The invention of Tórtola Valencia

The legend says about this mysterious woman that she was the daughter of a Catalan from Sardinia and of an Englishwoman of good descent, or also of an Englishman from Gibraltar and a girl from gypsy race. The uncertainties of her origins contributed to the fact that Tórtola Valencia reached the end of her life inventing herself.

For Tórtola life was her best lie, but also a rejection and one escape that would become her most exciting journey. Considered one of the most beautiful women in the West, in 1910 she had already traveled around the world. On 1912 was appointed Honorary Member and Professor of Aesthetics at the Grand Theater of Art in Munich and the following year she was hired by the famous theater director Max Reinhardt to perform in the musical Sumurrum in the mythical London Coliseum.

In her many trips to the East, she was initiated into Buddhism and practiced yoga. She became the muse of poets, musicians and painters, and of kings and heads of state. Like Isadora Duncan, Tórtola loved the beauty of the body and became the prototype of Louis Roederer champagne and of the Myrurgia house.

Carmen Tórtola Valencia passed away in silence on February 13, 1955. The following day she was buried in  Poblenou Barcelona cemetery.

Excerpt from the text of Carlos Murias.