By Viva Sarah Press. The Jerusalem Post. Thursday, September 7 2000 08:29 7 Elul 5760
(September 7) - When Luiza Perez Nieto arrived at the Ye'elim absorption center in Beersheba eight months ago, the other Cuban immigrants were both excited and disappointed to see her.
On the one hand, it's not every day that one of Cuba's biggest film stars makes aliya. On the other hand, her move to Israel suggested her illustrious acting career had all but come to an end.
"They said, 'Oh no! Now you won't be able to continue acting," she says, over coffee at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. "The other Cubans suggested that I teach acting instead."
Though her Hebrew is still rudimentary - and this interview was conducted with the help of a translator - Nieto is far from calling it quits in the acting realm. "I still want to work in theater and acting here," says Nieto, who has come to Tel Aviv for the day to meet with the press
before the September 13 screening of her 1998 film, Supporting Roles (Papelles Secundarios), at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque's Cuban film festival.
"I don't want to teach acting," she says. Pausing for a moment, the well-manicured 52-year-old adds in rapid Spanish that she has to get a better grasp on the Hebrew language before she can continue with her career here. Then, switching into Hebrew, she carefully and pointedly says: "Aval
ani lo yechola [but I can't]."
Having switched back to Spanish, she relays that she finds learning a new language difficult. Yet, her love for the theater seems to keep her going.
The anonymity Nieto enjoys here - no one seems to take any special notice of her at the Cinemtheque - would not exist in Cuba, she says. Since her debut as Megeara, the lead female role in Bernard Shaw's Androcles and the Lion in 1972, Nieto has been a household name.
She has worked in television, film, theater and radio. While her role on the television soap opera Seventh Family may not have been her best work, she claims that it is because of this show that everyone in Cuba knows who she is. She says she can't walk down the street without being recognized,
and people would often knock on her door just to get a glimpse of their favorite actress.
Her achievements in film also cemented her fame on the small island. For her first role in film, in which she plays a struggling actress in Orlando Rojas's film Supporting Roles, she won the Best Actress Award in a Latino movie at a New York film festival in 1990. Not bad for an actress who was
supposed to be a doctor.
"My father almost died of shock when I announced that I was going into acting instead of medicine," she says.
Her acting career got started almost by accident. Her best friend in high school had always wanted to be an actor. Nieto went along to an audition for support. Her friend cajoled her to try out as well, and after improvising being chased by bees in a flower orchard, Nieto wound up getting into
the acting program, while her friend was left on the sidelines.
From her work over the last 28 years, and her animated conversation style, it is obvious that acting is where Nieto belongs. Yet, despite her achievements in Cuba, Nieto, who wears a large Magen David pendant around her neck, says she never really felt at home in the communist country.
"I see myself as belonging here," she says of Israel. "I have always been Jewish and nothing else." Despite a hectic rehearsal schedule, Nieto says she tried to go to synagogue every Saturday, and always went on holidays. Making aliya was fulfilling a lifetime ambition, she
says, even if it meant giving up some of her star status.
"I don't feel like a star, but an actor," she explains, then justifying her move adds: "It is not so comfortable to be too famous." She says life in Israel and Cuba is very similar, and she sometimes forgets where she is. However, one difference that bothers her is that
people don't smile here as often as they do in Cuba.
"In Cuba, things are done with a smile," she says, baring her teeth. "People smile less here." She also notes that she misses her family and friends, but adds that she doesn't miss the life on the island.
Nieto lives with her daughter and her son-in-law in Beersheba. She has a sister in Ashkelon and another sister still in Havana.
Though she is happy to be surrounded by Cubans at the absorption center, Nieto says she hopes to soon find her own apartment, somewhere on the water. "I don't care where I live," she says. "I just miss the sea." Nieto adds that although life is far from perfect here, she
doesn't regret her move. "I'm not disappointed at all," she says.
"I hear classical music here and I dance salsa," says the Camaguey-born, Havana-raised Nieto. "The only thing I don't do is go to the theater." And though the theater is her first love, traveling is a close second.
Nieto says one of the reasons she moved to Israel was so that she could be closer to other countries.
"Israel is a place from where you can see the rest of the world," says the daughter of a housekeeper and salesman. "This is what I have wanted to do - be able to see the world and come home to Israel."
The Cuban Film Festival continues at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque until September 27.
For more information call (03) 691-7181.
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