Her film career began by chance, and she later became an international actress. This is a review of her career, her story, her jewelry, and her style.
María Félix was an actress as great as her personality, the muse of writers, designers, and singers who brought the name of Mexico to the most important screens and film festivals in the world. María Bonita or Maria de los Angeles Felix Guereña, the Sonoran who, with the mystery that surrounded her, built the most important character in her career, her own.
The arrival of María Félix to the cinema is due to a pure act of chance, a meeting in the center of Mexico City would later make her the biggest star in her country. She was destined for a career in Hollywood, but her great character made her decide to start in Mexican cinema. María Félix was soon referred to as the lady, a woman full of fantastic stories who conquered places with her career that seemed impossible for the woman of her time.
With her career she changed paradigms in the world of cinema, the role of women in films went from being that of a damsel to that of a landowner, María Félix became the woman who chose her own roles, she was one of the best-paid in all of the middle. Beyond a successful career with 47 films, La Doña's legacy extends beyond the cinema. Her image was a symbol of luxury, style, and eccentricity, María was the main character not only in her films but of an entire aesthetic, explainable only by her name.
María Félix was the inspiration for fashion greats like Balenciaga, Vivier, and Saint Laurent, Cartier's star client for her eccentric jewelry commissions, and the woman who is today an icon of contemporary style for the entire world. María Bonita, more than an actress, is a cultural symbol that left Mexico to become the world, an exotic and different character that will always be remembered.
Who was Maria Felix?
María Félix was a Mexican actress, known as the diva of the golden age of Mexican cinema. She was the greatest representative of the big screen in Mexico at an international level, also participating in well-known films in different European countries. Known as María Bonita or La Doña for her role in the film Doña Bárbara (1943), she also became a style icon of the time for her extravagant taste and her ironic personality.
Where was Maria Felix born?
María de los Ángeles Félix Güereña was born in Álamos, Sonora, on April 8, 1914. Her parents were Bernardo Félix Flores, a Mexican military and politician, and Josefina Güereña Rosas. Maria grew up in Alamos with her parents and eleven of her siblings, with whom she shares ancestry of Yaqui Indian on her father's side and Basque Spanish on her mother's side. Her family later moved to Guadalajara, where she attended the University of Guadalajara and in 1931 she married Enrique Álvarez Alatorre, with whom in 1934 she had her first child, also an actor, Enrique Álvarez Félix.
When did María Félix die?
María Félix passed away on April 8, 2002, in Mexico City, at the age of 88. The life of the actress was celebrated with a parade from her residence in Polanco, to the streets of the Historic Center of the city, arriving at the Palace of Fine Arts, where a multitude of people paid tribute to La Doña in the lobby of the building. María Félix's coffin was also transported to the Jorge Negrete Theater to pay tribute to her, finally, her remains were buried in the French Pantheon together with her parents and her son. Upon her death, she left her entire fortune to her personal assistant of more than 28 years, Luis Martínez de Anda, the actress' estate included all of her property and her art collection.
