Yolanda Andrade’s golden wedding anniversary with life, peppered with controversy and a passion to exist

The first time I had a notion of Yolanda Andrade (or well known today, 30 years later, with the nicknames of ‘El Chivo’ or ‘Joe’) was when she appeared in the soap opera ‘Yo no creo en los hombres’, produced by Lucy Orozco (the same from the famous version of ‘Teresa’ with Salma Hayek) in which she played the role of the teenage sister of the protagonist (Gabriela Roel) who was tormented by her perverse mother-in-law who sent her to jail ( the unforgettable Saby Kamalich).

I remember that the freshness of his appearance and the naturalness of his interpretation caught my attention. La Orozco —whose productions are missed; her very particular style and the scripts of her soap operas were unique – she knew that the Sinaloan was a budding talent and she took her back, this time as a young protagonist in ‘Las Secretas Intenciones’, where the sublime Helena Rojo was building a web. of perversions and evils, countered by the kind-hearted psychiatrist played by the recently deceased Enrique Rocha.

There Yolanda played Larisa, a young woman who suffered a mental breakdown because of her bad mother (Sylvia Pasquel) and as a pilón had a relationship with Cristian Castro who that year, 1992, was in fashion as a singer with “You will not be able” (the A duo was imposed on Orozco by Televisa, but as an actor he was inept like few others, proof of this is that he never again intervened in a melodrama, because really, it was someone else’s grief)

Here I make an aside: years later, the Castro boy made some salacious and vulgar comments about the ostensible ‘romance’ (rather, slip) that they allegedly sustained during production, and I find it tremendously ironic that he did that thing, given all that it happened years later.

Yolanda reached her peak as an actress in another Orozco soap opera: ‘Family portrait’ in which she repeated with Kamalich, La Rojo and shared with Diana Bracho, to embody a wild, mean, pathologically envious, arrogant and very funny: Elvira, a spoiled girl from Guadalajara who declared war on her socialite mother because she swore that she had taken her boyfriend down, while in the process she emotionally tortured her little brothers, Aitor Iturrioz and Iran Castillo, while her nanny – la legendary Alicia Montoya— tried to get the chamuco out of her body with good advice and compassion.

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The telenovela —a classic of the ‘camp’ within the national melodrama — was quite successful (especially because it entered the emergency room to replace the “cursed” telenovela ‘La Paloma’) and from there Yolanda became the protagonist in ‘Sentimientos ajenos’, where she went on to suffer the unspeakable as a martyr married to the obsessively jealous Carlos Ponce, at the hands of her cynical and malevolent sister played by Chantal Andere. The soap opera of yore was on AAA time and it made a lot of noise, although it did not have the expected success, but Yolanda was at her best; Her last soap opera as an actress was (again as a bad soulless) in ‘Los Niños de Nadie’, which the public did not like and disappeared without a trace, leaving Andrade at a crossroads.

It was around this time that I met Yolanda; I was starting my professional career and both she and Monserrat Oliver were figures that I saw in various social events that were part of my work at that time as a fledgling editor. Both were always generous with their time, kind in their treatment and very accessible. No one at the time was interested in the nature of their relationship or the orientation of their people.

Yolanda regained popularity by participating as one of the most prominent contestants in the first broadcast of ‘Big Brother VIP “in 2004. It was that year when, ostensibly, the close relationship between her and Verónica Castro took place which, according to what she stated in At the time, it was a friendship that evolved into a sentimental relationship (by then, the sentimental relationship between Monserrat and Yolanda had become the close friendship and society they maintain, having left acting forever to be part of the phenomenon that was’ Daughters of Mother Earth ‘).

The details that are known about this period and relationship are concise (and perhaps it is better that it be so, I think, finally it is something that nobody else is concerned with but those involved), but in an interview with Javier Poza the issue came up that there was a ‘ceremony’ in Holland where they ‘got together’. By then, Yolanda Andrade’s orientation was an open secret and she hadn’t bothered to confirm it or (uselessly) deny it, leaving the arena of public opinion to say anything.

However, opening the door put Yolanda at a disadvantage. There are those who consider it very low that he has named Verónica Castro as his presumed partner of yesteryear, without her consent – personally I think it was a false step, but also that Castro’s reaction only served to generate a series of unnecessary controversies, derived from an indiscretion that should not have happened, but which was also a known rumor for more than a decade.

This resulted in a virtual stoning of Yolanda’s networks and she was further vilified.

Today, Yolanda reaches 50 years of age converted into a figure of influence. I think it is very important that she has finally been clear about her position in public life, because that helps many women (not necessarily only young people) to accept themselves and make their way, with greater freedom and honesty. Her time as an actress is over (and she was good) but as a public figure she is remarkable and her acid humor is something that totally sets her apart.

Undoubtedly, in these golden wedding anniversary with life, Andrade, ‘Joe’, has left a clear and firm mark in the media and has managed to be someone relevant with all his chiaroscuro. I prefer to think that beyond her gaffes (she is human), Yolanda Andrade is a unique figure and that she has done more good than harm in her career, to open the door to the visibility and acceptance of diversity in Mexico and that is something that will always distinguish her in her generation.

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