Even though the date almost went unnoticed, both in Mexico and in the U.S., the first anniversary of the death of Katy Jurado was commemorated by the creative team behind “Un secreto de Esperanza” (A Secret Of Hope), the last film she took part in before she passed away.

Written and directed by Leopoldo Laborde, and produced by Moises Jafif, Benito Salerno, and Aquiles Enriquez, “Un secreto de Esperanza” is the film with which the successful and fructiferous career of Katy Jurado came to a saddening end a short while after wrapping up principal photography, without having the opportunity of seeing any of her sequences within the film.

With a year’s distance and the images still fresh in their memory, as well as the experience and the moments that they lived beside her, the producers of “Un secreto de Esperanza” confirm that their motion picture will be released pretty soon in all of Mexico.

“We believe that the best tribute we could offer to Katy’s memory is to give the film an adequate promotion worthy of her talent,” assures us Moises Jafif. “We currently are in negotiations to sign with a distributor for a deal that will let our movie be shown in more than 400 screens around the country. That would be, for those interested in statistics, the biggest release of a Mexican film in the last decade. That will allow us to show the Mexican public “Un secreto de Esperanza” in the best technical conditions, as far as sound and image quality are concerned, that can be found in Mexico at this moment. Previous to that, however, we will take the film to a couple of film festivals, where we have been asked to participate and we anticipate that the public will give us a tremendous reception. We know that the response from the audience will be extremely positive for one very simple reason: because Katy Jurado was, and continues to be, the kind of charismatic screen presence that never goes out of style.”

This week, exactly one year to the day of her death, the producers of “Un secreto de Esperanza” received various good reviews here in Los Angeles, where they have been conducting various screening to potential distributors and friends. Each of these screening earned them a distribution offer from part of various U.S. film companies.

“The day Katy died we knew that we had acquired a new responsibility to that of producers of a movie with Katy Jurado in it; a task bigger than the movie itself, one that was for ever and not merely for the release of our movie,” explains Jafif. “We also realized that we had in our hands a very special project now. Since that moment forward we have been engaged, with the support of Katy’s daughter, in an intense effort, to participate in a series of special events before and after the movie premieres. It is a compromise like nothing we have ever seen. We clearly understand that we do have the serious task of letting the world know that the latest work from one of the best Mexican artists of all time was not only one of her best roles, it was also her last. A woman, and artist, who earned by merit alone the applause and the admiration of the U.S. and European public, besides the Latin American audiences, including those in her own country.”


A BIT OF JUSTICE (Subtitle)

For Aquiles Enriquez, the date marking the first anniversary of the death of Katy Jurado should be penciled in all the Mexican calendars as a way of a memorial to such a brillant performer. “I think that we should make justice to the memory of Katy Jurado,” says Enriquez. “Because no other Mexican actress has had the international reach that she obtained throughout her Hollywood films, working with some of the best known and the most important actors in this country.”

A woman of enormous willpower and possessor of a solid professional ethics that reflected in a brillant career, Katy Jurado threw all her passion toward developing and perfecting her dramatic skills.

“The discipline and the commitment with which she worked in every one of the movies she filmed throughout her career, had won her the affection and the respect both within and outside our borders,” explains Benito Salerno, and he adds “It was the same in Hollywood, and in the European countries where she was well known. All the honors that Katy received in life make it unbelievable, and very hard to understand, at least for us, the great silence that now surrounds the first anniversary of her death in her own Mexico. We were thinking of making a bit of justice here, given what we consider such woeful circumstances.

This is one of the reasons that has compelled us to treat “Un secreto de Esperanza” with more respect and professionalism than what is required, in order to truly secure a good distribution deal and, even as importantly, a careful presentation and promotion of the project to the public, both in Mexico as well as in the United States. There were already a couple of offers from Hollwyood, to tell you the truth, prestigious film companies that had approached us in trying to make a deal, who wished to launch the movie nationwide. We decided that we would take care of the Mexican release first, however, which will be on December 25th.”

According to Aquiles Enriquez, “Katy Jurado must have a place of honor among the greatest figures of Mexican cinema, next to stars like Maria Feliz, Agustin Lara, Pedro Armendariz, and Dolores del Rio. That is why”- he thinks –“we do believe it is not fair that, twelve months after her passing, not one official notice or a memorial has been given in the memory of such extraordinary actress that made us so proud of where we come from, projecting her work ethics, her passion, and skills, as if they were not merely the gifts of a person but the gift of a nation, to the world.”