Lucila Boscana Bravo (September 24, 1915 – May 24, 2001), known professionally as Lucy Boscana, was a Puerto Rican actress and a pioneer in Puerto Rico's television industry.

Early years

Boscana was born in the city of Mayagüez which is located on the west coast of Puerto Rico. Her family moved to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

when she was a child because of the economic crisis in the island. She learned how to play the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

at an early age. Boscana graduated from

Academia de la Inmaculada Concepción The Academy of the Immaculate Conception (, generally abbreviated as AIC, or simply ''La Inmaculada'') is a coeducational Catholic school located in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Founded in 1905, it is among Puerto Rico's oldest institutions of learnin ...

high school and decided to continue her education by enrolling in

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

located in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, where her cousin, Madeline Willemsen, was studying a

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

degree. There she earned her bachelor's degree in languages and theater.Lucy Boscana
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Acting career

In 1940, Boscana returned to Puerto Rico. After a stint as an

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

teacher in her hometown she enrolled in the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

to study music and dramatic arts. After graduation, Boscana founded the Puerto Rican Tablado Company, a traveling theater. Among the plays which she produced with the company was "''The Oxcart''" by fellow Puerto Rican playwright

René Marqués René Marqués (October 4, 1919 – March 22, 1979) was a Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican short story writer and playwright. Early years Marqués was born, raised and educated in the city of Arecibo. He developed an interest in writing at a ...

. She presented the play in Puerto Rico and on

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Boscana participated in over 30 plays and also in various locally produced films. In 1950, she was part of the musical vocal group from Ponce: ''Las Damiselas'', ''(The Ladies)'', with

Sylvia Rexach Sylvia Regina Rexach González (January 22, 1922 – October 20, 1961) was a Puerto Rican comedy scriptwriter, poet, singer and composer of music of Puerto Rico, boleros. Early years Rexach was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Her p ...

, and

Marta Romero Marta Romero (17 February 1928 – 31 May 2013) was a Puerto Rican actress and singer, and one of the pioneers in Puerto Rican television. Early life Romero was born on Calle Mora in downtown Ponce, a city in the south coast of Puerto Rico and ...

. On August 22, 1955, Boscana became a pioneer in the television of Puerto Rico when she participated in Puerto Rico's first telenovela (

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

) titled ''Ante la Ley'', alongside

Esther Sandoval Esther Sandoval (28 December 1925 – 6 February 2006) was a Puerto Rican actress and a pioneer in Puerto Rico's television. Early years Sandoval was born Esther María González in Ponce where she received her primary and secondary education. ...

and

Mario Pabón Mario Pabón, in full Mario Enrique Pabón Cantin (13 August 1930 – 27 November 1996) was a Dominican-Puerto Rican actor, director and show host. He was known for his work on Puerto Rican television and cinema. Early life Pabón was born in Q ...

, which was broadcast by

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. Since then she became a regular in the

telenovela A telenovela is a type of a television serial drama or soap opera produced primarily in Latin America. The word combines ''tele'' (for "television") and ''novela'' (meaning "novel"). Similar Drama (film and television), drama genres around the w ...

circuit. With the Puerto Rican Tablado Company, she produced and presented the works of

Francisco Arrivi Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...

, Rene Marquez,

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three ...

Alejandro Casona Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez, known as Alejandro Casona (23 March 1903 – 17 September 1965) was a Spanish poet and playwright born in Besullo, Spain, a member of the Generation of '27. Casona received his bachelor's degree in Gijon and l ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

and many others in Puerto Rico.

Honors

In 1996, the ''Puerto Rican Institute of Culture'' dedicated its 33 International Theater Festival to Boscana. In July 1997, the Puerto Rican Senate paid tribute and awarded Boscana and her Puerto Rican Tablado Company with a special proclamation recognizing their silver anniversary. In 2000, the

Government of Puerto Rico The government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, organized under the Constitution of Puerto Rico since 1952, is a republican democracy modeled after the Federal Government of the United States. Under a system of separation of powers, the ...

honored Boscana by renaming the Teatro del Patio of the Puerto Rican Institute of Culture ''El Teatro Lucy Boscana'', (The Lucy Boscana Theater). In 2008, the main stage of the

Teatro Yagüez The Teatro Yagüez in Puerto Rico is a historic building that today is a performing arts theater. It is located at Calle de la Candelaria (Mayagüez), Candelaria Street, (formerly ''Calle McKinley'') and Dr. Basora Streets, in the city of Mayagü ...

in Mayagüez was also dedicated to her. Lucy Boscana died on May 24, 2001, in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...

and her remains rest at Cementerio Santa Magdalena de Pazzis in that city.

Notes

References

External links