1945 Managua, Nicaragua

Nydia Sandino

1945

Managua, Nicaragua

Interviewed on February 11th, 2023

by Nydia del Carmen

Translated from Spanish

El Último Cuplé (The Last Torch Song) is the first movie I remember seeing. It was in 1957. I was 12 years old, and it was the first movie I saw in color. And it dazzled me because I had only seen black-and-white films. I was completely blown away. I saw the film in a theater called El Teatro Salazar in Managua, which was one of the first big theaters that were built in Nicaragua. There I saw two films that impacted me, that one and The Sound of Music. I saw that one later with your grandfather.

We went as a group of kids to see the movie. I didn’t eat anything at the theatre because at that time, well, we didn’t have the money to get food at the movies because it tended to be very expensive. We used the money we had to pay for our movie tickets. For us, tickets were expensive. They weren’t terribly expensive, but for us, it was a lot.

We would walk to the movie theater. Managua used to be like Granada because everything was close by. And only those who had a lot of money had a car. And you would leave the movie theater at 11 o’clock at night sometimes, and the streets were safe. The kids walked alone! Well, they walked in small groups, but totally relaxed. 

At that time, in Managua, people lived in tranquility. There were always social classes and everything, but people minded their own businesses. Nobody discriminated against you for where you lived or for not having a car. Everyone went to the movies! Going to the movies was the main source of fun in Nicaragua, apart from going to the beach. There were also very inexpensive cinemas in poorer neighborhoods. The cinema I used to go to would usually charge maybe seven córdobas for a ticket, while in the others the cost was around two córdobas. The dollar was then worth around seven córdobas. 

But, I remember, I really loved El Último Cuplé because it was in color. It was very simple with lots of songs and lots of colors. It was a musical, yet full of colors! And the flowers and all the costumes, I loved. And the story, well the love story, was beautiful because of how it developed throughout the movie. In the film, Sarita Montiel has many loves, but the last one was the one that impacted me the most. Her first boyfriend was really sweet, but she had to dump him. Poor boy!

When I went to see El Último Cuplé, I knew it was in color because they advertised it as a “technicolor film.” And, I wondered: “How will that work?” Because even the word “technicolor” didn’t make sense to me. And there was another technology called “cinemascope.” I still can’t tell you what that means today, but I think it’s that the picture’s bigger. The screens were very small, so when that “cinemascope” came out, God forbid! Everybody was so excited! And not all of the pictures had “technicolor” or “cinemascope.” These films were advertised in a special way. A car would drive down the street with a microphone and say: “Today at 7:00 p.m. at the Marcot theater, don’t miss a cinemascope technicolor movie!”

Seeing the film in color, I was thrilled! Extremely happy! And besides, as I’ve already told you, I don’t like movies that are too dark, those movies that don’t have much light for no reason. I don’t understand them. I don’t know why! And then this film, as it was my first in color, was very bright. It shocked me! There were so many colors and flowers and paintings and dresses! Even the curtains were colorful! Everything was beautiful to me.

The theater was full, and people adored Sarita Montiel, the old people and the kids. In Nicaragua, Sarita Montiel was a hit! I remember older men were crazy about her! She was very beautiful. She made a lot of movies before El Último Cuplé. She spent a lot of time acting in Mexico, although she’s actually Spanish. El Último Cuplé launched her to fame, and she became better known, not only in Nicaragua but also in Spain and all over South America. She also gave concerts all over the world!

A character that I loved in that movie is her aunt, a total busybody! I loved that character. I enjoyed watching her so much. I couldn’t stop laughing because she was a nosy old woman!

Going to the movies was one of the few forms of entertainment we had at that time. And people dressed up to go. Girls wore nice dresses. The men were also well-dressed. They didn’t wear suits or anything that fancy, but they were, well, well-dressed. And generally, one went to the movies on the weekends. There were movies every day, but it was impossible to go every day of the week.

You could stay in the movie theater all day if you wanted to. You could see the movie twice because there were two screenings: one from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and another from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. So, you could stay in the theatre for both showings.  A lot of people stayed for the air conditioning because at that time nobody had air conditioning. Of course, I did stay in the theater all day a few times.

You know what? There used to be great romantic love stories, like El Último Cuplé. But, you don’t really see that anymore! Before, you would see the couple kissing, but they never kissed as they do now. They were little kisses that were usually covered by the girl’s hair. It was something very discrete.

The end of El Último Cuplé was super sad because he, the love of her life, dies. And the film closes with a song that she sings in grief. He was a bullfighter, and, in the end, the bull kills him. The film ends when she sings the song called “Nena” dedicated to him. And she appears in a very beautiful gown, all dressed in black, with a mantilla. She cries and eventually dies. They both die. She dies of pain. While she sings the song on stage, she faints out of how much she misses him. I found it tragic because of the beautiful love they had for each other, but I liked it in the sense that he dies the way most bullfighters die. He died en su ley! It’s a tragedy that happens way too often. I remember I was fascinated by her dying out of her strong love for him. But, of course, I was a very impressionable 12-year-old girl! 

I still like Sara Montiel and her movies to this day. All her movies are very beautiful, and they are musicals. Since you love musicals, you should watch La Violetera because I’m sure you’re going to like it. Both La Violetera and El Último Cuplé are beautiful! In El Último Cuplé, there’s a song in the movie called “Sus pícaros ojos.” You should sing it to that guy you told me about.