Among a handful of early Latina film stars, Lupita Tovar was born in Tejuantepec, Mexico, on July 27, 1910. At the age of eighteen, Tovar signed a seven-year, $150-a-week contract with Fox Studios. She first appeared in a Myrna Loy film, The Black Watch (1929), and had small parts in The Veiled Woman (1929) and Joy Street (1929). Immersed into the studio "star system" Tovar was instructed in acting, dressing, speech and makeup. Along with English classes, she took dancing lessons from Rita Hayworth’s father, Eduardo Cansino. She met Paul Kohner, a German filmmaker, who convinced Universal to make Spanish language films. At Universal Studios' foreign film department Tovar starred in La voluntad del muerto, the Spanish version of The Cat Creeps (1930). Its success spawned a Spanish version of Dracula (1931) and numerous other films. She married Kohner and the couple lived in Hollywood where Tovar continued to make films in both English and Spanish in Mexico and the U.S., among them, South of the Border (1939), Green Hell (1940) and The Westerner (1940). Her last film before she gave up her career to raise a family was The Crime Doctor’s Courage (1945). The attention she has received in the last ten years for her work in Dracula and Santa has only made her more grateful for what she accomplished.

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Latinas in the United States Alternative Film Guide Images