Alfredo del Diestro

October 7, 1885 — Valparaíso, Chile

Actor and film director, born in Valparaíso Chile, October 7, 1885, died in Mexico City in 1951. Son of Spanish merchant Juan del Diestro and Italian pianist Matilde Cavaletti, Alfredo del Diestro spent his adolescence in Havana with his parents. In 1900 he returned to Colombia with the theatrical company Juan del Diestro, formed by him and his younger brother Juan. The company remained in the country until 1903, when it resumed its transhumance through Central America and the Caribbean. In Havana he met the Mexican actress Emma Roldán, and married her. In 1920, when he was doing a season at the Municipal Theater of Cali, he met Francisco Antonio Posada, who proposed him to co-direct with the Spaniard Máximo Calvo the silent feature film María. Del Diestro did the art direction, directed the dialogues and the staging. He returned to Mexico in 1924, where he continued working in film. His most outstanding performance was in the feature film Allá en el rancho grande, made in 1936.