Tola y Maruja is a Colombian cross-dressing comedy duo, formed in 1990 by journalist and cartoonist Carlos Mario Gallego (Tola) and writer Sergio Valencia Rincón (Maruja). Tola and Maruja are two old paisa 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 on El Espectador newspaper.

History

In 1986, Gallego and Valencia met while studying at Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín.[1] While at college, Gallego and Valencia, jokingly, spoke as two old ladies in order to amuse their classmates.[2] They produced a humour magazine called Frivolidad, which folded after 5 issues and later became a theatre group,[1][2] 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.[2] 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.[3]

The Tola y Maruja history

Tola was born Anatolia del Niño Jesús Muñoz de Tuberquia in Yolombó (Antioquia), while Maruja was born Flor Maruja del Perpetuo Socorro Bustamante de Cataño in Cañasgordas (also in Antioquia).[4] 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.[4] They met on 9 April 1948, during the revolts in Bogotá after liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was murdered. They are conservative[4] and never finished elementary school.[5]

Books

  • La era Uribe (anthology, Editorial Aguilar, 2007, ISBN 978-958-704-626-7)

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Semana, ¿Qué pasó con... Sergio Valencia Rincón (Maruja), 5 July 2008
  2. 1 2 3 María Isabel Rueda, ¿Qué pasó entre Tola y Maruja?, Semana, 13 January 2006
  3. ↑ The nominations for the Catalina Indian have been made, Cartagena Film Festival
  4. 1 2 3 (in Spanish) Cosas de Tola y Maruja Archived 25 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Tola y Maruja official website
  5. ↑ (in Spanish) Edna Liliana Guerrero and Andrés Felipe Maldonado, Entrevista con Tola y Maruja: "Los universitarios protestan por todo" Archived 3 July 2012 at archive.today, De la Urbe via Universia Colombia, 2008
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