La Virgen y la Faraona. Estrellato y representación de la raza en el cine del franquismo: los casos de Carmen Sevilla y Lola Flores en los años 50

Abstract

In the 1950s, the need to open up Spanish cinema to the international market caused a series of mutations in the Andalusian folk musical genre: the projection of the gypsy as the epitome of Hispanicity was articulated through actresses who, while representing Francoism’ ideological values ⁣⁣regarding race, also had the ability to transgress them. This article studies the cases of Carmen Sevilla and Lola Flores and their respective representations of the white gypsy and the racialized gypsy. Focusing on the narrative trajectories of their characters, we will analyze the interaction between the racial aspect of its star persona construction and the essentially conservative stories in which they starred. Through our analysis, we suggest a consideration of Spanish female stardom as a projection of a value system that, through commercial cinema, has both cultural and political implications.