Ángeles Cruz

• Name — Ángeles Cruz • Born — 1969 • Birthplace — Villa Guadalupe Victoria, San Miguel el Grande, Oaxaca), Oaxaca, Mexico • Occupation — Actress, director, screenwriter • Awards — Ariel Award (2013, 2019, 2022) • Education — Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura

Ángeles Cruz is originally from Villa Guadalupe Victoria in San Miguel el Grande, Oaxaca, a mostly indigenous community high in the mountains of Oaxaca. She grew up primarily speaking Spanish, but learned some Mixtec from her father. In her community there was no electricity, no water, and no cinema. She saw only one film in her first sixteen years, El joven Juárez, which her father had in 16 mm. "When I saw the film for the first time in a cinema, it changed me, transformed me; it totally pulled out the rug," she recalled. She wanted to be an agronomist and dedicate herself to farming, but her family had to relocate, first to Tlaxiaco, and later to Oaxaca. There, she switched to studying theater, a decision she credits to her high school teacher Sergio Santamaría. Cruz studied at the Miguel Cabrera Center of Artistic Education in Oaxaca, and later completed a licentiate in acting at the INBA Theater Art School in Mexico City. • Illustration — In the play El árbol (2016) In 1994, she began getting roles in cinema. Her first film as an actress was the Swedish-Danish drama La hija del puma about massacres that occurred in Guatemala against the indigenous people. Her performance was nominated for the Guldbagge Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In 2011, Cruz started writing her own stories, and directed a short film made from one such script, La tiricia o cómo curar la tristeza. It was produced by the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, and won the Ariel Award for Best Short Film in 2013. She continued with the shorts La carta and Arcángel, followed by her first feature, Nudo Mixteco, starring Sonia Couoh and Noé Hernández, which tells three stories of women living in indigenous communities in Oaxaca. Regarding the film's explicit love scenes between women, Cruz said,

• Year — Title — Role — Channel • 2001–2005 — Lo que callamos las mujeres — Rosa, Tomasa — Azteca Uno • 2008 — Capadocia — Fernanda Castrejón — HBO • 2017 — El Chapo — Evelina — Univision • 2018 — Malinche — Macti — Canal Once • 2018–2020 — Here on Earth — Jacobina — Fox Premium • 2024 — Como agua para Chocolate — Nacha — HBO

• La tiricia o cómo curar la tristeza - short, 2012 • La carta - short, 2014 • Arcángel - short, 2018 • Nudo Mixteco - 2021 • Valentina or the Serenity - 2023

• Year — Title — Role — Director • 1994 — La hija del puma — Aschlop — Åsa Faringer and Ulf Hultberg • 1998 — The Other Conquest — Doncella — Salvador Carrasco • 2000 — Rito terminal — Celia — Óscar Urrutia Lazo • 2002 — Aro Tolbukhin: In the Mind of a Killer — Agustí Villaronga • 2005 — The Violin — Jefa Guerrilera 1 — Francisco Vargas • 2008 — Espiral (film) — Araceli 2 — Jorge Pérez Solano • 2010 — Marcelino, pan y vino (2010 film) — Petra — José Luis Gutiérrez Arias • 2011 — Cenizas Eternas — Matiri — Margarita Cadenas • 2012 — The Girl — Rosa's mother — David Riker • 2016 — Tamara y la catarina — Tamara — Lucía Carreras • 2018 — Dos Fridas — Adelita — Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez • Tiempo de lluvia — Soledad — Itandehui Jansen • Traición — Ignacio Ortiz • 2019 — La ira o el seol — Juan Mora Catlett • 2023 — Familia — Teresa — Rodrigo García • 2025 — The Follies — Irlanda