Luisa Martínez Casado

Biography

Luisa Martínez Casado Muñoz entered the world on 28 August 1860 in Cienfuegos, born to Luis Martínez Casado, a writer, theatre owner, and newspaper proprietor, and his wife Guadalupe Muñoz. She grew up with three older sisters and two younger brothers. Her father put her on stage at age six, where she recited La vaquera de la Finojosa. When she was eight, the family relocated to Havana, and she performed in El gorrión, a play her father had written.

As she matured, her roles expanded, and she shared the stage with seasoned actors such as Ceferino Guerra, Julio G. Segarra, Ana Suárez Peraza, and Eloísa Agüero. Some think Enrique Zumel wrote his 1864 play Laura with her in mind. In 1876, she traveled to Mexico, where critics called her "inimitable." Returning to Cuba in July 1877 at just seventeen, she took on the role of Dorotea in Pancho Fernández's Los negros catedráticos and also appeared in José E. Triay's Cervantes, a tribute to the author of Don Quijote.

In September 1878, she entered the Madrid Royal Conservatory, studying under Concepción Sanpelayo, Florencio Romea, and Matilde Diez. Her talent was so remarkable that she finished a four-year curriculum in only six months, earning the conservatory's top prize in tragedy, comedy, and drama. That December, she performed in Spain in Mar sin orillas, a work José Echegaray wrote specifically for her. For the next five years, she drew acclaim across Madrid and the provinces.

At age twenty-eight, she briefly returned to Cuba, signed with theatrical empresario Leopoldo Burón, and in 1888 headed to Mexico City. At the Teatro Arbeu, audiences gave her standing ovations and showered her with bouquets. President Porfirio Díaz invited her to the presidential palace, and his wife presented her with gifts, including a jewelry box containing over thirty jewels. After touring Mexican provinces, she came back to the capital in 1889, this time performing at the Teatro El Nacional.

Theatrical company

The same year she returned to Spain, broke off her contract with Burón and created her own theatrical company bearing her name. Over the next 20 years, she performed with her company in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Santo Domingo, Panama, Costa Rica and Venezuela, earning more than three million pesos, a veritable fortune. In 1910, now aged 50, Martínez Casado established the Sociedad para el Fomento del Teatro, a foundation aimed at encouraging Cuban authors to write plays and revive past Cuban theatrical works. In 1911, following the death of her husband, Martínez Casado retired from the stage, giving her last performance in Cárdenas where she played in Locura de amor by Manuel Tamayo y Baus.