Mary Aranza
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(born on September 13th 1953) was an actress and performer. Her full name was Maria De Jesus Aranzábal. Mary was the mother of Sol Aranza a well known voice actress and stage performer who lends her voice to “Paige Mathews” in the Spanish dubbing for “Charmed” and was initiated in the business of entertainment by her mother. Its said that Mary was born in Torreón Coahuila but no one has confirmed this data yet.
Mary Aranza grew up in a traditional Mexican family most of which were from Puebla a city near Mexico’s capital city, she studied in the “Benito Juarez” elementary school before she went on the “Renacimiento” a Mexican nun’s boarding school for four years to study junior high school, she herself confirmed this data on the interview the “Eres” magazine (1997) saying jokingly that they expelled her from it because they were unable to expel the devil she carried inside even if they tried. She was a “tornado” according to herself and her family in the interview Oscar Cadena made them on December 10th 1997.
Mary never took acting lessons all through her life, but while being in high school in the National Mexican High School #8 were she is still remembered according to a recent interview for the “Tv y novelas” magazine in which her theater teacher who still works at the school said she was his number one actress ever since she went there, she took several parts on school plays and was able to tour with some of those over the country. Even on year 2001 she went back to this high school along with her daughter to play “Las fenicias” with this teacher as a director and his group of students to present in the National High School Theater Contest and won, this only adding to the long list of accomplishments she achieved.
Her commercial career began when Pablo Leder, a well-known theater director discovered her while singing in the “La Rana Rosa” a bohemian nightclub that could be translated as “The Pink Frog”, he introduced her to both the show business and Alejandro Jodorowsky, getting her a part on his movie “Santa Sangre”1 or “Holy Blood” and then allowing her to participate in several other movies that would make her career something beyond average. Mary Aranza was an actress all around, she participated in all sorts of movies, from “Dollar Mambo”, a piece of filmic art by Paul Leduc to “Especialista en señoras” a comedy mexican movie with Jorge Ortiz De Pinedo who was a very good friend of hers since Mr. Oscar Cadena a very important reporter for Televisa who is now the head lead for Televisa Cancún introduced them back when he had Mary working for him on his public joke show “No se rían que es en serio” (Don’t laugh I mean it).
But Mary didn’t stop there she also contributed in video music clips with several international figures who still call themselves her friends such as Shakira, Juan Gabriel, Caifanes (who changed their name to Jaguares), Mestizzo, Luis Miguel, Ricky Martin, Ashley, Limite and Alicia Villareal, among many others. Mary was also known for her altruist work with her daughter, for eight years they both participated in the “Teletón” a show 2 days lasting in which every actor, actress and host give their work for free to aid the Mexican children with disabilities, both mother and daughter participated since year one not only offering their work all through the show but also in the supporting commercial and yearly video music along with many singers and important show business people. Year 2006 the musical video had to be re-taken because of the events of the year, only half the video had been taken before October 23rd and being unable to continue the sequential scenes, on the retake Mary was edited.
In year 1990 Mary’s career peaked when she started making appearances in every show for the comedy night bar in channel 2 for Mexican tv 2, she became part of the base cast for “No se rian que es enserio” the sequel, “Camara in fraganti”, “La movida” and was a frequent guest in “Dr. Candido Perez”, “Al derecho y al Derbez” and “Con Permiso” which gained her a preferential place in the empress and allowed her to also be on the base cast for the channel 5 commercials. Up until 1995 she was also the lead face for campaigns such as “Ya te tomaste la foto” the Mexican program for voting credentials, “Solidaridad”, “Pegale al gordo” a lottery campaign, and “Carnaval en gigante” for the large chain of convenience stores “Gigante”. She also took part in simple tv and theater commercials for private sponsors such as “Ariel”, “Bital” (now HSBC), “Comercial Mexicana”, “Telvip”, “Chrysler”, “Sprite”, “Gamesa” among plenty of others.
Due to all of her acquaintances and according to Eugenio Derbez 3 himself Mary got a place on his base cast for every show he made because of his talent, Eugenio has produced and directed over ten shows himself all in which Mary made several appearances, he is one of the most recognized show people in Mexico and is said to have “the golden eye” knowing who really is and isn’t a good actor and by all the times they were seen together they’re said to be very good friends.
All through her career many people have questioned the relationship between Sol and Mary being mother and daughter and appearing so many times together in stage yet being at peaks always at different times if one has taken credit for the other or not, but they both said in several interviews to different media that being mother and daughter never affected their careers, while working each one of them had their place and even if they sometimes did help each other as colleagues they would never go beyond that.
Many gossip shows said this relationship would shatter after Sol’s public coming out as a lesbian in year 2004 in a gay parade, yet this only helped both their careers by granting them free publicity and putting them both back into the public eye. Mary made only one public statement about this in the radio show “En ambiente” (In ambiance, a word play alluding to being gay) saying that she loved her daughter for who she was and not who shared her life or bed with her,
Mary was also on several performances in private nightclubs such as “Las veladoras” or “Medusas” even if her primary goal was the theater this was the one thing she participated less in, taking part only on “Las emmanuel al rojo vivo”, “La Sexycienta” and “Exxxtasis” directed by her mentor Pablo Leder and “Shakespeare’s complete works”, “Anastasia”, “Peter Pan”, “El dedal magico” and the monologue “Idealistic Me” all directed by different people. Most of her theatrical work was made for the Mexican Autonomous University, even if she was a comedian at heart most of these plays were greek tragedies and Spanish literature art pieces, yet she did these for over 15 years.
Her work in movies was not only in English but also in Spanish 4 participating in movies such as “Travesuras de dos diablos” by Alfredo Leal, “La Muerte Y La Brujula” by Alex Cox, “Elisa Antes Del Fin Del Mundo”, “Cilantro y Perejil”, “Tu Primera Vez”, “Nicotina”, and of course “La Mexicana”.
She participated in mexican telenovelas such as “Carrusel de niños”, “Muchachitas”, “Maria Mercedes”, and “No tengo madre” all of which were very successful and are still in the memory of many.
Mary was very well known for her sense of humor and smile, she was a guest to both “Shanik” and “Marta Susana” talk shows in which she defended her point of view, always saying that being overweight wasn’t a disability nor should it affect women to the point it does. She always fought against prejudice and defended the rights of those who chose to live their lives differently, much like her own daughter.
She took place in the base cast of the Mexican show “El calabozo” directed at the youth of the country, a live show with “El burro” and Esteban Arce, she was a part of it only for two years before she decided to leave. The reasons she had to leave the show were never disclosed.
In year 2006 she made short appearances for Eugenio Derbez’s latest show, yet in October 23rd she departed from this life and the reason hasn’t been disclosed yet. Its known that the memorial was closed for the public and only allowed her closest friends, it was unexpected and only few media gave the news, no statement known has been given about this from her daughter to any media yet.
