The Sevilla Press publishing house has just launched the second edition of the book ‘Carmen Sevilla, the bride of Spain’, the first edition of which was released last year on the occasion of the artist’s 92nd birthday. The book of 182 pages and more than 100 photographs, many of them unpublished, has been written by the Sevillian journalist Alfredo Sánchez and is available in all bookstores in Spain, department stores and Amazon.
The last images broadcast of the artist before her illness worsened correspond to those of her 81st birthday, “so that for ten years little has been known about the artist except that she lives withdrawn from public life and is perfectly cared for, although her captivating smile It has not been erased from his face”, they have reported from the editorial.
Carmen García Galisteo, Carmen Sevilla, is in the Sanyres de Aravaca residence, Madrid, “where only two people can visit her: her only son, Augusto, and her faithful Moncho Ferrer, a trusted person. This Monday she has been admitted urgently,” have added.
Carmen Sevilla was born on October 16, 1930 in the city that gave her the name with which she triumphed throughout the world. Specifically, in the Heliópolis neighborhood, in a chalet owned by her grandfather where there is currently a plaque with the name of the artist.
She was baptized in the Cathedral of Seville before the image of the Virgen de los Reyes, patron saint of the city receiving the name of María del Carmen García Galisteo. Her godfather was Antonio Olmedo, director of the ABC newspaper in Seville.
And it was in the Macarena neighborhood, at number 23 Calle Feria, where she grew up with the dream of being a dancer. The daughter of the lyricist for Estrellita Castro and Imperio Argentina learned to dance at the academy of the famous dancer Realito, located across from her house. The dance school later moved to the Alameda de Hércules, where a tile remembers him. The career of this beautiful and multifaceted woman began to be built on the streets of Seville.
The woman who fell in love with great Hollywood actors, who triumphed in music and in the cinema and who, “after a few years away from the spotlight, was resurrected, and in what way, as a television star.”
From Sevilla Press they have clarified that, in reality, Carmen Sevilla was born in 1931 and not in 1930 as the biographies say. “Unlike the rest of the folkloric women of the time, she put on years instead of taking them off.”
This is how Carmen Sevilla herself explained to the journalist Manuel Román the traditional confusion with her year of birth. “In the encyclopedias, in any biographical text about me, it appears as born in Seville in 1930. You know why, because when I started as a young girl, sponsored by Estrellita Castro, I was a minor and to be a professional I had to necessarily get the card from the National Union of Entertainment where, not having the required minimum age to provide it, I had to put on one more year. And of course, the thing continued, it was rolling and it was no longer possible for me to rectify. But I’ll tell you very clearly , that I came into the world in 1931!”, recounted the artist.
‘Carmen Sevilla, the bride of Spain’, is the sixth volume of a collection of graphic lives published by Sevilla Press and which began with ‘Canta Rocío Canta’ and ‘I’m Raphaelista’, by journalist Marina Bernal and dedicated to Rocío Jurado and Raphael.
This collection continued with the books ‘Surviviente Pantoja’, ‘Paquirri en Primera Persona’ and ‘Jesulín 3.0’, the latter three also by journalist Alfredo Sánchez. ‘Gracia Montes la Voz de Cristal’, by Juan Mellado and recently Con el ’17* Joaquín’, dedicated to the Betic international and which has just arrived in bookstores.
