There is no need to go to Felipe II or Zorrilla: Concha Velasco, Rosa Chacel, Miguel Delibes, Jorge Guillén, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Elvira Mínguez, Fernando Cayo, Daniel Muriel, Paco Umbral, who began writing in Valladolid, and, of course, Lola Herrera. Something must have a city, perhaps Pisuerga, which, without reaching 300,000 inhabitants, has given birth to so many first swords of culture. Lola Herrera (Valladolid, 1935) has received the recognition of the Restoration Guild in Barcelona on the occasion of the feast of Santa Eulàlia, co-patron of the city. Last year he collected the Bisnaga de Plata and the Tota una vida award from the Union of Actors and Actresses. “I feel like a deluge of awards is falling on me (laughter). I think it’s also because of the years: the people of my generation are all marching on, there are only a few of us left”, he explains sarcastically in a conversation with La Vanguardia.
Barcelona’s tribute was in the La Paloma hall. The actress kept looking in awe at the ceiling and roofs of the space. His speech was a simile of the times when Barcelona was the Spanish theater capital: “Since 1957 I have come to work in practically all the theaters in the city: Calderón, Romea, Goya, Candilejas, Talía, Windsor, Villarroel, Tívoli… They are part of the history of Barcelona. With the demolition of the Calderón – an irreparable loss for the city – they also took the Candilejas, the Bolero party hall and La Luna, a meeting place for people in the profession. When we left the night function we enjoyed an atmosphere of freedom, even in the grayest of times. How many interesting people I met in the nocturnal suburbs… An amazing world with unique places in years when everything was forbidden”, recalls the actress.
Lola Herrera discovered Barcelona thanks to her aunt María, who arrived in the city when she was escaping a bitter fate: “She was a seamstress and worked for a firm making underwear, which were small works of art. At that time, a woman with a paid job but unmarried and living at her parents’ house also had to take care of her unmarried brothers, married sisters and sisters-in-law when they gave birth. Remaining single was the closest thing to slavery. Also, he had an abusive father. So, he ran out of Valladolid, came to Barcelona and found everything he hadn’t had.” And she transferred her love for the city to him.
Herrera is happy that, after the move
Lola Herrera returns to Madrid with the play Adictos. At 88, he says he has no secrets to staying in shape. “Maybe I went through a post-war period, worked a lot and my parents didn’t leave me anything material, but I did have good genetics (laughs). I continue doing theater because it is what I like the most and what gives me life. I don’t know how long, life is what stops your heart and you go to the other neighborhood. I just want the audience to leave the theater happy now, when I’m alive.”
