The star of Manuela and Lucía left a unique mark on national cinema
14ymedio, Havana, 2 January 2026 — Adela Legrá’s intense gaze in Lucía (1968) is one of the most recognizable images in Cuban cinema. Early Friday morning the actress, discovered by Humberto Solás in the mid-1960s and who left a unique mark on national cinema, passed away in Santiago de Cuba. She was 86 years old when she died, and her name will forever be linked to two essential films: Manuela (1966) and Lucía.
Humberto Solás found her in Baracoa while preparing a medium-length film for a competition organized by the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry dedicated to the guerrillas. He wasn’t looking for an actress in the usual sense of the word, nor someone capable of “composing” a character. He needed a face and a body that would sustain the story without filters, without learned gestures. That same aspiration would be formulated years later by Robert Bresson, one of the great masters of modern cinema, in his book Notes on the Cinematographer (published in 1975), when he wrote: “What I am looking for is not acting, but presence. Not actors who act, but human beings who are.”
Adela Legrá embodied this idea almost literally. Her performance was not based on psychology or expressive calculation. There was something more direct, more physical about her. There was no clear distance between the woman and the character: the camera simply followed her. The rage, pain, or determination did not seem “acted”; they emerged as part of the same vital impulse. She was, in her own flesh, the quintessence of the Cuban peasant woman.
Her performance was not based on psychology or expressive calculation. There was something more direct, more physical about it.
This led to the creation of Manuela (1966), a film shot with formal freedom, handheld camera, and a method that allowed for improvisation. In it, Legrá moved with uncommon naturalness. Her energy was raw, sometimes overwhelming, and her direct gaze avoided any complacency.
Two years later, Solás called on her again for the third episode of Lucía. Considered one of the best works in the history of Cuban cinema, it is a classic that has transcended decades and is still studied today.
Throughout her career, Adela Legrá appeared in many other films, including Rancheador (1976), El brigadista (1978), Aquella larga noche (1979), Polvo rojo (1981), Miel para Oshún (2001), and Barrio Cuba (2005).
With her death, Cuban cinema loses an irreplaceable actress. Her gaze remains, and will always remain, present. Her body will lie in state in the coming hours at the El Calvario funeral home in Santiago de Cuba, according to the state-run media outlet Cubadebate.
Translated by GH
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