About me

I was born in Bogotá, Colombia where my poverty stricken twenty-one year-old father had traveled to, with a bunch of his friends from Biskaia. One drunken night they made a bet to embark for America and search for "el dorado". In Bogotá, dad opened a bakery named Guernica, and quickly made a great life with my Colombian mother who's father was also a Basque. By age two we were living in Guernica, and then at age six the family moved to Hollywood. My father had a fascination for the cinema where he said he'd spent most of his frightful days hiding from the bombs and atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. My formative years from eleven to fourteen, I again lived in Guernica. Later in the eighties I returned to my beloved Basque Country to make a documentary for the 50th Anniversary of the bombing of that sacred ground. I brought my father with me, and we interviewed family and many of his childhood friends who had become artists, politicians, famous athletes, and most of whom are not with us any longer. They recounted their memories of those tragic times and then glorious recovering challenges. A television company in Galdakao produced my film, including putting me up in a comfortable furnished apartment, with a generous stipend and a brand new car. It was an amazing year and a half while making GERNIKA LIVES. I had been working as an actress in Hollywood and though successfully climbing the ladder to fame, I felt more the need to dig into my roots, and learn about my family history. Later, once again, I was fortunate to return to Spain. To Barcelona to do a series that would be the first co-production between the USA and Spain, titled DARK JUSTICE, where I would play the female lead. At the end of that stint, I turned my back on Hollywood and became a mother in Barcelona with Catalan artist, Xano Armenter. The work I do is flavored with my life experiences, and the ideas that interest me deeply, as a person and an artist. I had retreated from acting, except for a few projects here and there, including the Off-Broadway play, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, at The Labyrinth Theater Company, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman and the film, HEAT. I've been writing mostly and now with a daughter in college, those works are ready for production. TERESA'S ECSTASY, will open at the Cherry Lane Theatre March 4th, and run through April 1st. Opening Night is sponsored by Socarrat Paella Bar Nolita. I invite each an everyone of you to come celebrate with us, art, theatre and the human spirit. Salud! Begonya