Mapy Cortés


Maria del Pilar Cordero, better known as Mapy Cortés was a Puerto Rican stage, film and television actress and dancer who participated in many films during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, where she became one of the industry's most beloved and bankable stars of the 1940s.

Biography

Mapy Cortés began experimenting as an actress since an early age, working in Puerto Rican amateur theater. In the early 1930s, Mapy traveled to New York City, where she married childhood friend Fernando "Papi" Cortés. Under contract to a theatrical troupe headlined by Dominican baritone Eduardo Brito, the couple traveled to Spain. After the company disbanded, the couple began performing in different teatro de revista companies, primarily in Barcelona. In 1933, Mapy Cortés made her film debut as one of the two female leads in the comedy Dos Mujeres y un Don Juan. By that time Cortés had a nephew, Paquito Cordero, who would become a famed actor and producer in Puerto Rico.
After the start of the Spanish Civil War, Mapy and Fernando Cortés went to Marseilles before making their way down to Argentina. Following stops in Buenos Aires and Havana, where they appeared on stage and movies, the couple traveled to Mexico City. They made their stage debut as part of the Cantinflas revue and soon joined the growing Mexican film industry, which lacked established female stars. Back-to-back starring roles in three hit films - the Pan-American musical La liga de las canciones / The League of Songs, the nostalgia musical comedy ¡Ay, qué tiempos, señor don Simón! / Oh, What Times, Don Simon! and the Cantinflas comedy El gendarme desconocido / The Unknown Policeman - quickly turned Mapy Cortés into one of the most bankable leading ladies in Mexican cinema. In 1942, Cortés made her only foray into Hollywood cinema, playing a singer in the 1942 RKO wartime musical comedy Seven Days' Leave. Her eponymous character is engaged to Victor Mature's soldier character before he falls in love with a socialite played by Lucille Ball. Also in the 1940s, the U.S. State Department created a short propaganda film titled Mexican Moods, soon after Mexico joined the United Nations, which featured Cortés and Cantinflas.
After filming ended, Mapy Cortés returned to fulfill multiple engagements in Mexico, playing top-billed roles in musical comedies. In 1945, the Mapy Cortés vehicle La pícara Susana / Mischievous Susana marked the directorial debut of her husband Fernando, who remained very active as a comedy director in Mexican film and TV, directing vehicles for popular Mexican comedians like Tin-Tan, Resortes, and la India Maria.
While Fernando remained in demand as director until his death, Mapy's film career waned in the 1950s. The couple received an invitation from Ángel Ramos, owner of El Mundo Enterprises, to work on the first television transmission of WKAQ-TV Telemundo Channel 2. On March 28, 1954, Puerto Rico received its first television transmission from Telemundo: a live broadcast of the Spanish comedy El caso de la mujer asesinadita, starring Mapy and directed by Fernando. The couple also starred in the station's first comedy show Mapy y Papi, an adaptation of the I Love Lucy format that also featured Maria Judith Franco and Mapy's nephew Paquito Cordero. After the show came off the air in Puerto Rico, the couple returned to Mexico City, where they starred in a Mexican version of Mapy y Papi.
Her niece Mapita Cortés, Miss Puerto Rico 1957, lived with them in Mexico City and also joined the Mexican film industry in the late 1950s and subsequently the Mexican telenovela industry, becoming a star in both. After an eight-year absence, Mapy Cortés made a brief return to Mexican cinema with a supporting role in the comedy Dormitorio para señoritas / Girls' Dormitory , a loose remake of her 1943 hit Internado para señoritas / Girls' Dormitory, starring Mapita and directed by husband Fernando. However, Mapita retired after her marriage to popular Chilean crooner Lucho Gatica. By the 1960s, Mapy was working mostly on the Mexico City stage, including roles in comedies by Spanish author Alfonso Paso. Her last film appearances were playing supporting roles in three Puerto Rican/Mexican co-productions, filmed in Puerto Rico, directed by her husband, and produced by her nephew Paquito.
After Fernando Cortés died, Mapy Cortés returned to Puerto Rico and led a relatively quiet life. She died at her home in 1998, of a heart attack. She was buried at the Puerto Rico Memorial Cemetery in Carolina, Puerto Rico.

Filmography