Alejandra Borrero Honored With the Víctor Nieto Lifetime Achievement Award at the India Catalina Awards

The tireless artistic dedication of actress, cultural manager, and social activist Alejandra Borrero has guided her through a career spanning more than 30 years—a journey of self-discovery that has also allowed her to understand others. With over 40 productions under her belt, she has forged her path by fighting for what she believes in and doing what she loves.

“Receiving the Víctor Nieto award feels like the recognition of many years of hard work. Of sacrifice and love for the art of acting, which has been my entire life. It also brings mixed feelings because I am already receiving lifetime achievement awards,” the actress expressed with great emotion when asked how it felt to be celebrated for her artistic trajectory, as well as her social and cultural work in Colombia.

In high school, Alejandra Borrero’s theater teacher was Sandro Romero, and it was then she knew acting was what she wanted to do in life. No one in her family was an actor or had any connection to the performing arts; they even found it quite strange. But without hesitation, she immersed herself in this form of expression and performed in her first play at the Sacred Heart School in Cali, where she earned the Best Actress award. That was when she decided to study acting, and decades later, she continues to choose acting across theater, film, and television.

“The Universidad del Valle gave me great mentors like Enrique Buenaventura. Those were five years of immense learning. We were like Enrique’s ‘guinea pigs,’ as it was the beginning of the university’s Acting School. That time was full of very interesting, yet highly complex things,” she recalled.

After completing her university studies, she began her acting career in the film Debajo de Las Estrellas (Under the Stars, 1986), directed by Juan José Vejarano. Her performance in this short film earned her the Best Actress award at the 1988 Bogotá Film Festival. Her first television role was in the telenovela Azúcar (1989), playing the antagonist Caridad Solaz. There, she was directed by her friend Carlos Mayolo, adding him to the list of people who helped shape her. “Carlos Mayolo was my mentor and the man who taught me how to act for the camera. With him, I learned about film, acting, and above all, we built a great friendship,” Borrero noted when asked about the guides in her acting career.

Her professional theater debut was in the play La Clepsidra (1995), but since high school, she knew the stage brought out her passion and constantly pushed her to dig deeper. This drive led to the creation of Casa E (2008), a cultural center in Bogotá that shattered paradigms on how to manage cultural projects in the country and took Latin American theater to new heights. Fifteen years of Casa E Borrero demonstrate Alejandra Borrero’s tenacity and perseverance for what she loves. She defines her greatest cultural and entrepreneurial project as “the reflection of a need to speak about the topics I wanted to discuss, using my own voice. ‘Ni con el pétalo de una rosa’ (Not Even With the Petal of a Rose) has been a social campaign against gender violence that we run from Casa E, and it has taken us on an incredible journey. This perfectly illustrates what this trip has been for me.”

To think of Alejandra Borrero is to think of social and pedagogical work, as every step in her career carries that hallmark. Her play Victus (2016) shows Alejandra creating spaces for reconciliation, hope, and love for Colombia. It led her to create what she describes as the “cherry on top” of her career: “We tackled a topic as complex as the war in our country, where there were things that couldn’t be spoken about, and we undertook a massive process alongside María Victoria Estrada (pedagogue) and León David Cobo (producer, composer, and musical director). We brought together 20 people who belonged to armed groups—including former paramilitaries, ex-guerrilla fighters, retired military personnel, and victims—creating a painful yet healing play. We were able to perform it at the Ibero-American Theater Festival, at a sold-out Colón Theater, and watch the audience cry and applaud for 10 minutes. It was a process of non-re-victimization, searching for the human beings behind the conflict. So I could say this is the greatest project I’ve done in my life because it changed it. If we could achieve reconciliation in theater, why not in life?”

More than 30 years spent between stages, film sets, and Casa E Borrero—starring in telenovelas where she has been named Laura, Ana Belén, Amanda, Diana, María Fernanda, and Helena, and taking on antagonist roles like Katherine, Magnolia, Raquel, Lucía, Caridad, and many more—have always carried the same passionate, sensitive, and unyielding heart. Alejandra Borrero is a woman who, when faced with challenges, chooses not to give up. When on stage, she recharges from the deepest part of her being, taking us on a journey through every story told before our eyes. Shows like Escalona (1992), La maldición del paraíso (1993), Café con aroma de mujer (1994), La otra mitad del sol (1997), Soplo de vida (1999), Bolívar soy yo (2001), Punto de giro (2003-2004), Allá te espero (2013), and Gente de bien (2014) are as distinct and unique as she is. This legacy is exactly why the 62nd Cartagena Film Festival and the 39th India Catalina Audiovisual Industry Awards are honoring her with the Víctor Nieto Lifetime Achievement Award.

The India Catalina Audiovisual Industry Awards ceremony will be held on March 26, 2023, and is being promoted under the hashtag #PremiosIndia2023.