Columba Domínguez

Columba Domínguez Adalid (March 4, 1929 – August 13, 2014) was a Mexican film actress. Considered a crucial figure in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Considered one of the muses of the film director Emilio Fernández, who, moreover, was romantically linked for several years. She is remembered particularly for her performance in the film Pueblerina (1949), considered one of the jewels of the Mexican Cinema.

Biography

Early life

Columba Domínguez Adalid born on March 4, 1929 in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, reaching very young with her family to the Mexico City. When she went to a party with one of her sisters, was discovered by the Mexican film director Emilio Fernández, who was amazed by her beauty with very marked Mexican features and gives you entry to a movie with little roles in films such as La perla (1945) and Río Escondido (1947).

Career

In 1948, Fernandez give her the antagonistic role in the film Maclovia (1948), with María Félix. Her performance is praised by critics and thanks to this film, Fernández entrusted with the leading role that would become her best film: Pueblerina (1948). Thanks to this movie Columba rises the stardom rapidly and becomes known worldwide to be presented at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In that same year she participated in La Malquerida, with Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz.

Preceded by the success of Pueblerina, Columba was contracted in Italy to participate in the film L'Edera (1950).^[1] The same year, she filming Un día de vida, which went unnoticed in Mexico, but became a huge success in the former Yugoslavia, released in 1952.

Encased in native roles, Columba separates professionally Fernandez in 1952, which allowed them to become one first figure and work under the orders of other filmmakers, such as Luis Bunuel (with whom she worked in El río y la muerte (1955)), Fernando Méndez (director of the cult film Ladrón de cadáveres (1957), considered one of the best Mexican horror films) and Ismael Rodriguez (who took her to star in two masterpieces: Los Hermanos de Hierro (1961) and Ánimas Trujano (1962), with the Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune), among others. In 1962 she participated in El tejedor de milagros, a film that represented Latin America in the IX Berlin Film Festival. Columba also made the first official nude in the Mexican Cinema in the film La virtud desnuda. (1956).

In the television, Domínguez participed in some telenovelas like La tormenta (1967) and El carruaje (1972). Her last appearance in the television was in Aprendiendo a amar (1979).

After her retirement in 1987, Columba was devoted to dance, humanistic art, painting (coming to exhibit in Europe) and piano. In 2008, after more than 20 years of retirement from cinema, the Mexican director Roberto Fiesco, returned her to the cinema with the short film Paloma. That same year, Dominguez was honored by the International Film Festival de la Frontera, in Ciudad Juarez, in which some of the most representative titles in which he participated were projected.^[2] In 2010, Domínguez made a special appearances in the films La cebra and Borrar la memoria.^[3] In 2012, she participates in the film El último trago.

In May 2013, Columba Domínguez was honored with the Golden Ariel Award for her contributions to the Mexican film industry.

Personal life

In 1945, Domínguez was discovered by the famous Mexican film director Emilio Fernandez, who launched her career in film. Columba and Fernandez began a friendly relationship, which soon led to romance. Columba claims have been secretly married Fernandez. The couple have an only daughter, Jacaranda (born in 1952). Emilio had always barefoot and dressed Domínguez as indigenous to and will serve dinner to her countless friends who visited the house of the couple in Coyoacan. Personal differences, and infidelities of Fernández, prompted Domínguez to leave him in 1952, taking her daughter with her.

A tragic event marred the Domínguez life, when in 1978, her daughter Jacaranda tragically died after falling from the fourth floor of a building, in circumstances that were never clarified.

Domínguez and Fernández resumed their relationship several times. She was with him in his last days, despite having many years apart, and did not leave the hospital room until they took the corpse. In March 1987 he wrote a book titled Emilio, the Indian that I love who was dedicated to her great love.

After Fernández death in 1986, a dispute over his will, particularly on the stunning fortress in the neighborhood of Coyoacan, in the south of Mexico City, erupted. Emilio died intestate, and automatically, his only surviving daughter, the writer Adela Fernandez y Fernandez, was named the sole heir to the detriment of Domínguez, who claimed property rights. According to Domínguez, Adela really was not biological daughter of Emilio, and he did not legally adopted.^[4] These details, and the legal situation, were never clarified, especially after the Adela's death in 2013.

Her very Mexican beauty, was portrayed in paintings of the famous painters like Miguel Covarrubias, Jesús Guerrero Galván and Diego Rivera.

Death

Columba Domínguez died on August 13, 2014 in the Hospital Ángeles Santelena, in Mexico City as a result of a heart attack after being hospitalized for several days^[5] for several complications from pneumonia.^[6] Her remains were buried in the Mausoleos del Ángel Graveyard, in the south of Mexico City, near of the Emilio Fernández's tomb.^[7]

Filmography (Selected)

Features

References

• Agrasánchez Jr., Rogelio (2001). Bellezas del cine mexicano/Beauties of Mexican Cinema. Archivo Fílmico Agrasánchez. ISBN 968-5077-11-8. 

External links

• Columba Domínguez at the Internet Movie Database
• Columba Domínguez en Cine Mexicano en ITESM
• La historia detrás del mito: Columba Domínguez (Televisión Azteca, México) on YouTube