Meche Barba

Meche Barba
Born	Mercedes Barba Feito September 24, 1922(1922-09-24) New York, USA
Died	January 14, 2000(2000-01-14) Mexico City, Mexico
Occupation	film actress, dancer
Years active	1943–1999

Meche Barba (September 24, 1922 – January 14, 2000) was a Mexican film actress and dancer of the Golden age of Mexican cinema in the 1940s and 1950s. Was considered one of the icons of the "Rumberas film". She was remembered with the name of "The Mexican Venus".

Early life

She was born Mercedes Barba Feito in New York, USA.She was daughter of the Spanish circus actor Antonio Barba. Started her career at the age of six in the circus stardom in New York. With her sister Carmen, debuts in Mexico in the Show Caras Bonitas, with the Mexican comedian El Panzon Soto. In 1937 she appears in a minor role in the movie Ave sin Rumbo.

Career

In 1945, Meche debuts in the Rumberas film along the Cuban Rumba dancer Maria Antonieta Pons in the film Rosalinda. With her amazing style to dance West Indian rhythms, Meche gets quickly highlight in the "Cine de Rumberas" in the late 1940s thanks to success films like Humo en los Ojos (the film that started the production of "Rumberas films", 1946), Cortesana (1947) and "Gran Casino" (1947, directed by Luis Buñuel). In 1948, she filmed Musico, poeta y loco with Tin Tan.

In 1949 she began her relationship with the Mexican actor and singer Fernando Fernández, with whom she formed an important film collaboration. some of his notable collaborations are Amor Vendido (1949), Yo fui una callejera (1951) and Cuando los hijos pecan (1952) among others.

Meche retires from the stage in the late 1950s to raise a family. In the 1980s, the telenovelas writer Carlos Romero convinces her to return to the screens. In the 1980s and 1990s, Meche participates in numerous Mexican TV dramas with the singer and actress Thalía. The most important are Maria Mercedes (1992) and Maria la del barrio (1995). She returned to the cinema with the film Los Años de Greta (1992), by which wins the Silver Ariel.

Barba was the only Mexican of the five Tropical Queens of the Mexican Cinema (Maria Antonieta Pons, Amalia Aguilar, Ninón Sevilla and Rosa Carmina).

Meche Barba died from heart failure on January 14 in 2000 in Mexico City.

Filmography (Selected)

• Ave sin Rumbo (1937)
• Sota, Caballo y Rey (1944)
• Rancho de mis recuerdos (1945)
• Rosalinda (1946)
• Humo en los ojos (1946)
• Gran Casino (1947)
• Cortesana (1948)
• Musico, poeta y loco (1948)
• Lola Casanova (1948)
• Negra Consentida (1949)
• Lazos de Fuego (1949)
• Venus de Fuego (1949)
• El pecado de Laura (1949)
• Una mujer con pasado (1949)
• Yo fuí una callejera (1950)
• La Mujer desnuda (1951)
• Amor Vendido (1951)
• Acá las tortas (1951)
• Cuando los hijos pecan (1952)
• Quiero Vivir (1953)
• Reportaje (1953)
• Los Años de Greta (1992)

TV

• La pobre Señorita Limantour (1986)
• Quinceañera (1987)
• Rosa salvaje (1988)
• Balada por un amor (1990)
• María Mercedes (1992)
• Sueño de amor (1993)
• Valentina (1993)
• María la del Barrio (1995)
• La Usurpadora (1998)
• Rosalinda (1999)

External links

• Meche Barba at the Internet Movie Database

Bibliography

• Muñoz Castillo., Fernando (1993). Las Reinas del Tropico: Maria Antonieta Pons, Meche Barba, Amalia Aguilar, Ninón Sevilla & Rosa Carmina. Grupo Azabache. ISBN 968-5077-11-8. 
• Agrasánchez Jr., Rogelio (2001). Bellezas del cine mexicano/Beauties of Mexican Cinema.. Archivo Fílmico Agrasánchez. ISBN 968-5077-11-8. 

Persondata
Name	Barba, Meche
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 24, 1922
Place of birth	New York, USA
Date of death	January 14, 2000
Place of death	Mexico City, Mexico