|
Faraona: Legend of Agua Caliente in Tijuana
By Maria Curry
January/February 2020
 Ursula Mansur as Faraona in front of the Agua Caliente swimming pool. Photo by Enrique Briseño |
 Agua Caliente swimming pool at night. Photo by Enrique Briseño |
The legend of Faraona, a 1930s flamenco dancer from the famous Agua Caliente Casino and tourist complex in Tijuana, is the subject of a new movie, Faraona, the Legend of Agua Caliente, by the Cine Leyenda Company. Ursula Mansur, the scriptwriter, director, and actress, will portray Faraona. Scenes will be filmed at the remains of the long-closed casino, mainly at the swimming pool, the minaret, and the bungalows.
Everyone participating in the film production and related projects aims to help preserve the memory of Agua Caliente through storytelling and outreach. Patronato de Restauración de Agua Caliente is also promoting what remains of Agua Caliente as a Baja California cultural heritage site, with help for the proposed designation from Universidad Iberoamericana and ICOMOS Mexicano (International Council on Monuments and Sites, Mexico).
During Agua Caliente's heyday, beautiful, exotic vegetation and birds surrounded the impressive casino and bungalows.Visitors came from across the border and all over the world to enjoy the resort's hot springs, the music and shows, and gambling. La Faraona was a beautiful dancer from Spain who rendezvoused in her bungalow with her lover and later husband, a British lord named Mr. Patrick. She had no idea he was a member of Al Capone's mafia. Legend says m'lord was only attracted to Faraona's beauty and to the good luck she brought him when gambling. Once she realized he was not going to fulfill his promise to take her with him to England, she decided to kill him and herself by serving them both wine she had poisoned. Many students and professors from the schools that were built on the casino's ruins still talk about seeing the ghost of Faraona at night. A second legend holds that she hid a treasure before dying and that whomever follows her will find it.
Enrique Briseño, president of Patronato de Restauración de Agua Caliente, shares the history of Agua Caliente and its various legends by guiding architectural tours to fundraise for the film. The tour includes the famous swimming pool, the minaret, the wall where a mural was painted of Faraona, the Fauno fountain, and bungalow 21, which was renovated by the owner José Barajas. In the film, Mansur performs dressed as Faraona in this bungalow.
The next guided tours will be held in January 2020. For more information, go to Facebook page Faraona película or email aguacalientefilm@gmail.com.
|
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
|
