The tireless struggle in the art of the actress, cultural manager and social activist, Alejandra Borrero, has led her through a career of more than 30 years, where she has been able to discover herself, but also others. With more than 40 productions in his career, he has formed a path fighting for what he believes in and doing what he likes.
“Upon receiving the Victor Nieto Award, I feel the recognition of many years of work. Of sacrifice and love for this art of acting that has been my entire life. And it is also a mixed feeling because they are already giving me awards for life and work,” the actress expressed with great emotion. Alejandra Borrero when asked how he felt about his artistic journey being celebrated, but also his work in the social and cultural sphere in Colombia.
At school, Alejandra Borrero had as a theater teacher Sandro Romero and it was there, where he knew that acting was what he wanted to do in life. In her house there was no one who was an actor or had any relationship with the performing arts, and it even seemed very strange to them, but she without hesitation immersed herself in this expression and did her first play at the Sacred Heart Institution in Cali, where She was recognized by winning the award for best actress. That was when he decided to study acting and decades later he continues to choose acting in theater, film and television.
“The Universidad del Valle left me great teachers like Enrique Buenaventura. They were five years of many learnings. We were like Enrique's “guinea pig”, since it was the beginning of the University's School of Acting. That time was full of very interesting things and very complex things.”
After finishing his university studies, he began his acting career in the film Beneath the Stars (1986), under the direction of Juan José Vejarano. Her performance in this short film earned her the Best Actress award at the Bogotá Film Festival in 1988. His first television role was in the novel Sugar (1989) with the antagonistic role of Caridad Solaz and where her friend Carlos Mayolo he directed it, joining the list of those who have formed it. “Carlos Mayolo was my mentor and the man who taught me how to act for the camera. With him I learned about cinema, acting and above all we created a great friendship,” says Borrero, when asked about his guides in his acting career.
His start in theater on a professional level was in the play The Crepsydra (1995), but since school she knew that the tables brought out her passion and led her to investigate more and more. That was how it was born House E (2008), a cultural center in Bogotá that broke all the paradigms of how to do cultural management in the country and take Latin American theater to new learnings. 15 years of Casa E Borrero demonstrate the tenacity and perseverance for what Alejandra Borrero loves, who defines her greatest cultural and business project as “The reflection of the need to want to talk about the topics she wanted to talk about with her own voice. Not even with the petal of a rose has been a social campaign against gender violence that we manage from Casa E and it has taken us through an incredible world. “This is an example of what this journey has been for me.”
To think about Alejandra Borrero is to think about the social and the pedagogical, since each of the paths in her profession always have that seal. His theatrical work Victory (2016, shows Alejandra creating scenarios where reconciliation, hope and love for Colombia led her to create what she herself describes as “the icing on the cake” in her career because “We take a topic as complex as war in our country where there were things that could not be talked about and we did a gigantic process with the help of María Victoria Estrada (pedagogue) and León David Cobo (producer, composer and musical director). We chose 20 people who belonged to armed groups among former paramilitaries. ex guerrillas, retired soldiers and victims, creating a painful work, but also healing. We were able to present it at the Ibero-American Theater Festival, at the Teatro Colón with a full house and see people crying and applauding for 10 minutes in a process of not revictimization by searching for each of those human beings who are behind a conflict. So I could say that this is the biggest project I have ever done in my life because it changed my life. If we could achieve reconciliation in the theater, why not in life?
More than 30 years between the stage, the locations and Casa E Borrero, being the protagonist of novels where she has been called Laura, Ana Belén, Amanda, Diana, María Fernanda, Helena and taking antagonistic roles such as Katherine, Magnolia, Raquel, Lucía, Caridad and many more, have always carried the same passionate, sensitive heart that does not give up despite the difficulties of life, of Alejandra Borrero, the woman who, when faced with challenges, decides not to give up and when being on stage, recharges herself from the most intimate of his being and make us travel in each story told in front of our eyes such as Escalona (1992), The Curse of Paradise (1993), Coffee with the Scent of a Woman (1994), The Other Half of the Sun (1997), Breath of Life (1999), Bolívar soy yo (2001), Punto de Giro (2003-2004), I'll wait for you there (2013), Gente de Bien (2014), among others; stories as different and unique as her, and that today lead her to the fact that the Cartagena Film Festival in its 62nd version and the India Catalina Awards for the Audiovisual Industry in its 39th version, want to honor her with the Víctor Nieto Award for a Whole Life.
The award ceremony of the India Catalina Awards for the Audiovisual Industry It will be held on March 26, 2023 and is promoted under the hashtag #PremiosIndia2023.
