Adriana Barraza

Actor

• Born: March 5, 1956
• Place of Birth: Toluca, Mexico

Contribution: Adriana Barraza is an Academy Award–nominated actor best known for her role in Babel (2006).

Background

Adriana Barraza was born in Toluca, Mexico, on March 5, 1956. She began acting in university productions in 1973, appearing in such plays as William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream). Some of the productions in which Barraza appeared were presented at the prestigious Siglo de Oro Drama Festival held at the Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, Texas.

Beginning in 1982 Barraza taught acting at the Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua (Autonomous University of Chihuahua). In 1985 she moved to Mexico City and began writing and narrating adaptations of literature for television and radio. That year she also made her first television appearance, playing the character of Lupe in the series Mujer, casos de la vida real (Woman, cases of real life). The program also provided Barraza with the opportunity to hone her directing skills.

Career

During the 1990s Barraza became a familiar figure on Mexican television, appearing in the television film Las cosas simples (The simple things, 1993) and several telenovelas (soap operas), including La paloma (The dove), Imperio de cristal (Crystal empire), and La culpa (Guilt). Between 1999 and 2011 Barraza directed or codirected episodes of numerous Spanish-language programs, including Aventuras en el tiempo (Adventures in time), Eva Luna, and Sacrificio de Mujer (A woman’s sacrifice).

In 2000 Barraza appeared in a supporting role in Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s debut feature film, Amores Perros. The film, which features three interlinked stories about the lives of Mexico’s underclass, swept the country’s Ariel Awards and won many other Spanish-language film awards throughout the world. It was also well received in the United States, where it garnered an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film. Barraza continued to work in Mexican television throughout the early 2000s. In 2004, however, her career shifted to the United States when she was hired by Telemundo, an American producer and broadcaster of Spanish-language television programming. During her tenure with Telemundo, Barraza focused on acting development and accent coaching.

Two years later Barraza gained widespread attention with her role in Iñárritu’s 2006 drama Babel, which features several interconnected stories. Barraza plays Amelia, a Mexican woman who is illegally working as a nanny in the United States. When the parents of her two young charges go to Morocco and stay there longer than planned, Amelia is forced to take the children with her to Mexico for her son’s wedding and trek through the desert with the children when their return trip takes an unfortunate turn. Babel was widely praised by critics and earned many international awards, including the 2007 Golden Globe Award for best drama. Barraza won several awards for her performance, including the American Latino Media Arts Award and the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actress.

This widespread recognition presented Barraza with numerous opportunities, and she began to take on more English-speaking roles. In 2008 she played a supporting role in Henry Poole Is Here, about a man whose devoutly religious neighbor, played by Barraza, sees the face of Jesus Christ in a stain on his wall. She also earned more prominent roles in Spanish-language productions, playing prominent characters in Tres piezas de amor en un fin de semana (Three pieces of love in a weekend, 2009) and Cerro Bayo (Mount Bayo, 2010).

In 2011 Barraza won the Imagen Award for best supporting actress for her role as Aurelia Jimenez in the dramatic comedy From Prada to Nada. Based loosely on the nineteenth-century Jane Austen novel Sense and Sensibility, the film follows two Mexican American sisters who suddenly find themselves bankrupt after their father dies. Barraza also won fans for her performance in the film Mariachi Gringo (2012), in which she plays the mother of a local restaurant owner who takes an amateur American mariachi musician under her wing.

Starting in 2014, Barraza had a recurring minor role in the first three seasons of the FX horror drama The Strain, created by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. On the big screen, she played opposite Jennifer Aniston in the drama Cake (2014), and had a supporting role in the Western Wild Horses, directed by and starring Robert Duvall. Retaining a high profile in her native Mexico, Barraza was nominated in 2017 for an Ariel Award (the "Mexican Oscar") for best actress for her role in Todo lo demás (Everything Else, 2016), written and directed by Mexican American filmmaker Natalia Almada.

Between 2016 and 2017, Barraza appeared as Trinidad Altamariano in 116 episodes of the Telemundo telenovela Silvana Sin Lana, about a wealthy woman who loses everything and is forced to work for a living. She followed this in 2018 with sixty appearances as Carmen Rosares in the television drama Al Otro Lado del Muro, a Spanish telenovela also produced by Telemundo. During 2019, she appeared in several movies, including playing the abuelita in Dora and the Lost City of Gold, as well a three-episode run as Mariela Villenueva in the FX show Snowfall.

Barraza was Maria Vega in ten episodes of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, a single-season horror series made for Showtime in 2020. She was featured as Rosa in three episodes of the television series Here on Earth that same year. After appearing in several minor movies in 2021, Barraza returned to television in 2022 to play Minou in ten episodes of the Netflix series Diary of a Gigalo. In 2023, she played the lead role of Georgina in Where the Tracks End, the story of a rural Mexican schoolteacher. In 2024's My Penguin Friend, based on a true story about a penguin lost because of an oil spill, Barraza played the role of Maria, lead character João's wife. In mid-2024, it was announced that she would join the cast of the Prime Video comic book-based series El Gato.

Impact

Although initially a soap opera actor and director known mostly within the Spanish-speaking communities of Mexico and the United States, Barraza became an international film star with her critically acclaimed performance in Babel. She has been recognized with numerous award nominations for her work and in 2007 was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Personal Life

Barraza is married to actor Arnaldo Pipke. She was previously married to Carlos Valsagna, who adopted Barraza's daughter, actress Carolina Valsagna.

Bibliography

"Adriana Barraza." IMDb, www.imdb.com/name/nm0056770/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2024.

Andreeva, Nellie. “Adriana Barraza Joins ‘Saint George.’” Deadline. PMC, 23 July 2013. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.

Barraza, Adriana. “Interview with Master Actress Adriana Barraza.” Interview by Pilar Latoni. AOL Latino. AOL, 20 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.

Cordero, Rosy. "Sarah Jones & Adriana Barraza Join Prime Video’s Comic Book Series El Gato." Deadline, 11 June 2024, deadline.com/2024/06/sarah-jones-adriana-barraza-cast-prime-video-series-el-gato-1235970482/. Accessed 17 Sept. 2024.

Hernandez, Christine. “‘From Prada to Nada,’ Inspired through Hardship.” Daily 49er. California State U, Long Beach, 2 Feb. 2011. Web. 22 Aug. 2013.

Marr, Madeleine. “As Seen on Screen: Hanging Out with Hotties All in a Day’s Work for Adriana Barraza.” Miami Herald [FL] 11 Aug. 2008: A8. Print.

Sneider, Jeff, and Jill Feiwell. “Nominees Savor Moment in Spotlight.” Daily Variety 24 Jan. 2007: 14. Print.