Adela Sequeyro

Adela Sequeyro Haro (March 11, 1901 - December 24, 1992) was a Mexican journalist, actress, filmmaker and screenwriter. She was a pioneer of Mexican cinema both during the silent era and the talkies.

Early life

Adela Sequeyro was born March 11, 1901 in Veracruz, Mexico to a liberal and well-established family headed by Frederico Sequeyro-Arrola and Virginia Haro y Gutiérrez-Zamora. Financially weakened by the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, the family was constrained to move to Cuautitlán. Sequeyro attended the French-English school of Mexico City before starting an early career in journalism.

Career

Beginning her journalism career in 1923, Sequeyro started writing about cinema for El Democráta. She began acting the same year under the stage name Perlita and in 1935, she played an important part in Fernando de Fuentes's film, Él prisonero número trece. As her love for cinema grew founder, Sequeyro became interested in filmmaking. However, as a woman, she was not able to join the industry’s labor union. In response, she founded the film production cooperative Éxito with support of the Banco de Credit Popular and was able to produce her first film Más Allá de la Muerte in 1935. In 1937, Sequeyro founded another cooperative with her husband Mario named Carola with which she wrote, direct and produce her second film La Mujer Nadie. In 1938, despite financial difficulties, she wrote and directed Diabillos del arrabel. The film was a failure at the box office and, unable to pay her crew and forsaken by the union, she was compelled to sell the rights to her film. By 1943, Sequeyro was bankrupt and retired from film production. She returned to journalism and work for El Universal Gráfico until 1953, year of her retirement. During her journalism career Sequeyro also worked in collaboration with El Universal Ilustrado, El Universal Taurino and Revista de Revistas. She wrote interviews, columns and reviews of all sort and would sometimes sign under the pseudonym of Perlita as reminiscence of old days.

During her career, Sequeyro frequented important figures of the national culture scene of the time, including cartoonist Ernesto García Cabral, painter and filmmaker Adolfo Best Maugard and Arqueles Vela, poet, writer and founder of the Stridentism movement.

Late years

She was all but forgotten as a pioneer of Mexican cinema until Marcela Fernandez Violante interviewed her in 1986 for the implementation of her book on Mexican Women Film Pioneers published in 1987. The CIEC/Universidad de Guadalajara also helped sponsored research to retrieve and restore Sequeyro's films. The very end of her life was spend under the care of her only child Sandra until her death on December 24, 1992. Adela Sequeyro was 91 years old when she died in Mexico City.

Filmography