Carolina Ramírez came to Buenos Aires for the first time in 2008, accompanying her younger brother who was coming to enroll at the University of Design.
She
was already a successful Colombian actress
.
She was doing very well and was the breadwinner for her family.
That is why she did not hesitate to encourage her brother to study.
They recommended Argentina as a good place to do a career and they trusted.
What this beautiful brunette did not imagine is that she would end up falling in love with the country, with an Argentine and doing theater on Corrientes street.
A few days ago, precisely, the summer season of
What's Left of Us
ended , a play in which he starred alongside Alberto Akaja at the Multitabaris Comafi.
Carolina is also known worldwide.
She has 2.6 million Instagram followers.
Many of them are fans of
La reina de Flow,
the Colombian series that Netflix aired and that managed to stay in the global top 10 for 8 weeks last year.
Cupid
The engine of this whole story is love.
"A crazy love", as she calls it today.
Things started like this: five months before coming to Buenos Aires with her brother, Carolina meets an Argentine one night in a bowling alley in Cartagena.
He asks her to dance and there is a good connection.
But she was dating so they stayed in touch via email.
It is a question that a few days before she comes to Buenos Aires, Carolina thinks:
“I have a friend in Argentina, I am going to let him know that I am going”
and she writes to him.
And when she arrived at Ezeiza, oh surprise: the man was waiting for her at the airport.
It was 2008. And since then they have not separated anymore.
He is Mariano Bacaleinik, businessman and theater producer.
One of the most important theater in Colombia.
They got married in 2010
and since March 2021 she is "officially" living in Argentina.
"Reviewing my history, I never imagined that I was going to fall in love with an Argentine, but it happened," she says today.
I was disciplined and felt that I deserved to be in the place I dreamed of.
But she did not have the conditions to be a classical dancer at the Paris Opera.
Carolina Ramirez, actress
Carolina is nice, outgoing, and her Colombian tune adds a touch of joy to the story.
Remember that the first two years of dating Mariano were at a distance.
They came and went from Argentina to Colombia and vice versa.
“We traveled a lot.
We lived for each other.
But we saw each other every fortnight or once a month.
He came to Bogotá a lot.
This is how this crazy love began that we could not separate ”, she underlines.
Another love, but complicated
Already as a girl,
Carolina had a passion: she dreamed of being a classical dancer
.
“I started ballet school when I was little and I was quite self-demanding for my age.
I was always very strict, ”she says.
She did dance from the age of 10 to 19.
But this demand and her enthusiasm for classical dancing complicated her life.
As a teenager, she began to suffer from eating disorders: “It all started at 13 and didn't stop until I stopped dancing.
At 14 I started with anorexia and the following year, with bulimia.
She counted calories and took laxatives.
I couldn't vomit, but I took a lot of laxatives, ”she reveals with a more serious tone.
And he continues: “My expectations were very high.
I wanted to be a dancer at the Paris Opera and I was born caleña (from Cali).
Brownish to call it somehow.
Also, I see photos from that time and she was very skinny.
She had a distortion of reality and also psychological
”, She confesses.
-You became depressed too...
-Of course, because that is accompanied by other things and other disorders.
Especially since you set a goal.
And then you realize that you are not Messi, to give an example.
The goals cannot be higher than your physical capacities.
And I kept insisting.
Now, with a bit of objectivity, I understand that I could never have become the prima ballerina because I don't have those physical abilities.
I do not have large extensions of hands or feet, nor virtuosity.
Still, I was a very hard worker.
-Was there a dancer in your family?
-No, but my dad always instilled in me high performance sport because he came from there.
And dance was a way of having discipline.
I believe that discipline brings results, and that if you have it in something, some fruit will bring you.
I was disciplined and felt that I deserved to be in the place I dreamed of.
But I did not have the conditions
...
Carolina became internationally popular as La reina del Flow.
Photo: German Adrasti.
-Did you have to resort to therapy to face that moment?
-Yes, but from social work... My parents couldn't afford a private one.
And also, luckily, my mom immediately realized what was happening to me and immediately took me to a nutritionist.
My parents always supported and helped me.
-How do you remember that fight?
-It was one day at a time.
They were years of one day at a time.
Of feeling a little disappointed that deep down I felt that I was not going to achieve that dream, but that everything I was doing was going to be useful for something.
And well, when it comes to
acting, it was like that dream come true.
And it was different because it didn't cost me anything.
In each casting that he went, he remained.
The fact of being a dancer opened a lot of doors for me
.
She had more tools than my other companions because she already had mastery of the body, an awareness of space.
Acting allowed me to be virtuous.
Singing and dancing, no.
-And how did you get into acting?
-For a casting for a beer commercial that needed dancers.
I arrived with my dancer friends and they told me: “The camera loves you.
She looks very cute on camera.
Why don't you audition me for a hamburger?"
She was 17 years old.
She was divine.
(
Laughter)
.
At 14 I started with anorexia, and the following year, with bulimia.
He counted calories, took laxatives.
Carolina Ramirez
And that's where a casting manager from a channel meets me, who later calls me for a project for teenagers that never airs.
But it was still two and a half months of training, learning camera and direction.
Of everything.
That helped me and I started to grow.
Then I studied acting.
And I have a Master's degree in Performing Arts.
-Would you say that acting was your salvation?
-The truth that yes.
Unintentionally wanting her everything she lined up for her to end up being an actress with dance training.
What I liked most about dancing was playing characters.
That of playing a peasant, a swan, a queen...
It was deconstructing (the dancer) to become the actress that I am.
And in Colombia I began to do theater with the thickest from there.
As if he were an Oscar Martínez from Argentina.
And it went very well.
I won the prize as a revelation actress in a series called
La lectora
.
I also did
La hija del Mariachi.
It was easy for me to act, I had a lot of fun.
-And that's when you began to do better financially...
-Clear.
We were from the lower middle class.
When we moved from Cali to Bogotá it was hard.
My dad was very financially unstable.
We rented a house.
We lived with just.
Nothing to walk or buy clothes.
And when I started to earn money, I became a bit responsible for everything.
I helped my parents, my brother.
And at the age of 24 I bought my first apartment in Bogotá.
It was for everyone.
Then when I married Mariano, in 2010, the worst came.
-And you managed to get Mariano to settle in Bogotá...
Yes, he lived there for 11 years.
The most porteño of porteños (
Laughter
)!
He had a restaurant here, sold the shares and came.
In Bogotá, at first we had a boutique hotel.
But one day a Spanish friend came by and told him: “I have a play, why don't you produce it for me”.
He did it.
And then came another and then another
.
And he became the most important theater producer in Colombia
.
And he is the one that produces commercial theater:
Burundanga
(one of the most successful),
Bonobos, ART,
among others.
Carolina Ramírez starred in What's Left of Us with Alberto Ajaka.
Photo: Lucia Merle.
-And why do they settle here, in Argentina?
-Because I always wanted to come and live in Buenos Aires.
Luckily, at the work level,
having made
La reina del flow
opened the doors for me .
Many know me like that, more than by my name.
And also, we had a guardian angel who is Carlos Rottemberg.
His babysitter was a big fan of mine because of
The Queen...
And we got to know each other.
I am a close friend of Karina, her wife, who is a sweetheart.
They are good people.
And the play
What's Left of Us
was produced by Mariano, in one of the Rottemberg theaters.
-You shared the bill with Alberto Ajaka, great actor, how did it happen?
-Yes, we made the list and Ajaka appeared and I told Mariano: “Call him I love that actor.
I think he is 'a crazy cute'.
And the truth is wonderful.
We are already friends.
I adore him and it has been an incredible learning experience because he has a lot of court
.
He is a brilliant guy.
What remains...
is a very special work.
This was the last season and we released the rights.
That's it.
End a beautiful cycle.
-What did you know about Argentina before coming?
-I knew about his good football because my father, Edgardo Ramírez, was a professional footballer.
He played for Deportivo Cali and at one point Bilardo was his coach.
My dad retired at the age of 21 as a striker.
He also knew about Argentina through music: Charly García, Soda Stereo, Mercedes Sosa
.
Your musical influence is very strong.
As well as what comes from fiction through TV and movies.
Argentina is very cool.
And Argentines are always very cool.
-And with which Argentine actor would you like to work?
-I would love to work with Mercedes Morán, I love her.
And who doesn't want to work with Darín.
He made a movie with Nancy Duplaá called
Unicornio
and it's coming out this year.
That was good.
I complain like an Argentine: I learned to bitch in Argentine and get ahead of the taxi drivers when I drive.
Carolina Ramirez, actress
-You are a militant of the responsible adoption of animals. Where does your love for animals come from?
-For Goyeneche, a French
bulldog
who is the first dog we had with Mariano.
He wore the rings when we got married in 2010. Goyeneche made us aware of his skin and breathing problems and made us aware of the trade that exists and what they sometimes suffer due to human greed.
We were a transit home for a long time and now we collaborate financially with foundations.
We currently have Cazu, an elderly dog that I raised on a route in Colombia, and a cat.
Have you ever thought of having a child?
-We wanted to be parents, but I obeyed more to go behind the biological clock because I was 34 years old.
We tried several times, but we lost a few pregnancies
.
And the truth is, after the pain passed and you healed, we said: "Better, thank God."
The pandemic showed me a world in which I would not have wanted to bring up a child.
Did you do treatments?
-Yes, one, and then another of hormones.
And with that it was enough.
My body, my heart and my head couldn't take more than that.
I remember that at that moment, I became a horrifying, altered being... I believe that the universe has to conspire in your favor.
At one point we had thought about adopting, but no.
And recently Emiliano, my brother's first son, was born, so I am giving him the title of aunt and I plan to spoil him a lot.
(
Laughter
).
I no longer feel that motherhood is something that fulfills me in life.
Likewise, if the universe conspires in favor, it will be welcome.
I would have that child.
-Tell me a dream you have at work.
-I would like to enter the Spanish market, be it cinema or theater.
I really like Madrid.
And in Buenos Aires I would love to do TV, make movies and direct.
-You are almost a porteña, what Argentine customs did you adopt?
-I complain like an Argentine:
I learned to bitch in Argentine and get ahead of the taxi drivers when I drive
.
Also, to get around the collectives... (
Laughter)
And also, I'm discovering and learning about feminism.
I have learned a lot from Argentine feminist currents.
It is important to identify so much that has been normalized from the patriarchy.
Men and women are not to blame, but the world is like that.
Luckily now we can choose.
Oh, and I also adopted the asado and chorizo.
The food is delicious.
I tell you something:
I don't feel like a foreigner at all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Bar Malvón, Serrano 789, Palermo.
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