Maria del Carmen Martinez-Villasenor Barrasa. Perhaps this voluminous name is not fully recognized, but if you talk about Mari Carmen and her dolls, things change. And it is that this well-known comedian and ventriloquist made her accessories a perfect tandem from which she has not been able to separate herself.
Born in Cuenca in 1943, this humorist approached the artistic world very early. She and she did it together with the father of José Luis Moreno in a theater that they performed in Madrid’s Retiro park. That was where she began a path that she never parted from again.
Four dolls were born with her: Nicol, the authentic duck; Daisi, the talkative teenager; Rodolfo, the endearing lion; and Doña Rogelia, the old curmudgeon who became her great success. Thanks to them and her appearances on Saturday Night, Mari Carmen became very popular with the general public.
A fame that led him to star alongside Lina Morgan in The Graduate in 1971. But his career in the cinema was more ephemeral than on television as such, where he participated for decades in countless programs. And always, yes, with his dolls.
Mari Carmen and her dolls became a regular on the variety shows that were successful on Spanish television in those years, mainly on the public channel but also on private ones. Proof of this is that she also hosted spaces on Telecinco in addition to the classics on TVE.
However, over the years, Mari Carmen’s appearances on television faded as other types of formats began to sound more powerful and have a better impact in terms of audience. However, she has always stated that she has not withdrawn from it, she is only preparing new projects that, with the latest health events on a global scale, have prevented her from formalizing her actions.
According to an interview in La Razón dating from 2021, this ventriloquist currently resides in Tenerife, where she seems to have moved with her dolls. However, her son remains in Madrid and a memory of the one who one day gave life to four puppets that are now part of the memory of several generations.
