''Tola y Maruja'' is a Colombian
cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes usually worn by a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and self-express oneself.
Cross-dressing has play ...
comedy
duo
Duo may refer to:
Places
*Duo, West Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia
*Duo, Tampere, a shopping centre in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland
* DUO, a twin-tower development in Singapore
Arts, enterta ...
, formed in 1990 by journalist and
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
Carlos Mario Gallego (''Tola'') and writer
Sergio Valencia Rincón (''Maruja''). Tola and Maruja are two old
paisa
Paisa (also transliterated as ''pice'', ''pesa'', ''poysha'', ''poisha'' and ''baisa'') is a monetary unit in several countries. The word is also a generalised idiom for money and wealth. In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, the ''Paisa'' currently equa ...
ladies, who mock Colombian politics and society.
Since 2008, ''Maruja'' is performed by
Luis Alberto Rojas. They appear twice a week on
Caracol TV's journalistic magazine ''
El radar'' and on Sundays on ''
Spitting Image''-like ''
Noticiero NP& con los Reencauchados'', and write a Sunday weekly
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
on ''
El Espectador'' newspaper.
History
In 1986, Gallego and Valencia met while studying at
Universidad de Antioquia in
Medellín
Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...
.
['' Semana'']
¿Qué pasó con... Sergio Valencia Rincón (Maruja)
5 July 2008 While at college, Gallego and Valencia, jokingly, spoke as two old ladies in order to amuse their classmates.
[María Isabel Rueda]
¿Qué pasó entre Tola y Maruja?
''Semana'', 13 January 2006 They produced a humour magazine called ''Frivolidad'', which folded after 5 issues and later became a theatre group,
which included Tola y Maruja. The cross-dressing duo gained national exposure when appeared on ''
Sábados Felices'', a weekly comedy show produced by Caracol TV.
The duo went on performing until 2002, and after internal differences, Gallego and Valencia separated in 2004.
Gallego got the rights of Tola y Maruja and continued to write ''No nos consta'', their column on ''El Espectador'' (at the time, a weekly newspaper), as well as a weekly cartoon as ''Mico''. In 2008, Luis Alberto Rojas replaced Valencia as ''Maruja'', and both reappeared on theatre and television since then. Its section on ''El radar'' was nominated for the
India Catalina award (part of the
Cartagena Film Festival) for Best Journalism and/or Opinion Programme.
The ''Tola y Maruja'' history
''Tola'' was born ''Anatolia del Niño Jesús Muñoz de Tuberquia'' in
Yolombó
Yolombó is a town and municipality in the Colombian department of Antioquia. It is part of the subregion of Northeastern Antioquia, located 108 km from Medellín.
History
Yolombó is an indigenous term that comes from the area. In 1535, ...
(
Antioquia Antioquia is the Spanish form of Antioch.
Antioquia may also refer to:
* Antioquia Department, Colombia
* Antioquia State, Colombia (defunct)
* Antioquia District, Peru
* Antioquia Railway
The Antioquia Railway ( es, Ferrocarril de Antioquia) i ...
), while ''Maruja'' was born ''Flor Maruja del Perpetuo Socorro Bustamante de Cataño'' in
Cañasgordas (also in Antioquia).
[Cosas de Tola y Maruja]
, Tola y Maruja official website Both refuse to reveal their age. Tola is married to Ananías and has 13 children, while Maruja is married to Perucho and has 11 children.
They met on 9 April 1948, during the revolts in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
after
liberal leader
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Jorge Eliécer Gaitán Ayala (23 January 1903 – 9 April 1948) was a left-wing Colombian politician and charismatic leader of the Liberal Party. He served as the mayor of Bogotá from 1936–37, the national Education Minister from 1940 ...
was murdered. They are
conservative and never finished elementary school.
[ Edna Liliana Guerrero and Andrés Felipe Maldonado]
Entrevista con Tola y Maruja: "Los universitarios protestan por todo"
,
De la Urbe
' via Universia Colombia, 2008
Books
*''La era Uribe'' (anthology,
Editorial Aguilar
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such ...
, 2007, )
See also
*
Colombian comedy Colombian Comedy is comedy made in Colombia or by Colombians outside of Colombia. Although Colombia does not have a tradition of comedy and comedians compared to other Spanish speaking countries such as Mexico or Spain, it still has important fea ...
References
External links
Official website*
YouTube channel''El radar''''Noticiero NP& con los Reencauchados''*{{in lang, es}
''No nos consta'' weekly column published on ''El Espectador''
Colombian comedy duos
Theatre characters introduced in 1990
Comedy theatre characters
Comedy television characters
Fictional Colombian people
Female characters in theatre
Cross-dressing in theatre
Colombian television personalities
Theatre in Colombia