the movie suggests that Andres' love interest was an oriental woman. The actress looks spanish to me. But my friend, she thinks the actress was definitely oriental. We can't find the listing of an asian person in the cast. Whose right? Can anybody help??
shareHi, guyheno. The actress who plays the character on "nena" (baby) is Milagros Jiménez. In another movie she's casted as "Li", that would make you think that the character is asian too. She has a totally spanish name, but i would say her face is quite exotic and oriental looking (or maybe of south american-natives ancestors, wich would explain her spanish name better). I haven't found anything about her background, and apparently she's only made 2 movies. I hope that helps.
shareI think she might be from the Philippines...
shareI would say that is a resonable guess. The Spanish were in the Philippines for quite some time...some of the language even have strong Spanish influences (Spanish was the official language at one time). If you listen to "Be Bop" by the Black Eyed Peas, you can hear it quite clearly.
"Tumors are good for brains. They make them grow big and strong."
I think it would be good to be politically correct here and say Asian instead of Oriental.
shareIf you read the story that this subplot is based on (Saxos en la niebla), the girl is described as having "ojos rasgados" (Asian-looking eyes) and a long dark braid. The musician even calls her "chinita," but this could also be a term of endearment for a diminutive woman with some Asian features (it is said of Amerindian women, for example). So it never becomes definite that she is Chinese. How would a Chinese girl wind up in rural Galicia at this point in time (1940)—it would be highly unlikely.
She merely looks that way, as part of the overall mystery of her origin. And it symbolizes her subjection to her brutal husband. That way she remains a mysterious and compelling figure the musician meets while on tour, almost a figment of his imagination. In a nearly magical way, she inspires him to begin playing like a virtuoso when he was a mediocre novice up to that point.
For the film, I think they did their best to find an actress who suggests Asian beauty, but whose identity stays ambiguous.
I agree that a Chinese or other Asian would have been a rarity in Spain of the 1930s. Some wealthy Filipinos did go to Spain in the 19th century, like Jose Rizal who studied medicine in Madrid. He later became a nationalist and fighter for independence. Some of the speculation about the actress Milagros Jimenez is too narrow: Spain today, like its neighbors, is very multicultural receiving immigrants from Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. There are many Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, etc). I know nothing about the actress but she might very well be the daughter of a Spanish father and Asian mother. Or she could be a Latin American mestiza. Currently there are many Ecuadorians who have immigrated to Spain.
Spain lost the Phillippines in 1898, but some spaniards remained and there was a connection to the country thereafter. Given that the girl was probably in her early 20s, and the movie happened in 1936, it is possible she was from the Phillippines. Also, in the phillippines, last names were not existent in their culture when the Spanish arrived and many filipinos when registered by the Spaniards were made to take a Spanish last name. You had to choose a name starting with a specific letter that changed according to the date of the week or something like that. The actress name could definitely be filipino, as Spanish first names were common due to the conversion to catholicism.
The girl could have been filipina, chinese, native american or even from Spain as far as we know.
What really matters is that Andrés thought she was from China and that they both fell in love with each other without even saying a word.
The story of "Andrés y la chinita" is another beautiful but sad episode from this wonderful spanish movie.
9.5/10