PART
ONE
To understand something about
Alejandra Guzman, it helps in her case to know a little bit about
her parents - and we're not just talking ordinary parents here
because Alejandra, as well as being a star in her own right, just
happens to be an hieress to '2' of Mexicos most endearing
showbiz legends - Silvia Pinal and Enrique Guzman! It is
with this understanding in mind that I have decided that it is
worth briefly outlining their showbiz careers.....
Silvia Pinal began her career in
theatre, and then became a young leading lady in her first movie
roles in the late 1940's, as in 'Bamba' in '48. However, her
more memorable roles came during the '60's in movies directed by
Luis Bunuel. These included 'Viridiana' ('61) and 'Simon del
Desierto' ('65). She also featured in several English
language movies, such as 'Shark!' in 1970 in which she stared
alongside Burt Reynolds.
As well as being a fine actress,
Silvia is also somewhat (in)famous for her many marriages!
Although not quite in the Liz Taylor/Zsa Zsa Gabor league (yet!),
she nevertheless married 4 times - and in some ways her career
path was influenced by whomever she happened to be married to at
the time. She acted on stage when wed to stage director
Rafael Banquells. She was in movies with second husband
Gustavo Alatriste, who produced the Luis Bunuel movies.
Husband number 3 was Enrique Guzman (more of whom later) - she
sang! And husband number 4 was Govener Tulio Hernandez, and
'yes' she entered politics and even won an election!
However, these marital influences
should in no way detract from that fact that she is a highly
talented lady who has more than earned the right to be called a
Star!
As well as acting and singing,
Silvia also found the time to become a sucessful TV producer - and
these days she is also the owner of 2 theatres; the 'Teatro Silvia
Pinal' and the 'Teatro Diego Rivera'.
Enrique Sanchez Guzman too has
enjoyed a healthy movie career. His can be traced back to
the mid-1950's, perhaps his most notable was 'Canti Mi
Corazon' in '56. But then he took a lengthy hiatus from the
movie world to embark on a role that he is best remembered for -
as a rock 'n' roll singer!
To all intents and purposes,
Enrique Guzman was the latin equivalent of the likes of Bobby
Darin in the USA and Cliff Richard in England. Enrique was
the handsome, clean-cut, archetypal, sometimes rebelious
teen-idol. He not only looked like his illustrious USA and
English counterparts - he sounded like them too!
He amased a string of hit records
which included latin versions of 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Blue Suede
Shoes', 'Speedy Gonzalas', 'Multiplication' (a hit for Bobby
Darrin also) - and of course 'La Playa' (better known to the
English speaking audience as Good Golly Miss Molly) - a song that
would successfully launch his daughter's music career some 3
decades later!
But as well as translating English
language classics, Enrique also wrote some classics of his own,
perhaps most notably 'Pensaba En Ti'.
In the mid'60's, he starred
alongside his (then) wife Silvia Pinal in the popular Mexican TV
variety show 'Silvia & Enrique'. One show in 1968 was to
prove particularly memorable because it featured the very first TV
apearance of a 2 month old baby girl named Alejandra
Guzman! This was Silvia and Enrique taking the opertunity to
show off their new offspring to the Mexican TV audience (and one
imagines that everyone swooned '...aaahh!').
1968 also saw a return to the movie
world for Enrique, in a flick entitled 'No Se Puede Profe'.
Like Silvia, he too featured in the occasional English language
movie, perhaps most notably in 'Alien Terror' ('86) in which he
starred alongside Boris Karloff.
These days both Silvia and Enrique
are separated, but make no mistake, their legacy to popular
Mexican showbusiness is great - and one can imagine that any
offspring of theirs wanting to make their own way in the same
crazy business would have a real tough act to
follow.......!!!!!!
Alejandra has said recently that if
she hadn't been a singer, she would have been a sculptress or a
dentist (!). Nice idea perhaps. She might well have
wished these things, but given her parentage and the enviroment
she was born into, it was hardly surprising that fate (and family
genetics!) would cast Alejandra in the role off a singer, actress,
popular entertainer. It is difficult to imagine her as
anything else other than what she has become today - a
'Star!' (...tch! Dentist indeed!)....
....And so it was that Alejandra
Gabrielle Guzman Pinal was born on the 9th of February 1968 in the
hospital Santa Teresita de Jesus in Mexico City.
Her road to stardom began quite
early. As mentioned already, she made her debut TV
appearance at aged 2 months on the 'Silvia & Enrique
Show'.
At the age of 5 (years!), Ale was
enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dance in Mexico City where
she began to learn the art of ballet, tap-dance and jazz. As
well as developing her dancing skills, these lessons also help her
to develope an athletic and aesthetic body, and also instilled
into her an iron disipline. Even at this early age, she
proved that she had the desire to express herself artistically in
front of an audience - i.e. to show off! She recalled in
later life that, 'Everyone always thought I was entertaining, but
no one thought that I would do it for real one day!'
Nevertheless, she gave the clear indication that art was
everything to her.
She continued to grow and mature
within this artistic enviroment, and eventually became something
of a child prodigy as she made appearances in TV commercials and
soap operas entitled 'Tiempo de Amor', 'Cuando los Hijos de Van' -
and 'Mujer Cosas de la Vida Real', the latter produced by none
other than Silvia Pinal.
As well as working in TV, Ale also
began to make inroads into the music world. Her earlier
experiences as a teenager included providing backing vocals for
rock bands 'Kenny y los Electricos' and 'La Union'.
At the age of 17, Ale took part in
the classic musical comedy 'Mame' - a show produced by
Silvia! Ale herself would always freely admit to being
hughly influenced by her parents, and indeed they seemed, in
public at least, ever present on her road to fame. Though in
later life she also admitted that she felt 'alone' a lot of the
time - but given the public life that her parents lived and the
difficulties in dividing their time between public life and
private family, this is perhaps understandable. But they did
encourage young Ale nevertheless. The only condition they
imposed on her was that she kept up her school studies. But
it was clear even before the end of it all that what Ale really
wanted to do was Sing!
But being the daughter of
two such showbiz luminaries as Silvia Pinal and Enrique Guzman
proved to have its advantages and disadvantages. On the one
hand, the family name, tradition and the environment in which Ale
grew up in may well have afforded certain opportunities that might
well have been denied other aspiring artists with similar
ambitions - but on the other, that same environment also meant
that she had to work harder to achieve her aims and prove that she
fully deserved to make it big-time. As they say in a
nutshell, 'You've either got it or you haven't!' Ale had to
prove that she had indeed 'got it'!
So as some doors opened easily,
other remained steadfastly shut. But unwilling to admit
defeat, Ale soldiered on - and it was a fatefull meeting with a
guy called 'Miguel Blasco' that was to prove the decisive moment
in the life of this young, ambitious
artist........!!!!!