Carmen Barros

Carmen Aída Barros Alfonso (born 7 January 1925) is a Chilean actress and singer of jazz, popular music, and opera. In addition, she is a professor of acting perception, diction, and vocal projection, and a theater and opera director. She is known for being the first to portray the character Carmela in the Isidora Aguirre play in 1960. Biography Carmen Barros is the elder of two siblings. Because of her father's military profession, which caused him to be sent on missions in Germany, as well as to different garrisons in the country, Carmen never stayed more than seven months at one school. She lived between Santiago, other cities of the country, Peru, and Europe, and learned to speak German before Spanish. However, she attended the French Nuns, a women's college where she was the "wild card" of the course for any artistic competition involving dancing or acting. When she was 14, her father was assigned as Chilean ambassador to Germany, and that change marked her life. It was 1940, and World War II was in full development. A lot of people Barros' age that she met on this trip she never saw again; they joined Hitler's army to colonize Europe and fell out of contact. As a counterpoint, the cultural opportunities of Berlin influenced her future career: concerts, opera, theater; despite the horror of the war, that never changed. She tried to resume her basic education, in a German school, but could not stand being in a co-educational one, so she chose to retire and take private classes at home. However, she never finished her studies.