Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-4 of 4
- Damián Alcázar is a Mexican actor, who is best known for portraying Colombian drug lord Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela in the Netflix series Narcos.
Damián Alcázar studied acting first at the National Institute of Fine Arts and at the Theatrical Experimentation Center, then continued at the Faculty of Theater of the Veracruz University, where in later years he would work as a teacher.
He served as an actor for eight years in two theatre companies, alongside the most prestigious directors in Mexico. Under the direction of George Labaudan guest, he appeared on the balcony of Jean Genet.
He has appeared in six foreign films and more than twenty-eight Mexican films. He was awarded the Ariel for Best Actor in 1999 and in 2004, for the tapes Under California: The Time Limit, by Carlos Bolado, and in Crónicas, by Sebastián Cordero. He also won the prize for best actor at the Festival of Valladolid (Spain), for the latter.
He received Ariel for Best Supporting Actor for El anzuelo by Ernesto Rimoch; by Lolo, Francisco Athié, and for the success of Carlos Carrera, The Crime of Father Amaro. Damián has been nominated to receive this same award four other times. He won the award for Best Actor at the Cartagena Film Festival (Colombia) for the film Two Crimes, by Roberto Sneider.
He has also worked on telenovelas, being the most recent Secretos del corazón, produced by Epigmenio Ibarra for TV Azteca.
In April 2013 he was awarded the Honor Prize of the Latin American Film Show of Lleida with José Coronado. Since June 2016, he has been a deputy elected by Morena in the Constitutional Assembly of Mexico City. - Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Gloria Lozano was born on 8 March 1924 in Jiquilpan, Michoacán, Mexico. She was an actress and producer, known for La culta dama (1957), Mi influyente mujer (1957) and Felicidad (1957). She was married to José Prisciliano Castro Brito. She died on 15 November 1991 in Mexico, D.F., Mexico.- Music Department
- Actor
Rafael Mendez was considered by many in the music world to be the greatest trumpet player of all time. He was known for his brilliant tone, legendary range, articulation and vibrato. He could make his trumpet sing. Mendez was a master of technique including double-tonguing and triple-tonguing. His repertoire included classical compositions, popular arrangements, favorite songs, and Mexican folk music.
Although he began playing the trumpet at age five, it was 30 years before he became widely known. Mendez was born on March 26, 1906, in Jiquilpan, Mexico, into a musical family. His father taught him to play trumpet, and he joined his father's family orchestra that performed at festivals and private functions. In 1926, Mendez moved to the United States. He first played in the company bands where he worked at steel and automobile plants in Indiana and Michigan. He met and married his wife, Amor Rodriguez, while playing in orchestras in the Detroit area.
By the mid-1930s, Mendez was playing full time professionally. He played with the Rudy Vallee band in New York and then moved to California in 1937. His twin sons, who would later perform with him, were born shortly thereafter. From 1939 to 1949, Mendez headed the brass section for the MGM Studio Orchestra. He played trumpet solos for several films and performed concerts and began recordings. He began his solo career in 1950 and for 25 years toured the U.S. and Europe. He played with symphonies and popular orchestras and performed for heads of state. During this time he made several records, including a dozen with Decca; and he composed and wrote arrangements.
When asthma led to his retirement from performing in 1975, Mendez continued to compose and write music until his death in 1981. He died at age 75 in his home at Encino, California. He was survived by his wife, two sons and five grandchildren. Arizona State University houses a huge Mendez library that includes more than a thousand works.- Born into a lower-middle class family in the village of Jiquilpan,
Michoacan, Lazaro Cardenas was the oldest of seven children. He was
forced to become the sole support of his family at age 16, when his
father died, and he took such jobs as tax collector and jailer. He had
always wanted to be a teacher, although he had to leave school at 11
years of age, but that dream went by the wayside during the turbulent
years of the Mexican Revolution in the early 20th century, after
renegade Gen. Victoriano Huerta overthrew and assassinated President
Francisco I. Madero.
Cardenas became a supporter of
Plutarco Elías Calles. Huerta was
eventually overthrown and Calles was elected President. Cardenas became
governor of his home state of Michoacan, and became known for his
incorruptibility -- a rare character trait in Mexican politicians of
the time -- his program of road- and school-building, his land reform
program and the implementation of a social security system, among other
things.
When Calles' term was up, however, he was unwilling to let go of the
reins of power and used a succession of front men in the office of
President while he actually ran the country from behind the scenes.
Calles' party, the PNR, selected Cardenas as its presidential candidate
in 1934 and Calles assented, believing that he could control Cardenas
in much the same way as he had his predecessors. He was in for a
surprise, however. In 1936 Cardenas had Calles and several dozen of his
cronies arrested for corruption and jailed or deported to the US. It
was a move that was wildly popular among the Mexican public, which had
seldom -- if ever -- seen its politicians punished for the endemic
corruption that characterized Mexican politics. He also ended capital
punishment (a policy that stands to this day). Cardenas and his party
managed to maintain control of Mexico without resorting to harsh,
oppressive and usually bloody military solutions, which many of his
predecessors had done during times of crisis, and this policy
effectively put an end to the era of seemingly endless rebellions,
uprisings and civil wars that had racked the country since 1910.
Cardenas' popularity became so widespread that he soon became the first
Mexican President to travel the country without armored cars or convoys
of bodyguards as an escort. In the 1934 election he did what few other
Mexican Presidents had done -- campaign in many virtually inaccessible
regions of the country, often on horseback, and accompanied by only a
few aides and a driver. This won him even more respect from the
population. After his election he moved the presidential headquarters
from the historic -- and somewhat palatial -- Chapultepec Castle into a
newly built, and less regal, residence called Los Pinos, and turned the
former presidential palace into the National Museum of History.
When Rusian Communust boss Lev Trotskiy was
exiled after falling out of favor with dictator
Joseph Stalin, Cardenas gave him sanctuary
in Mexico. His purpose was twofold -- it effectively neutralized his
opponents' claims that he was a Stalinist and gave him credibility
among labor unions and workers' organizations, which he needed in order
to break the power of the old, corrupt CROM umbrella labor organization
and promote the newly organized Confederation of Mexican Workers to
take its place, which was headed by a socialist, Vicente Toledano.
During the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, Cardenas was a strong
supporter of the Republican government and a fierce opponent of fascist
leader Gen. Francisco Franco.
When Franco eventually defeated the loyalist forces, Cardenas
instructed his ambassadors in Europe to offer asylum and protection to
any Spanish loyalist who asked for it, and many Republican officials
and ex-soldiers took refuge in Mexico's European embassies. Cardenas
also allowed thousands of Spanish refugees to settle in Mexico,
including many artists, writers and filmmakers, who came to have a
strong influence on Mexico's cultural life.
Another policy of Cardenas' government was land reform, and it seized
and re-distributed to landless farmers and sharecroppers millions of
acres of land, much of it from wealthy "hacendados" who had illegally
seized or stolen it in the first place. He also championed workers'
rights and had legislation passed that guaranteed the rights of workers
to unionize. He nationalized the hodgepodge of private railroads that
crisscrossed Mexico in 1938 and consolidated them into one
federally-administered railway system, the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de
Mexico.
In the 1940 presidential elections -- by law he could not run for
re-election -- Cardenas was not happy with his party's nominee, Manuel
Avila, and demanded that Avila and his opponent, Juan Andreu, have
public debates, which had been unheard of in previous elections, and
that the ensuing elections be open and transparent -- again, an
unheard-of situation in Mexican politics. Cardenas' wishes were
ignored, however, and Election Day was marred by violent incidents
across the country in which people were killed and injured, polling
places were attacked and ballot boxes stolen. Each side released its
own results showing that it had won, but eventually an official count
determined that Avila, the PRI candidate, was the victor. Andreu
thundered about leading a revolt and setting up a parallel government,
but nothing came of it and Avila was inaugurated as President.
If there was one single action that marked Cardenas' administration,
however, it was the nationalization of the oil industry. Vast
quantities of oil had been discovered in Mexico at the turn of the
century, and by 1921 it was the world's second-largest producer (it
supplied more than 20% of the oil used in the US). The Cardenas
administration had been negotiating with a consortium of American,
Mexican and European oil companies that controlled the production and
distribution of Mexican oil, attempting to get more control over the
industry and a bigger cut of the profits for Mexico, but the oil cartel
refused to consider any change in the system as it was. As a last
resort the government proposed a solution devised by a presidential
commission, but it was rejected out of hand by the oil companies. On
March 18, 1938, Cardenas announced the nationalization of Mexico's oil
reserves and the seizure of all equipment from foreign-owned oil
companies in the country. It was an expensive action, but one that was
so popular with the Mexican populace that the country began a national
fund-raising campaign to raise money to compensate the oil companies
for the seizures of its properties and equipment. Nevertheless, many
European governments severed diplomatic relations with Mexico because
of the nationalization and instituted a boycott of Mexican oil and oil
products. However, the outbreak of World War II meant a huge demand for
oil, and if America and Europe wouldn't buy Mexico's oil, it would look
for customers elsewhere, and it soon found one -- Nazi Germany. That
was enough for the Americans and Europeans. They patched up their
differences with Mexico, ended their boycott and Mexico in turn stopped
selling oil to Germany. Cardenas named the government oil company Pemex
(Petroleos Mexicanos) and founded the National Polytechnic Institute to
ensure that the country had a steady supply of experts to manage and
improve its oil industry.
When Cardenas' presidential term expired in 1940, he was appointed as
Mexico's Secretary of Defense, a post he held until 1945. Unlike many
Mexican presidents, he did not enrich himself while in office, and upon
retirement he took up residence in an unpretentious home by Lake
Patzcuaro and spent his time supervising local irrigation projects and
building schools and free medical clinics in areas that had neither.
He died of cancer in Mexico City in 1970.