Adela Sequeyro

Adela Sequeyro Haro (March 11, 1901 – December 24, 1992) was a Mexican journalist, actress, filmmaker and screenwriter. She was a pioneer of Mexican cinema both during the silent era and the talkies.

Adela Sequeyro
Born	Adela Sequeyro Haro (1901-03-11)March 11, 1901 Veracruz, Mexico
Died	December 24, 1992(1992-12-24) (aged 91) Mexico, DF
Occupation(s)	Journalist, Actress, Director, Screenwriter, Producer
Years active	1923–1953
Spouse	Mario Tenorio

Early life

Adela Sequeyro was born March 11, 1901, in Veracruz, Mexico^[1] to a liberal and well-established family headed by Frederico Sequeyro-Arrola and Virginia Haro y Gutiérrez-Zamora. Financially weakened by the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s, the family was constrained to move to Cuautitlán. Sequeyro attended the French-English school of Mexico City before starting an early career in journalism.^[2]

Career

Beginning her journalism career in 1923, Sequeyro started writing about cinema for El Democráta.^[3] She began acting the same year under the stage name Perlita and in 1933,^[4] she played an important part in Fernando de Fuentes's film, Él prisonero número trece.^[5] As her love for cinema grew founder, Sequeyro became interested in filmmaking. However, as a woman, she was not able to join the industry's labor union.^[6] In response, she founded the film production cooperative Éxito with support of the Banco de Credit Popular^[7] and was able to produce her first film Más Allá de la Muerte in 1935.^[8] In 1937, Sequeyro founded another cooperative with her husband Mario named Carola with which she wrote, direct and produce her second film La Mujer de Nadie.^[9] In 1938, despite financial difficulties, she wrote and directed Diabillos del arrabel.^[10] The film was a failure at the box office and, unable to pay her crew and forsaken by the union, she was compelled to sell the rights to her film.^[11] By 1943, Sequeyro was bankrupt and retired from film production.^[12] She returned to journalism and work for El Universal Gráfico until 1953, year of her retirement.^[13] During her journalism career Sequeyro also worked in collaboration with El Universal Ilustrado, El Universal Taurino and Revista de Revistas.^[14] She wrote interviews, columns and reviews of all sort and would sometimes sign under the pseudonym of Perlita as reminiscence of old days.^[15]

During her career, Sequeyro frequented important figures of the national culture scene of the time, including cartoonist Ernesto García Cabral, painter and filmmaker Adolfo Best Maugard and Arqueles Vela, poet, writer and founder of the Stridentism movement.^[16]

Late years

She was all but forgotten as a pioneer of Mexican cinema until Marcela Fernandez Violante interviewed her in 1986 for the implementation of her book on Mexican Women Film Pioneers published in 1987.^[17] The CIEC/Universidad de Guadalajara also helped sponsored research to retrieve and restore Sequeyro's films.^[18] The very end of her life was spent under the care of her only child Sandra^[19] until her death on December 24, 1992. Adela Sequeyro was 91 years old when she died in Mexico City.^[20]

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Featured Stars	Notes
1923	El Hijo de la Loca	José S. Ortiz	Ángel E. Álvarez, Napoleón Placeres, Adela Sequeyro	Actress
	Atavismo	Gustavo Sáenz de Sicilia	Ernesto García Cabral, Esther Carmona, Manuel París, Adela Sequeyro	Actress
1924	No Matarás	José S. Ortiz	Carlos Almanza, Luis Cots, Luis Diaz de Leon, Adela Sequeyro	Actress
	Un Drama en la Aristocracia	Gustavo Sáenz de Sicilia	Ernesto García Cabral, Luis Gómez Rubín, Adela Sequeyro	Actress
1925	Los Compañeros del Silencio	Basilio Zubiaur	Adela Sequeyro, Carlos Reyes del Callejo	Actress
1927	El Sendero Gris	Jesús Cárdenas	Adela Sequeyro, Carlos Reyes del Callejo	Actress
1933	El Prisionero Trece	Fernando de Fuentes	Alfredo Del Diestro, Luis G. Barreiro, Adela Sequeyro	Actress
	La Sangre Manda	José Bohr, Raphael J. Sevilla	Lon Chaney, Lois Moran, Owen Moore	Actress (extra)
1934	Mujeres sin Alma	Ramón Peón	Consuelo Moreno, Alberto Martí, Juan Orol	Actress
1935	Más Allá de la Muerte	Ramón Peón	Adela Sequeyro, Miguel Arenas, Mario Tenorio, Magda Haller	Production, Scenario, Actress, Co-Direction
1937	Nobody's Wife	Adela Sequeyro	Adela Sequeyro, Mario Tenorio, José Eduardo Pérez, Eduardo González	Direction, Production, Scenario, Editing, Actress
1938	Diablillos del Arrabel	Adela Sequeyro	José Emilio Pineda, Enrique Olivar, Alberto Islas,	Direction, Production, Scenario

Bibliography

• Rashkin, J.Elissa. Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The County of Which We Dream, Austin: U of Texas, 2001.
• Hershfield, Joanne, and David Maciel, eds. Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999.
• De La Vega Alfaro, Eduardo and Torres San Martín, Patricia. Adela Sequeyro, Guadalajara, Jalisco, México: Universidad De Guadalajara, 1997.

Footnotes

1. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 38.
2. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 38.
3. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 38.
4. Rashkin, Elissa (2001). Women filmmakers in Mexico: the country of which we dream. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-77108-6.
5. Rashkin, Elissa. "Chapter 1 - Trespassers: Women Directors before 1960." Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: U of Texas, 2001. 41."
6. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 39.
7. Rashkin, Elissa. "Chapter 1 - Trespassers: Women Directors before 1960." Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: U of Texas, 2001. 45.
8. Rashkin, Elissa. "Chapter 1 - Trespassers: Women Directors before 1960." Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: U of Texas, 2001. 41.
9. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 42.
10. Alfaro, Eduardo De La Vega. "ADELA SEQUEYRO, MEXICAN FILM PIONEER." Journal of Film and Video 44.3/4, Latin American Cinema: Gender Perspectives (1992): 27-32. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
11. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 43-44.
12. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 44.
13. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 38.
14. Alfaro, Eduardo De La Vega. "ADELA SEQUEYRO, MEXICAN FILM PIONEER." Journal of Film and Video 44.3/4, Latin American Cinema: Gender Perspectives (1992): 29. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
15. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 44.
16. Alfaro, Eduardo De La Vega. "ADELA SEQUEYRO, MEXICAN FILM PIONEER." Journal of Film and Video 44.3/4, Latin American Cinema: Gender Perspectives (1992): 29. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.
17. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 44.
18. Rashkin, Elissa. "Chapter 1 - Trespassers: Women Directors before 1960." Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: U of Texas, 2001. 257.
19. Torres De San Martín, Patricia. "Chapter 3 - Adela Sequeyro and Mathilde Landeta: Two Pionner Women Directors." Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Ed. Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1999. 44.
20. Alfaro, Eduardo De La Vega. "ADELA SEQUEYRO, MEXICAN FILM PIONEER." Journal of Film and Video 44.3/4, Latin American Cinema: Gender Perspectives (1992): 31. JSTOR. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.