Evita Muñoz

Evita Muñoz "Chachita"
Born Eva María Muñoz Ruíz
November 26, 1936
Orizaba, Veracruz, Mexico
Occupation Actress

Eva María Muñoz Ruíz (born November 26, 1936) is a Mexican actress, comedian and singer. Her professional career began at the early age of four: An extremely gifted small child who began her tenure during the golden age of Mexican cinema. Unavoidably, she was catapulted towards Stardom in her fourth film at age 6. During more than 73 continuous years, 'Chachita' has been recognized as a successful and unique artist in cinema, TV, theatre, radio, nightclub and circus shows.

Beginnings

She was the only daughter of singer / actor Francisco 'Paco' Muñoz and Ernestina Ruíz (née Sanchez). She enjoyed being taken to performances of practically every theatre, circus and zarzuela traveling companies that visited Orizaba.

Stardom

Even though she was a little under four years old, she was already filming her first motion picture, starting a career of big hits with her in the starring role as a child actress beginning with a role in El secreto del sacerdote in 1941. After her second movie, ¡Ay Jalisco, no te rajes! (1941), she received the nickname "Chachita" (short for "muchachita", the diminutive of "muchacha", young girl). Evita Muñoz "Chachita" has been able to become a popular icon and has managed to stay present in her audiences´ mind during a lifelong career as a child, teenager, adult and senior actress.

About 1944, her popularity in the movies led to her starting a radio career in the radio show La legión de madrugadores on the XEQ radio station. In 1947, she signed a contract with CBS in New York to star in the radio serial, Aventuras de una niña, transmitted to all Central and South America and produced by Carlos Montalbán. At the end of the fifties, she starred in the show El Risámetro.

To promote her movie La Hija del Payaso (1946), in which she performed along with elephants and trained dogs, she learned to play the marimba and the xylophone. She made personal appearances with the Atayde Circus when she was only eight years old.

During her teenage years, she costarred with Pedro Infante in the trilogy: Nosotros los pobres (1948), Ustedes los ricos (1948) and Pepe el Toro (1952), which jumpstarted a new cycle for the Mexican cinema.

A privileged voice allows her to sing not only as herself; she does impressions of female singers from the era like: Celia Cruz, Olga Guillot and Mona Bell.

She was invited by Pérez Prado as a mambo dancer for a tour all over the Philippine islands and Japan where she became a sensation. During that tour they also performed in USO shows during the Korean War for the Hispanic-American troops of soldiers (and once for the American staff as well), where she received raving ovations for her imitation of Marilyn Monroe.

Pioneer of Mexican television, in soap operas such as Gutierritos with Rafael Banquels, in comedy programs with Roberto Gómez Bolaños Chespirito and variety shows like En el Estudio with Pédro Vargas and later on in Siempre en Domingo with Raúl Velasco, both as entertainer and guest-hostess. She quickly became a favorite of the Mexican audience.

In the seventies she played the role of 'Sister Carmela', a novice nun in the convent where ‘Cristina’ (Graciela Mauri) went to elementary school in the Mexican versión of the soap opera Mundo de Juguete. In 1975, she starred in the varieties show Un hombre y una mujer with Fernando Allende. She appeared as a guest star in TV series such as: Columbo and I Spy.

In theatre, she has performed during lengthy seasons of dramas, comedies and musicals, receiving different award and recognition in Mexico and abroad.

During the eighties, she played the role of the witch Hermelinda Linda in a couple of films. In television, she starred along with Jorge Ortiz de Pinedo and Macaria in the sitcom Dos mujeres en mi casa, and in 1986, she worked again with Freddy Fernández "El Pichi" in the sitcom Nosotros los Gómez.

In the nineties, she continued working in a series of soap operas for Televisa up to nowadays, besides making films like De lengua me como un plato with Alberto Rojas "El Caballo" and Maribel Fernández "La Pelangocha" and she played a nun from northern Mexico in Cambiando el destino with the band Magneto.

In the new millennium, she has starred in several episodes of Mujer: Casos de la vida real produced and presented by Silvia Pinal and she has lent her voice to CGI animated characters such as 'Cocó' the lamp in Serafín: La Película and 'Dr. Lucille Krunklehorn' in the latinamerican Spanish versión of Disney´s Meet the Robinsons.

In the U.S. she has appeared in Hispanic-oriented ad campaigns for Black Flag´s Roach Motel and S. C. Johnson & Son´s Ziploc bags.

Currently

Recently she had a role in Televisa's soap opera Cuidado con el ángel that is being broadcast around the globe and is currently wrapping-up the 2011 season of Sesame Street - Mexico. In 2011 "Chachita" is celebrating 70 years of uninterrupted artistic career.

For her work in television, the theater and motion picture industries, "Chachita"'s handprints have been embedded onto the Paseo de las Luminarias in Mexico City.

Filmography

Cinema

Television

Soap operas

Situation comedies

Video theatre

Theatre

External links