Lucena was born on 25 September 1914 in
Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was working as a seamstress, getting paid eighty cents per dozen shirts made, when she made a radio test to sing tangos. Her mother was against it, but it paid 60 pesos per month. She took the contract at Radio Belgrano. Beginning as a singer in 1937, she soon moved from singing into acting, reading tragic parts on Radio Belgrano, where it was noted that she had an expressive face. She moved to the National Radio as part of an acting troupe "Estampas porteñas" and soon after, caught the attention of Arsenio Mármol. He created a character called "Chimbela" for her which she performed on radio and later on film, theater and television. Almost immediately the role brought success and she began touring the country, and appeared on both the Teatro Palmolive and Radio Cine Lux. Her film debut was in
La que no perdonó (1938), under the direction of
José A. Ferreyra with
Elsa O'Connor, Mario Danesi and
José Olarra. In 1939 her signature character was taken to film in a screenplay written by Antonio Botta and directed by Ferreyra and Lucena was the star of
Chimbela, although it was only her second film. The story is of a young girl who is supporting her family and falls in love with a man who is running from the police for a murder he did not commit. The supporting cast included
Eloy Álvarez,
Floren Delbene,
Mary Dormal,
Nuri Montsé and others. She also made her next two films
El ángel de trapo (1940) and
Pájaros sin nido (1940) with Ferreyra. Some of her most memorable roles were:
Ven mi corazón te llama (1942);
Elvira Fernández, vendedora de tiendas (1942) directed by
Manuel Romero with
Paulina Singerman;
Cinco besos (1945) in which she worked with
Mirtha Legrand;
La Rubia Mireya (1948) by
Manuel Romero with
Mecha Ortiz She also performed in the Chilean musical
La pérgola de las flores by
Isidora Aguirre, which made a successful run throughout Latin America. From the 1960s Lucena began working in television. Some of her most noted performances included
Piel Naranja (1975),
Duro como la piedra, frágil como el cristal (1985–1986),
Como pan caliente (1996),
099 Central (2002) ==Awards and nominations==