La Tigresa roars no more

More sad news - as I read that that one of my fave "diva discoveries", the terrifying "La Tigresa" has departed for Fabulon.

Who? I hear you ask...

Here's my tribute to the great lady from way back in 2012:

As regular readers will know, here at Dolores Delargo Towers, the discovery of a new exotic "diva" sends us into paroxysms of joy.

And so it came to pass when, after I featured her album among my "On the Jukebox" selection recently, the ever-diligent Madam Arcati was immediately on Google to find out more about the sultry sex kitten that is Irma Serrano. He found the music, and the fact she is [was] scarily still alive. I investigated the lady's outrageous life story...

Senorita Serrano - according to her own autobiography - was allegedly kidnapped at the age of 13 or 14 from her ranch home in rural Mexico, and ended up entering the burgeoning Mexican cinematic industry. In truth the teenage Irma Cielo Consuelo Serrano Castro Domínguez had run away with an older lover, and this early rebellious streak set the scene for a long and controversial life.

Her screen career actually began in 1962 in a trashy movie called Santo vs. the Zombies alongside several Mexican wrestling superstars. Presumably this was a precursor of how she would become regarded throughout her acting career, for it seems that in all her roles she played some kind of "man-eater". It was inevitable she would become known as "La Tigresa".

Allegedly blacklisted for her affair with Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Mexico’s president, she hit the headlines in the 1970s after she published several books about it. Her flamboyant appearance and tempestuous personality brought her renewed fame on stage and screen.

In the 1990s, she became a businesswoman and launched a political career, running successfully for Congress on the ticket of the leftist PRD, serving initially in the lower house and later in the Senate.

"La Tigresa" remained a popular television personality, too - most probably for her freaky appearance as much as anything - but just could not keep out of trouble. She scandalised the Mexican tabloids at the age of 71 by marrying a man of 29! She seems to specialise in telling tales about her many affairs with younger men (some were true, most were denied), and conducting public spats with a few of them. She has hit the headlines for claiming to be a witch, a Satanist, and being pregnant - in her seventies!

To top it all, in 2009 she was arrested immediately after a TV appearance and placed under house arrest, charged with forcibly evicting tenants (at gunpoint allegedly!) from a building she owned, despite their having a valid lease.

I wouldn't mess with her!

Irma Serrano "La Tigresa" - Tierra mala

Ay caramba!

RIP, Señorita Irma Consuelo Cielo Serrano Castro (9th December 1933 – 1st March 2023)