Star's face will be seen again in Yuma film fest

The famous face of a one-time Yuma County resident will grace the silver screen once more when the Classic Mexican Movie Festival kicks off Thursday.

Spanish-born Emilia Guiu starred in 60 movies during the Golden Age of cinema in Mexico.

But in the 1950s the famous actress gave up her career at the height of her celebrity to marry a local rancher and raise their combined family of six children in the Yuma area.

"Mom - as I called her - was touring the frontier cities in Mexico, including San Luis, promoting her latest film," Guiu's stepson, Ron Piceno, told the Yuma Sun. "Dad got invited to a reception and he met her. And like they say, the rest is history. It was love at first sight."

After a whirlwind two-month courtship, Abraham Piceno, then 33, married Guiu, then 36. They were together for 32 years until Piceno died in 1990.

The Classic Mexican Movie Festival begins Thursday with one of Guiu's films: "Flor Silvestre. The festival is being sponsored by the Cultural Council of Yuma.

Guiu was born in Spain in 1922. Her father, Pasqual, opposed dictator Francisco Franco, so Pasqual, Guiu and her sister were confined to an internment camp.

"They were isolated from society. She slept on a pad on the floor. It was a pretty rudimentary lifestyle," Ron said.

Guiu and her sister were allowed to immigrate to France and later Mexico as refugees, but their father was not allowed into Mexico and stayed behind, Ron said.

Guiu arrived in Mexico with her sister and her first-born, Emmanuel. When Guiu heard that a Spanish director was giving parts in movies to refugees, she went to him and started working as an extra.

When an actress didn't show up for a part in "Flor Silvestre," Guiu stepped up and said she knew the words. Thus her life as a film star started during the 1940s and ’50s, which was the industry's heyday.

The blond, blue-eyed beauty went on to work with Mexico's leading stars, such as Pedro Infante, Pedro Armendáriz and Ricardo Montalban. She played villains and femme fatales and later worked in theater. In her later years she starred in the popular telenovela, "Abrázame Muy Fuerte."

However, in 1958, she left it all behind to marry Abraham Piceno, a Yuma County rancher and widower. They initially lived in Gadsden with Guiu's two children, Emmanuel and Memo, and Piceno's four children, Abraham Jr., Robert, Ron and Elizabeth. The new brothers and sister got along "famously," Ron said.

Ron, 12 years old at the time, said it didn't click with him that his new stepmother was a famous movie star in Mexico.

"My grandmother lived across the street from a movie house that showed a lot of Spanish movies. I probably saw her without knowing that I was seeing my future mom."

Ron, now 64 and living in Glendale, remembers playing catch in their front yard with Cantinflas, a hugely popular Mexican comedian and stage and film actor.

"Cantinflas was making a round of appearances and came to San Luis," Ron said. "He came to visit with Mom and Dad."

It was Cantinflas who helped his stepmom's elderly father immigrate to Mexico.

"It took her becoming an actress, befriending a lot of people in the entertainment business," Ron said, adding that it was Cantinflas who finally made it happen.  

"He knew the president of Mexico. He got him to sign whatever was needed and Pasqual came to Mexico."

Piceno and Guiu lived in Gadsden for as long as he was in farming. Then Piceno started his own business in San Luis and they moved to Yuma, to a house on San Marcos Drive, until Piceno died 10 years later.

Guiu sold the house and after a couple of years decided to move to San Diego to be near her son, Emmanuel, and friends in Tijuana.

Her other son, Memo Mendez Guiu, is a musical director, composer and producer in Hollywood. Memo's son, Guillermo "Billy" Mendez, is a member of the well-known Mexican rock band Motel. The band performed in San Luis Rio Colorado about a year ago, and Ron's nephew, Alex, went backstage to "trade family secrets" with Billy.

Ron said that after the children grew up and left the nest, Guiu returned to the silver screen for a couple more films. Her last work was in the soap opera "Abrázame Muy Fuerte" in 2000.

Ron said Guiu was not feeling well anymore - her hip was hurting - so she made up a story, hoping the producers would let her go.

"They wanted to keep her on for a year so she told them that her fiance (William Hieb) had given her an ultimatum: leave the telenovela and come back or lose him. She told them she was choosing love and they wrote her out of the story by drowning her," Ron said.

She went back to San Diego, where Shortly after, she underwent several operations. Guiu started getting weaker and was finally diagnosed with liver cancer. She died in 2004 at the age of 81, surrounded by loved ones.

At that time, her son Memo relayed a message Guiu left for her fans: "Please tell Mexico that I love them and I am grateful for so many happy years of love, a career and a wonderful life."