Havana Cuba. – If unforgettable are the characters of Diego and David in the film Strawberry and ChocolateSo is Nancy, the neurotic and infatuated neighbor from the CDR, played by Mirtha Ibarra under the direction of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Titón) and Juan Carlos Tabío. With that character full of flattery and nobility, the actress established herself in Cuban cinema, having already conquered the theater and dabbled in television.
Born in San José de las Lajas, Mirtha Ibarra was born on February 28, 1946. She graduated from the National Art School (ENA) and continued her professional training at the University of Havana, where she obtained a degree in Latin American Literature.
In 1967 she began working with various theater groups, an experience that made her mature and perfect her histrionic skills. From the stage, and without abandoning them completely, Mirtha descended ready to make a movie, and the ineffable Titón didn’t take long to realize this, who directed her in The Last Supper (1976), being so satisfied with the result that some time later he entrusted the leading character of the film to him. Until a certain point (1983).
The public and critics received this interpretation of his very well; so much so that they made her worthy of the Coral Award for Best Actress at the International Festival of New Latin American Cinema.
In the immediate years he worked with other excellent filmmakers such as Daniel Díaz, Gerardo Chijona and Julio García Espinosa. The success of Strawberry and Chocolate, both inside and outside Cuba, took her by surprise. She was running the year 1993, particularly hard in the middle of the Special Period, but fruitful for Cuban cinema and its makers. The role of Nancy engraved Mirtha forever in the memory and retina of Cubans, despite her masterful performances in the 1970s and 1980s. It is impossible to think of such a beautiful film without remembering her fine-tuned and innocent meddling in a story of two.
Behind that resounding success, Titón once again bet on her for the film guantanamera (1995) and, after the death of the director, with whom he had a long-term marriage, he worked with Juan Carlos Tabío on the memorable feature films Even though you are away and The horn of plenty.
Mirtha Ibarra also has an important trajectory as a theater director and documentary filmmaker. Between 2000 and 2001 she toured Spain with her work Havana obsessionin which he also acted, and in 2008 he made the documentary Titón: from Havana to Guantanameraa biography that brought viewers closer to the world of one of the greatest filmmakers in Latin America.
