Mary Aranza

Mary Aranza (September 13 1953 – October 23 2006) was a Mexican actress and performer. Her full name was Maria De Jesus Aranzábal. Mary was the mother of Sol Aranza, who became a well known voice actress and stage performer.

Childhood

Mary Aranza grew up in a traditional Mexican family, most of which were from Puebla, a city near Mexico’s capital. She studied at Benito Juarez Elementary School before she entered the "Renacimiento," a Mexican nun’s boarding school for four years to continue her studies; Aranza said in a 1997 interview with "Eres" magazine that she was expelled from the convent school because they were unable to expel the devil she carried inside even if they tried.Fact|date=December 2007 She was a "tornado" according to herself and her family, as stated in a December 10 1997 interview with Oscar Cadena.

Aranza never took acting lessons all through her life, but while attending the Mexican National High School Number 8, she participated in several school plays, some of which toured the country, as recalled in an interview for "TV y Novelas" with her former theater teacher, who was still working at the school. In 2001 Aranza went back to this high school along with her daughter to perform "Las fenicias" with a group of her former teacher's students under his direction, leading them to win the National High School Theater Contest.

Career

Her commercial career began when Pablo Leder, a well-known theater director, discovered her singing at the "Rana Rosa" (The Pink Frog), a bohemian nightclub. He introduced her to show business and to Alejandro Jodorowsky, getting her a part on his movie "Santa Sangre" ("Holy Blood") [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098253/fullcredits 1 Credits for "Santa Sangre"] at Internet Movie Database] which led to further roles.

Aranza was a versatile actress who participated in all sorts of movies, from "Dollar Mambo", a piece of filmic art by Paul Leduc, to "Especialista en señoras", a Mexican comedy movie. She appeared in the latter film with Jorge Ortiz De Pinedo, with whom she became friends after being introduced by Televisa reporter Oscar Cadena while working on Cadena's public joke show "No se rían que es en serio" ("Don’t laugh — I mean it").

In 1990 Aranza’s career peaked when she started making appearances in every show in Mexico's Channel 2 "Comedy Night Block" [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0033104/ Internet Movie Database] ] ; she became part of the base cast for the followup program to "No se rian que es en serio", "Camara in fraganti", and "La movida" and was a frequent guest on "Dr. Candido Perez", "Al derecho y al Derbez" and "Con Permiso", which gained her a preferential place in the company and allowed her to also be on the base cast for the Channel 5 commercials. Until 1995 she was the lead face for campaigns such as "Ya te tomaste la foto" (the Mexican program for voting credentials), "Solidaridad," "Pégale al gordo" (a lottery campaign), and "Carnaval en gigante" for the Gigante supermarket chain. She appeared in TV and theater commercials for private sponsors such as Ariel washing powder, Bital (now HSBC), Comercial Mexicanastores, Telvip, Chrysler, Sprite, and Gamesa cookies.

Aranza also performed in music videos by Shakira, Juan Gabriel, Caifanes, Mestizzo, Luis Miguel, Ricky Martin, Grupo Límite and Alicia Villareal, among many others. She and her daughter also were active in charitable work, such as their eight years participating in a national two-day telethon for Mexican children with disabilities. Aranza's 2006 performance had to be re-edited when she died, as only half the program had been filmed by that time.

Aranza was also in several performances in private nightclubs such as Las Veladoras or Medusas. Even if her primary goal was the theater this was the one thing she participated less in, taking part only in "Las emmanuel al rojo vivo," "La Sexycienta" and "Exxxtasis" directed by her mentor Pablo Leder and “Shakespeare’s complete works”, “Anastasia”, “Peter Pan”, “El dedal magico” and the monologue “Idealistic Me”, all directed by different people. Most of her theatrical work was made for the Autonomous University of Mexico; though she was a comedian at heart, most of these plays were Greek tragedies and Spanish literature art pieces, yet she did these for over 15 years.

Her work in movies was not only in English but also in Spanish [http://www.revistacinefagia.com/mexico024.htm http://www.revistacinefagia.com/mexico024.htm] ] participating in movies such as “Travesuras de dos diablos” by Alfredo Leal, “La Muerte Y La Brujula” by Alex Cox, “Elisa Antes Del Fin Del Mundo”, “Cilantro y perejil”, “Tu Primera Vez”, “Nicotina”, and “La Mexicana”.

She participated in Mexican telenovelas such as "Carrusel de niños", "Muchachitas", "María Mercedes", and "No tengo madre".

She took place in the base cast of the Mexican show “El calabozo” directed at the youth of the country, a live show with “El burro” and Esteban Arce; however, she was a part of it only for two years before she decided to leave. The reasons she had to leave the show were never disclosed.

In 2006 she made short appearances for Eugenio Derbez’s latest show, but died on October 23, of causes not disclosed. The memorial was closed to the public and only allowed her closest friends. It was unexpected and only few media gave the news.

Personal life

Aranza was very well known for her sense of humor and smile, she was a guest to both “Shanik” and “Marta Susana” talk shows in which she defended her point of view, always saying that being overweight wasn’t a disability nor should it affect women to the point it does. She always fought against prejudice and defended the rights of those who chose to live their lives differently, much like her own daughter.

All through her career many people have questioned the relationship between Sol and Mary being mother and daughter and appearing so many times together in stage yet being at peaks always at different times if one has taken credit for the other or not, but they both said in several interviews to different media that being mother and daughter never affected their careers, while working each one of them had their place and even if they sometimes did help each other as colleagues they would never go beyond that.

Many gossip shows said this relationship would shatter after Sol’s public coming out as a lesbian in 2004 in a gay parade. Mary made only one public statement about this in the radio show “En ambiente” ("in ambiance," a pun alluding to being gay) saying that she loved her daughter for who she was and not who shared her life or bed with her.

References