Last Sunday, Marisa Paredes attended the last performance of the season of Bohemian lights at the Spanish Theater in the Plaza de Santa Ana, in which his daughter, the actress María Isasi, participated. Three days later, that same stage housed Paredes’ coffin. From 10 in the morning to 12:21 at noon, the funeral chapel of the actress – who combined the legend of a diva with the militancy of the working class – was open for just over two hours in the emblematic building that permeated her the love of acting when she was the daughter of the janitor and the worker at the El Águila brewery. Because Paredes, who died on Tuesday at the age of 78, said goodbye to her friends, family, engagement partners, politicians and the general public 140 meters from the house where she grew up, in the same square, at number 13 , which houses an iconic Hawaiian bar, a building that now transcends its gray air.
On a cold, icy morning, Paredes’s coffin did not lack warmth or affection. The media was crowding outside; Inside, the stalls quickly filled with family members—his daughter, María, his siblings Petra and Ángel, his companion of the last four decades, Chema Prado, harboring an internal storm that his face did not convey—and his friends and colleagues. . In the queue, 10 minutes before 10, just as the funeral car arrived from the funeral home, costume designer Paco Delgado, a double Oscar candidate, and filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona were already sharing memories. Once the doors were open, inside the Español the thousand worlds of Paredes came together: theater, cinema, television, from the old school through the Almodóvar world to the Javis. And of course, his political side, his commitment to the people that led him to support Sumar. Hence, the presence of the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, and the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, went beyond protocol: they said goodbye to their fellow fighter.
Urtasun and the president of the Film Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, took the opportunity to announce “a great tribute” at the next edition of the Goya Awards, on February 8 in Granada. “We are going to pay a great tribute to Marisa, which is also the place to do it, among her people, those of cinema. It is where I think she would have liked to be honored and remembered,” the minister explained. Next, in the presence of Ignasi Camós, director of the ICAA, and the director of the Spanish Film Library, Valeria Camporesi, he revealed that this institution will prepare “a retrospective of what was the greatest and most extensive work” of the actress. Both Urtasun and Díaz described the deceased as a “friend.” The vice president defined Paredes as “a brand of Spain and on this sad day his legacy and his fighting spirit remain.” “I ran into her very recently and she scolded me, because she said that we had to fight even more against the right and that they couldn’t overwhelm us.”
For Bayona, “Marisa is the icon of Spanish cinema, and in person she was very approachable, which she combined wonderfully.” Director Pablo Berger also pointed out: “She was the first actress I met… At the San Sebastián festival on an unforgettable night in the eighties with Iván Zulueta.” The screenwriter and director Joaquín Oristrell remembered that he was with Marisa Paredes in the Academy’s leadership when the “No to War” gala took place. “It was a very tough battle. After the ceremony, she locked herself with Chema at home and I remember seeing her dressed like a diva, giving a wonderful speech, analyzing the comments, and she put on the kitchen gloves and started washing the dishes. And there the image of the Hollywood diva merged with the goalkeeper’s daughter,” she said, smiling.
That “commitment to his time” was what José Sacristán highlighted, who directed Paredes in his second film as a director, Chard face. “I remember it from its beginnings, and always in our journeys in pursuit of a better society,” he concluded.
Others present in a funeral chapel that closed at 12:00 sharp, although the hearse did not leave until 12:21, were screenwriters such as Lola Salvador or Juan Luis Iborra; producers Antonio Pérez, Enrique Cerezo, Antonio Saura and Esther García, who also, as part of El Deseo, represented the Almodóvar brothers, promoting in Paris; the head of the Cervantes Institute Luis García Montero; production director Sol Carnicero; the playwrights Mario Gas and Lluís Pasqual, who was finishing his next work with Paredes and who left the theater quietly, without attracting attention; the composer Alberto Iglesias; the cultural manager Alicia Moreno; the directors Manuel Martín Cuenca, Juan Vicente Córdoba and Julio Medem; the actors Vicky Peña, Miguel Ángel Muñoz, Jorge Calvo, a saddened Juan Diego Botto, the couple of protagonists of Bohemian lights Ginés García Millán and Antonio Molero, Bárbara Lennie, Pastora Vega, Juan Echanove, Alberto Ammann, Eulalia Ramón, Daniel Freire, Ruth Gabriel, Lluís Homar, Guillermo Montesinos, Elena Anaya…
And of course, Rossy de Palma, leading a group of Almodóvar girls. Bibiana Fernández said as she left the funeral chapel: “Be careful, she was not only a Spanish actress, but an international one. At least he left without suffering, and left the grief to us friends. She was a queen and she leaves like a queen. Today is going to be a difficult day. Let us remember their commitment.” At her side, Loles León said: “A friend and a fighter for the rights of all is leaving, a stirrer of hearts, with a lot of character. We have lost our compass, now we will have to do what Rossy says.” Because on the Spanish stage they had joined together in front of a coffin surrounded by wreaths – those of Caetano Veloso and the Almodóvar brothers stood out – and a not very large but very accurate photo of a smiling Paredes.
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, the Javis, had worked with the actress in what has now become her latest work, Dressed in blue. On the street, they explained: “Last week we talked about a future project. He had millions of plans. We will remember his joy, his enthusiasm, his desire, his strength. “We believed it was eternal.” Eduard Fernández, who represented with her Hamlet, He said with tears in his eyes: “I will remember his happy madness. Marisa was a colorful woman, with a secret about life… What was it? “I never found out.”
There were more politicians, such as Marta Rivera de la Cruz, Culture delegate of the Madrid City Council; the new leader of the PSOE-Madrid and minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López; and the municipal spokespersons of PSOE and Más Madrid, Reyes Maroto and Rita Maestre; or Francisca Armengol, president of the Congress of Deputies.
And at the end, María Isasi, near a sign that still announced Bohemian lights with his name, he spoke in a beautiful ending: “Fight in the streets, ask for everyone’s rights, fight against war. That be your legacy. This world is a wonderful world. There is room for everyone and we deserve to live in peace and have all the rights we need to have (…). Only in this way will we change the world and make it better. Thank you for loving her so much. We have received so much love that I think she was not even aware of how much she was loved. And now we will have to learn to walk without her, but with her example and her image. There it is. It is yours forever. Thank you”. The applause said goodbye to Paredes’ coffin, which left the Plaza de Santa Ana forever.