Calle Matilde Díez

At twelve she was already on a stage in Cádiz, with a role in La huérfana de Bruselas. Matilde Díez, born in Madrid in 1818, was thus taking her first steps toward one of the most celebrated careers in nineteenth-century Spanish theater. The impresario Juan Grimaldi brought her to Madrid in 1834, and audiences soon crowned her one of the leading performers of her time. Her name was tied to that of Julián Romea, also an actor, whom she married in 1836 and with whom she shared the stage at the Teatro Español. Between 1853 and 1858 she toured the Americas, with seasons in Mexico City and Havana, and on her return she taught declamation at the Madrid Conservatory. Isabella II named her chief court actress. In 1838 she took part in the Macbeth held to be the first direct translation from English of Shakespeare staged in Spain. She died in Madrid in 1883. She rests beside Romea in the San Lorenzo y San José cemetery.