Delfina Paredes: life and work of the first national actress who dreamed of being an aviator and archaeologist

In the six decades that she has been working in theater, film and television, Delfina Paredes has been able to represent Andean women with respect. Its history begins on September 27, 1934 when Delfina Cristina Paredes Aparicio was born in Mollendo, Arequipa.

From a Cusco mother and an Arequipa father, Delfina lived and studied in Cusco. There she dreamed of being an aviator and an archaeologist. In those years when television and the Internet did not exist, watching the trains go by was the ultimate entertainment for her and her siblings.

Although she studied chemistry at San Marcos University, Delfina Paredes fell in love with the theater. However, her artistic career began as a presenter for Radio Cusco.

In 1956 he entered the National School of Scenic Art (ENAE). Later, she got her first role as an actress in a theatrical adaptation of “El Caballero Carmelo” by Abraham Valderomar.

The Histrión group, a pool of great Peruvian actors, was his home for many years. Since the 70s, Delfina Paredes included poems by César Vallejo in her repertoire.

Likewise, Delfina Paredes has narrated stories by Peruvian authors such as Abraham Valdelomar and Manuel Scorza. She was the first actress to play Chunga de Mario Vargas Llosa.

Although she defines herself as a shy person, Delfina Paredes has raised her voice when it comes to defending the rights of others. That vocation of service was demonstrated in the two opportunities that she was secretary of the Actors Union of Peru.

History and theater

History became another of his passions that, added to the theater, gave rise to “Micaela Bastidas”, one of the radio plays that he wrote about Túpac Amaru’s wife.

It would be in 1994 when Delfina Paredes wrote a monologue on the War with Chile told from the point of view of the rabonas, who had the heroic and hard task of assisting the soldiers on the battlefield. Evangelina was the voice that would give humanity to these women whose treatment was derogatory and never recognized.

“It is the lofty expression of what the work of the village woman meant in the war with Chile, in which the women accompanied the Peruvian soldiers. The logistics, which occupy an important part in the army, were in charge of the rabonas “, commented to Trade in an interview conducted in 2015 regarding the premiere of ‘Evangelina returns from la Breña’.

Delfina Paredes has received all kinds of recognitions for her artistic career such as the National Theater Prize awarded by the INC, in 1986, and the Sara Joffré Prize, in 2017.

The cinema is part of his extensive artistic work. His filmography includes: ‘Fallen from heaven’ (1990), ‘And if I saw you, I don’t remember’ (1999), ‘El bien avocado’ (2001), ‘Motorcycle diaries’ (2004), ‘Casadentro’ (2012 ), ‘The debt’ (2015), ‘The rage’ (2017) and ‘The restoration’ (2020).

The pandemic didn’t stop her

At 87, Delfina Paredes continues to work from home. On the occasion of the Bicentennial of our Independence, she was one of the 25 people invited to write about Peru in times of pandemic. In the digital book ’25 essays since the pandemic to imagine Peru Bicentennial ‘and with the title’ The battle of being ourselves’, Delfina Paredes reflects on the past and the future as a country:

“The resignation of the State and of society is painful: not having economic wealth, we also renounce a possible enrichment of being ourselves, of learning to live in this land that was a witness and a continent of advanced cultures, scientifically and artistically, with an exemplary community practice of collective welfare ”.

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