We didn’t only know Marisa Paredes from cinema and her iconic films with Pedro Almodovar. Not only was she the actress of “Is there any possibility, however small, of saving what is ours?” or “Oh, Betty, except drinking, how difficult everything is for me” from The Flower of My Secret that we managed to reproduce so many times with sarcasm during our college years. Marisa Paredes was also the red, vindictive actress, the one who one day was wearing a cape and tunic to the Goya – her clothing and her great diva hairstyle were also very iconic – and the next she was at a left-wing demonstration remembering that yes, she was now one of those respectable actresses, but that He was born and lived in a small apartment in Plaza Santa Ana in Madrid (when it was not touristy at all) and he had to earn everything hard from below. And, for that reason, she was also the muse of the left-wing media.
The actress was in demonstrations until the end. He would point out those things that bothered him in interviews and then he would go. This same year he was defending public health, he was against the felling of trees and this same November 30, a little more than 15 days ago, he was in Puerta del Sol along with other artists such as Miguel Ríos, Annie B. Sweet and Isabel Ordaz calling for an end to the bombings in Gaza. He read part of a manifesto that called for “the bombs to stop so we can listen,” emphasizing the denunciation of the murders of children and 137 journalists in the Israeli offensive.
Regarding the felling of trees, he had recalled in an interview in InfoLibre What the Plaza de Santa Ana was like in his childhood. “Until I was 16 we didn’t move to a council house, so that’s my square, the one that saw my awakening in life. It was a jewel when I was little, beautiful, full of trees and fountains everywhere. “. Hence he did not hesitate to oppose the logging of which, he said, he had learned about from a taxi driver.
“You have to be afraid of ignorance and dogmatism. You have to be afraid of war”
There are many more vindicating scenes of the Paredes if you go to the newspaper archive. In 2023, demonstration for the defense of LGTBIQ+ rightsin recent years he was in all of the 8M for women’s rights and further back in time, against the Labor Reform of 2012, that of the Government of Mariano Rajoy, where she can be seen in photos with the film director Benito Zambrano.
And even further back, perhaps one of his most remembered performances since it was one of those moments that paralyzed the country: the famous Goya gala in 2003. ‘No to War’. The one in which the Animal Facility, with Alberto San Juan and Willy Toledo At the head, they cheered all of Spain (and above all, against the Government of José María Aznar) not to go to war in Iraq.
“This is not a tense night, but a free one. We do not have to be afraid of culture or entertainment, nor freedom of expression, much less satire, humor. You have to be afraid of ignorance and dogmatism. “You have to be afraid of war.”said Paredes, starting one of those ovations from the public that are not forgotten. She was then the president of the Film Academy. A few days later they were three million who demonstrated in the streets against the war.
In 2018, the actress returned to the Goya stage to collect the only one she has, which is Honor. Yes, despite all his filmography, he has nothing more. And there he said: “I would repeat the No to War speech again.” It was quite clear.
Marisa Paredes made many of us smile. Because we had seen it when we went to the movies so much in our university years. Because her physique, her way of dressing and her hair style were curious to us. She was one of those great ladies of old-fashioned cinema and theater. Because it seemed exaggerated and melodramatic to us. And because then it was there, in all those demonstrations that we also went to. There is a certain image of the Spain of a time -late nineties, early 2000s- who are very attached to his figure. And, for that reason, today too many people will feel that something is gone.
