Cris Miró

Cris Miró (16 September 1965 – 1 June 1999) was an Argentine entertainer and media personality who had a brief but influential career as a top-billing vedette in the Buenos Aires revue scene during the mid-to-late 1990s. Miró began her acting career in the early 1990s in fringe theatre plays and later rose to fame as a vedette at the Teatro Maipo in 1995. Miró became the first to become famous nation-wide and enter the mainstream,

She studied dance at Julio Bocca's school and acting with Alejandra Boero at the same time that she studied dentistry.

Career

In the late 1980s, Miró met theater director Jorgelina Belardo at Bunker—a popular gay club in Buenos Aires—who asked her to join a theatrical production group that Belardo had formed with Juanito Belmonte. Belardo became Miró's close friend and artistic director, while Belmonte worked as her press agent. Prior to her career as a vedette, Miró made film appearances in Fernando Ayala's Dios los cría (1991) and Luis Puenzo's La peste (1992), based on Albert Camus' novel of the same name. She only presented herself as a female once on stage, performing a strip-tease to a Madonna song.

Illness and death On 20 May 1999, Miró was hospitalized in the Santa Isabel clinic in the Buenos Aires barrio of Caballito, where she died on 1 June. According to Jorgelina Belardo, a sector of the press threatened to disclose her HIV diagnosis if she refused to give interviews. Later that day, Miró's manager Juanito Belmonte—although maybe Jorge Belardo— and is considered a symbol of the postmodern era in Argentina. she has been considered the "first trans icon of the country". Miró's presence meant a change in the Argentine showbusiness of the era and popularized transgender and cross-dressing acts in Buenos Aires' revue theatrical scene. She paved the way for other Argentine travestis and trans women to gain popularity as vedettes, most notably Flor de la V, who described her in 2021 as the "first trans [person] that the public recognized as an artist" and a "shooting star that lasted only a short time on earth [but] will continue to illuminate the way forever." In an interview with Revista NX in 1997, Miró reflected on her impact:

I am very grateful for what is happening to me, and this has helped open doors for other people. (...) But I do not forget many people who were there and tried, who worked a lot and continue to do so. This regarding the commercial circuit. But it was also important because of all the prejudice that existed around travestis, who were related to [street prostitution], or with the transformistas (...). I think that in a few years these beliefs changed a lot. I do not claim all this myself, but I do know I did my bit because the doors were opened to me, and I always said that those open doors were also going to open for other people and that was the most important thing. [The arrests and torture of travestis] give me feelings of horror. I feel sorry for these things that happen in the country, although this reality occurs in other places. (...) ... I have also experienced those abuses. Going down the street and having problems with the police, with other people; being at the doorstep of an apartment waiting for a taxi to come and being afraid that a patrol car will come and take me away. Some years ago I thought I was never going to live this Argentina of achieving rights or respect. For example, that a transsexual is given her documents in accordance with her sexual identity. But everything has a cost. There have been many travestis who are no longer with us, who are imprisoned, who are taken into custody daily, all so that today other people can walk more freely on the street. But, although the rise to celebrity of Miró happened in parallel to the political organization of travestis and the visibility of their activism, she never took part in the movement; she was initially criticized by many of its members, who resented the unequal treatment she received compared to the neglected travesti prostitutes.

In June 2021, an Argentine producer announced that a biographical television series on Miró was in the making, potentially released via Netflix the following year. The final result was the 2024 series Cris Miró (Ella), directed by Martín Vatenberg and Javier van de Couter, produced by EO Media and Nativa Contenidos, premiered on TNT and the streaming platform Flow, and based on the book Hembra, Cris Miró. Vivir y morir en un país de machos by Carlos Sanzol, with Spanish actress Mina Serrano in the leading role.

Personal life Gender identity Miró identified as a travesti, The use of the term in the region precedes that of "transgender" and its definition is controversial, as it may be considered a "third sex", a non-binary gender or a regional equivalent to the concepts of transsexual and trans woman. Until the mid-to-late-1990s, Miró's gender expression alternated between that of an androgynous young man during the day and that of a woman when going out at night or on stage. or transgender woman. According to biographer Carlos Sanzol, Miró identified as a woman, pointing out that she regularly stated to the press that she "felt like [one]". In a 1996 television report for Chiche Gelblung, Miró explained her gender identity: "I am totally clear that biologically I was born a man. I do not want to be a woman, I am totally ok with my status as a travesti. But I do not think I am a woman trapped in a man's body. No, I am who I am and in this way I am happy." Another oft-cited statement of Miró was:

Even though I was born with a certain sex, which means that I have documents with a man's name and gender, the most important thing is what I feel. I am only one person, and that is what matters to me. That thing about the opposites is seen by others. I live it in only one way.

Filmography Year Title RoleDirector 1991 Dios los cría — Fernando Ayala