Early career The career of Marisol, her artistic name, had just begun. She received dance, acting, and declamation classes taught by the best teachers, with the idea of making her the star of children's and youth cinema. For her first film,
A Ray of Light (directed by
Luis Lucia, 1960), a huge merchandising campaign was organized around the new star, with books, dolls, cards, and all kinds of objects with the girl's image. Each film premiere included a tour of Spain and Hispanic countries to promote it, with all kinds of events creating tumults and crowds at the airports. Television appearances, interviews, and hundreds of photo shoots, in addition to the film shootings, prevented her from having a childhood like that of any other girl. Columbia Pictures wanted to buy the rights to Manuel Goyanes to continue exploiting her artistic career, but the producer rejected the proposal. Luis Lucia propelled her to national stardom in her two following films
An Angel Has Arrived (1961) and
Tómbola (1962). She was extremely popular in Spain and Latin America.
As a singer She also established herself as a singer thanks to the songs she performed in her films. Some of her best-known songs from her first three films were "", "", "Bambina", "", "
Estando contigo", "Chiquitina", and "Nueva melodía". In 1963 she starred in
Marisol rumbo a Río, where she played twins (similar to
Hayley Mills in
The Parent Trap) and sang "Bossanova junto a ti", "Muchachita", "¡Oh, Tony!", and "Guajiras". Marisol co-starred with
Robert Conrad the 1964 film
La nueva Cenicienta, in which she sang "Me conformo".
Mel Ferrer directed her in
Cabriola in 1965, where she sang "Cabriola", "¡Ay, vagabundo, "Ya no me importas nada", and "Sevillanas". She appeared in the 1964 film
Búsqueme a esa chica with
Dúo Dinámico. The film had biographical elements, featuring Marisol singing "Mi pequeña estrella", "Typical Spanish", and "Solo a ti". She appeared in the 1964 film
La historia de Bienvenido, a story about a donkey.
As an actress In 1967, Marisol starred in the comedy
Las cuatro bodas de Marisol, as the daughter of actress
Isabel Garcés, and sang "La Boda", "Johnny", "Belen, Belen" (featuring
Peret), and "La Tarara" (inspired by a
García Lorca poem). She appeared in
Solos los dos (1968), where she sang "La nieve" (her most popular song in South America, composed by
Juan Pardo and
Rocío Dúrcal's husband,
Júnior). In 1969, she appeared in the unsuccessful
Carola de día, Carola de noche and in the musical comedy
El taxi de los conflictos, where she sang "", a song composed by
Palito Ortega. Marisol received the Best Actress Award at the
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival for her role in
Los días del pasado (1978). She also appeared in
The Corruption of Chris Miller (1973), directed by
Juan Antonio Bardem;
The Girl from the Red Cabaret (1973) with
Mel Ferrer, and
El poder del deseo (1975) with
Pilar Bardem. As an adult, Marisol changed her stage name to her given name, Pepa Flores and appeared in
Carlos Saura's
Blood Wedding (based on García Lorca's play), and in
Carmen (1983). She played the title role of
Mariana Pineda in the
Televisión Española (TVE) series
Proceso a Mariana Pineda in 1984, and was applauded for her lead role in the 1985's
Caso cerrado, one of the first films featuring
Antonio Banderas. Pablo Mérida and Paloma Blanco Aristín in their book
El cine español credit Saura with succeeding to bring Marisol out of retirement/seclusion to star in
Blood Wedding and
Carmen. Then,
Caso cerrado was advertised as her comeback feature, but after its failure she had to play "cat-and-mouse" with the media in
San Sebastián where she stayed for three days. According to some, it was the movie's flop that led to her definitive retirement. ==Personal life and family==