CDMX, Mexico.- One of the most iconic and international faces of Mexican gold cinema is undoubtedly that of Mario Moreno, better known as cantinflas. The actor and comedian, who left more than 50 films, was married only once to Valentina Ivanova, but there was a famous Cuban star whom he fell in love with.
This is Rosalía Lourdes Elisa Palet Bonavia, or as we all remember her: the great Rosita Fornés. The two met in 1944 when Mario Moreno arrived in Cuba hired by CMQ-Radio and Rosita was given the role of his counterpart. The unfinished love story that came after her was revealed by Fornés herself in her memoirs, written by Evelio R. Mora.
Rosa and Mario met at the rehearsals and public events she attended. The Mexican’s interest began to become more explicit because he did not stop accompanying her to family dinners and outings with Fornés’ relatives. But as was customary at the time, they were not allowed to be alone. In fact, at the beginning of the 2000s, Rosita narrated that her aunt attended her appointments with Mario as an extension of herself.
There was also an even more serious obstacle that separated them: Moreno was a married man.
“Mario liked my family very much. When we dined out or during the evenings at my house, he managed to have a pleasant conversation with my father, who reciprocated that deference with true friendship. After many talks… he convinced my father of the importance of taking me to work in Mexico ”, details the referenced book.
Finally, Rosita’s father agreed and accompanied her to Mexico to develop her career and also to find out if Cantinflas was willing to divorce, as he had promised the Cuban.
“He wanted me to go to Mexico to formalize that romance there. He even talked to my father because he had been married for a long time and told him that he was separated, because he was getting a divorce. I was very young and I really fell in love with him. It was the first love I had seriously, romantic, beautiful and unexpected”, said the vedette in the documentary “Rosita Fornés: My three lives”
Once in Mexico, Moreno spared no attention to the young woman and her father. On the other hand, Rosita was selected to star in “El deseo”, a film by Chano Urueta with the male interpretation of Emilio Tuero. Almost everything was going well, but the Mexican was still married.
“The relationship with Mario was affected, because my father began to find out and he had not finished his divorce. He offered me the gold and the Moors, to be patient, to stay, that I was going to be very well in Mexico, that he would always be by my side. But my father told me that he did not see that clearly. He made me drop everything and brought me to Cuba. That saddened me. All my illusions collapsed, but when the job arrived, I did not lack it ”, the actress confessed in the documentary.
What happened next? This is how his memories collect it “I tried to get it out of my mind, erase it, but I couldn’t. That love stayed alive within me, and the proof is that when I returned to Mexico a year later, I still lost my speech when I saw it.”
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