Carmen Barajas Sandoval - Biography

Biography

Carmen was born on May 18, 1925 in Mexico City as a member of an old and aristocratic family from French and Spanish origins. She was the first born of a total of the 4 children that Edelmira De Sandoval Y Paullada Escoffier and Lorenzo Barajas y De Fernán Nuñez had. The family home was located in the premises that today holds Mexico city's Stamp Museum. After a few years, the family moved to the new and luxurious neighborhood called "Chapultepec Heights" now known as " Lomas de Chapultepec" where the family house still exists.

At a very young age she met Jorge Negrete and became a very close friend of the actor's family. When Carmen was 15 years old, she asked him to give her a summer job as his assistant and immediately fell in love with the cinema industry where she worked for the vast majority of her life, working mostly as a producer.

Due to this friendship, and to her important career in the film industry, Carmen became friends with some of the most important people in Mexican Show Business, such as María Félix, Dolores del Río, Miroslava and Pedro Infante. She was responsible for introducing the later to Jorge Negrete and therefore helped launch Infante's career.

In 1947, she married Luis Alfonso Lavalle but the marriage ended in divorce only six years later.

Carmen was related to 84 productions both in Mexico and internationally, working in the executive production department at Matouk Films and in 1960, she founded, along with some friends and family members, a company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films. They made several productions among we can count Batalla en el paraíso (A Battle in Paradise), A la sombra del Sol (In the Shadow of the Sun) & Vagabundo en la lluvia (Stranger in the Rain), Tiburoneros (Shark Hunters), Tlayucan & Tarahumara. These films were a huge success and won several international prizes, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1962 and the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1964 for Tarahumara.

After this, Carmen became a respected personality in the film industry and became a member at the Council of the Mexican Academy of Film.

Later in her life, along with her sister Edelmira, she created an haute couture atelier that quickly became a success in Mexico. Her creations were considered to have the same high quality as any European designer. International stars such as Sylvia Koschina, Christa Linder, and Angélica María wore her creations on several premieres and red carpets around the world. Nevertheless, the partnership with her sister ended a few years leater and Carmen ultimately closed the atelier

Due to her close relationship with France, and her efforts to improve the diplomatic affairs between France and Mexico, in 1986 Carmen received the Légion d'honneur from President François Mitterrand at the Élysée Palace.