Isela Vega starts her career in 1960 when she
appears in Verano Violento (Violent Summer)
by Alfonso Corona Blake, the first female credits
are for Erika Remberg and Adriana Roel. In
those years Mexican cinema takes advantage of
women's fashion: all the young actresses were
filmed in miniskirts, see-through baby dolls and
bikinis. Throughout that decade, Isela constantly
appears in credits that are rather eloquent: SOS
Conspiración bikini (SOS Bikini Conspiracy),
Mujeres, mujeres, mujeres (Women, Women,
Women), Las pecadoras (The Sinners), La cama
(The Bed), Las sicodélicas (Psychedelics), (where
she alternates the firstcredits with (Maura Monti,
Amedee Chabot and Elizabeth Campbell), El
matrimonio es como el demonio, (Marriage is like
the devil), El deseo llega de noche (Desire comes at
night), (where she already has the second credit),
Las golfas(Tarts), (where she has the lead role).
From that period, she stands out for her beauty,
her discipline and her capacity to challenge the
epoch's moral standards in spite of the limits that
her characters suffered. She works by the job:
in 1969, her name appears in nine films. When
Francisco del Villar calls her for the shooting of
Las pirañas aman en cuaresma (Piranhas love in
Lent), based on a text by Hugo Argüelles, Isela
brings different shades to the young and delightful
widow's role.
In 1972 she obtains her first Ariel nomination
for Las reglas del juego (The Game's Rules). In
1974, Sam Peckinpah calls her to form part of
Tráiganme la cabeza de Alfredo García, (Bring
me Alfredo García's Head), regardless of the
negative reactions caused by the film, the -at that
point-, young Roger Ebert discovers an actress
as "erotic as the young Anna Magnani" and by
Warren Oate's side they achieve "a sacred acting".
Possibly without having read the American critic
Arturo Ripstein, he calls her in 1977 to give her a
co-star with Mario Almada in La viuda negra (Black
Widow), based on the theater play by Rafael
Solana that would be banned during José López
Portillo's administration. It is in 1984 when it gets
released and receives the first Ariel.
In its days, it combines theatre and cinema;
thanks to her popularity as a striptease artist, a
peculiar phenomenon arises; her acting on the
proscenium are authentic swearing and double
entendre duels. Isela is courageous with her
admirors and draws the limits. She participates
in "Ficheras films" but does no longer work by the
job. In 1986, she produces and directs Los amantes
del señor de la noche (Lovers of the Night's
Master), another story by Hugo Argüelles. From La
ley de Herodes (Herodes Law), by Luis Estrada and
without any need for bikinins, every performance
by Isela Vega is a singular and profane moment.
Carlos Monsiváis summarizes it: "Professional
provocateur, sex symbol, idiomatic defiance".
0
