Herminia Sánchez, actress, playwright and founder of the Escambray Theater, died this Thursday in Havana, according to information from the National Council of Performing Arts (CNAE). She was 99 years old.
“Today a daughter of Cuban culture says goodbye and leaves in the memory of many generations the great images of a woman who was an inseparable part of this nation,” reads the obituary.
Herminia Sánchez says goodbye…#CubaIsCulture https://t.co/SkzUWLnguX
— National Council of Performing Arts Cuba (@ArtEscenicasCub) December 1, 2022
Although Herminia Sánchez was born in Barcelona in 1923, she graduated from the Dramatic Arts Seminary of the University of Havana in the 1950s, an institution she arrived at when she was studying at the School of Commerce.
“My father from Andalusia had traveled to Cuba, where he met my mother (from Carden). They got married and, due to my mother’s illness, the couple was forced to return to Spain, where I was born. They brought me to Cuba when I was three years old because my dad was delirious about this country. He was one of the best danzón dancers that Havana had, ”he said in statements collected two years ago by the Cuban television website.
From her arrival at the theater, her acting majesty walked through the universal classical repertoire and the Cuban repertoire of various tendencies, with the same spontaneity, rigor and nobility that distinguished her, highlights the CNAE.
He was a member of the National Theater, of the National Dramatic Ensemble and of Teatro Estudio. An impressive memory of the founding beginnings of Teatro Escambray (1968) is the first work of his written by him: escambray mambi.
In the seventies, the actress stands out for her work together with her husband Manolo Terraza with the Teatro de Participación Popular group, developed to stimulate theatrical creation in the community and port environment. In the following decade she alternates her work in the cinema, television and theater, she points at CNAE.
Herminia Sánchez returns to Teatro Estudio, maintains her job with Teatro de Participación Popular and is a Professor of Acting at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA).
In the theater he worked with Rosita Fornés, Asenneh Rodríguez, Adolfo Llauradó and Eduardo Vergara, among others. It was directed by Raquel Revuelta in Round and was part of one of the casts of Old houseby Abelardo Estorino.
From his time in the cinema, his performance in Lucy (1968), hello hemingway (1990) and Havana Eve (2010). She posted texts like Standing Y Cuban Theatrical Monologues.
The #ISA_University regrets the death of Herminia Sánchez. Professor of our university, National Theater Award and founder of the Escambray Theater. A great loss for the Cuban theater. Our condolences to your family and friends
????#CulturaDeLuto pic.twitter.com/GkJZkNLg5M— ISA (@ISA_University) December 1, 2022
In 2019 he received the National Theater Award. She was declared an adoptive daughter of Old Havana and a distinguished Emigrant of the Society of Spanish Residents. She also received the Alejo Carpentier Order, the Distinction for National Culture and the Raúl Gómez García medal.
According to Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez, quoted by the agency Latin Press (PL), Sánchez constitutes a jewel of Cuban culture for his contributions to popular theater and for the way in which he managed to bring it to life, showing authenticity, organicity and passion.
