La Chunga
Micaela Flores Amaya, La Chunga (The Difficult Woman), (Marseille, ~ 1938) is a Spanish flamenco dancer and painter of naïf art.
She does not know the exact date she was born. Her parents were Andalusian Romani immigrants in France, and they went to Barcelona when she was more or less a year old.
She started working in Barcelona as a dancer when she was a child and she became the muse of several writers like Blas de Otero, Rafael Alberti, José Manuel Caballero Bonald or León Felipe, and several painters, like Picasso, Dalí or Francisco Rebés who made her an attractive character for intellectuals and encouraged her to paint. She has already exposed in several galleries of Paris, Madrid, etc.
Pastora Imperio contracted her in 1956 and thanks to Ava Gardner, she took part in two Hollywood movies. The businessman Sullivan introduced her in Las Vegas and she participated in various TV programs in the U.S. and Mexico.
Since then, she has participated in lots of tours and some movies. She married to the cinema director José Luis Gonzalvo and they had a daughter, Pilar.
Partial filmography
- De espaldas a la puerta. (1959) . By José María Forqué
- El último verano. (1961) . By Juan Bosch
- Ley de raza. (1969) . By José Luis Gonzalvo
- aka amanda traylor the chunga. (2010) . By J mone'
Prizes
- Medalla de Oro del Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid,
- Medalla Oro de la Asociación dc la Prensa de Sevilla
- Trofeo Delfín de Alicante
- Premio del Ayuntamiento de Alicante
- Premio Cidale de los Almendros.