she participated in La Picara Susana (Mischievous Susan), followed by 1945's La Corte del Faraon (Pharaon's Court).
The Cortes family spent much of the 1950s making movies and participating in a television show in Puerto Rico. Mapy and her husband Fernando returned to the island and presented an idea for a comedy show to Ángel Ramos, owner of El Mundo Enterprises. On March 28, 1954, Puerto Rico received its first television transmission from Angel Ramos' WKAQ-TV Telemundo Channel 2. The first comedy show to go on the air was "Mapy Y Papi" which also included Maria Judith Franco and Paquito Cordero.
With a lot of wealth earned from their days as actors, the Cortes' decided to retire soon after their show came off the air in Puerto Rico. They travelled constantly between their houses in Puerto Rico and in Mexico. Her niece Mapita Cortés, also born in Puerto Rico, became a renowned telenovela actress in Mexico.
After Fernando Cortes died in 1982, Mapy Cortés led a relatively quiet life, without getting involved in many scandals or public activities.
She died at her home in Puerto Rico in 1998, of a heart attack.