Concha Méndez Cuesta was a poet, dramatist, editor, and scriptwriter of Spanish cinema. Her works as screenwriter include Historia de un taxi (Story of a Taxi) (1927), Fiesta a bordo (Party On Board) (1943), El porfiado (The Stubborn One) (1944), and Esclava del recuerdo (Slave of Memory) (1952).

Born in Madrid, to a well-off family, she was the eldest of ten siblings, receiving a complete education in the French school, where she excelled in gymnastics and swimming, among other aptitudes. In 1919, while she was spending her summer holiday with her family in San Sebastián, she met Luis Buñuel, to whom she was for a time engaged. Thanks to Buñuel, she entered into the literary and artistic circles of Madrid, making friends with figures such as Maruja Mallo, Gregorio Prieto, Rafael Alberti, and Federico García Lorca.

It was in the twenties that she published her first collections of poems, Inquietudes (1926) and Surtidor (1928). In turn, she wrote the screenplay for the film Historia de un taxi (Carlos Emilio Nazarí, 1927): a romantic comedy caper about confusion between the sexes, in which the protagonist, played by Amparo Perucho, dresses as a man. The film, now lost, did not reach a large audience, being projected only in the cinematographic laboratories of Madrid Film. We must note that Méndez Cuesta’s first experience in cinema took place before that of Buñuel, which should disabuse us of the notion, often uncritically repeated, that her interest in cinema came as a result of Buñuel’s influence. An analysis of the script can be found in the studies of Hedgar Sanz Arias, who emphasises innovative elements such as cross-dressing and an exultation of the technology of modernism.

In 1929, Méndez Cuesta decided to become independent of her family, taking the opportunity to establish herself for four months in London, where she came into contact with the latest European literary and cinematic tendencies. She also made trips to Buenos Aires and Montevideo. In Latin America, she met significant literary figures such as Alfonso Reyes, Alfonsina Storni, Guillermo de Torres and Consuelo Berges; and occupied her time giving talks on new Spanish poetry, and collaborating in magazines and local newspapers.

These activities were interrupted by her return to Madrid in 1931, motivated by the new Republican regime. Between this year and 1936, she published several collections of poems and theatrical plays, notable amongst which were her theatrical pieces written for young audiences. On a personal level, in 1932 she married the malagueño poet and printer Manuel Altolaguirre, with whom she edited and printed the magazine Héroe, a brief project running from 1932 to 1933 which brought together works by notable poets of the moment. The death of her first son in childbirth in March 1933 was followed by a stay in London, where she published the bilingual magazine 1616. She returned to Madrid in 1935, following the birth of her daughter.

Having abandoned Spain at the outbreak of the Civil War, Concha Méndez Cuesta and her daughter moved first to Marseille, then to Oxford, then to Brussels, before returning to her husband in Barcelona, where he was working in a propaganda office for the Republican Government. They would leave for Paris shortly after, before crossing the Atlantic in 1939, ultimately settling in Mexico. Her literary output, despite the difficulties she faced during this period, was rarely interrupted, though she only returned three times to the world of cinema, writing three scripts for the big screen: Fiesta a bordo (1943), El porfiado (1944) and Esclava del recuerdo (1952); this last film being based on her story Telas estampadas (Patterned Fabrics) (1949). These scripts received a lukewarm reception from audiences and critics alike.

MAE, Óscar Palomares Navarro, 2020