Silvia Pinal Hidalgo (born 12 September 1931) is a Mexican actress. She began her career in the theater, venturing into cinema in 1949. She is one of Mexico's greatest female stars, one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and is part of the Golden Age of Hollywood for her film Shark! (1969). Her film work and popularity in her native country led her to work in Europe (Spain and Italy). Pinal achieved international recognition by starring in a famous film trilogy by director Luis Buñuel: Viridiana (1961), El ángel exterminador (1962) and Simón del Desierto (1965). In addition to her film career, she has excelled in other areas. She pioneered musical theatre in Mexico, ventured into television, and held some political office charges. Early life Silvia Pinal Hidalgo was born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, on 12 September 1931. Her parents were María Luisa Hidalgo Aguilar and Moisés Pasquel. Pasquel was an orchestra conductor at the Mexican radio station XEW. Pinal's mother became pregnant with Pasquel when she was only 15 years old. Her father did not recognize her, and Pinal did not know him until she was 11.<ref>TVyNovelas México: Silvia Pinal presents her autobiographic book]</ref> On the part of her biological father, Pinal had three more brothers: Eugenio, Moisés, and Virginia. However, Pinal never spent time with the Pasquel family. Pinal spent her first years behind the counter of a seafood restaurant near the XEW, where her mother worked. When Pinal was five years old, her mother married Luis G. Pinal, whom they called "El Caballero Pinal", a journalist, military man, and politician twenty years older than her. Pinal adopted Silvia as his daughter; in later interviews, she asserted him as her only father. Mr. Pinal had three more daughters from a previous marriage: Mercedes, Beatriz, and Eugenia. Her adoptive father held several public positions in Mexico. He was municipal president of Tequisquiapan, Querétaro. The family lived in several cities in Mexico as Querétaro, Acapulco, Monterrey, Chilpancingo, Cuernavaca and Puebla, and finally settled in Mexico City. Pinal has been fascinated by show business since she was a child. In addition to film and music, she liked to write and recite poems. She studied first at Pestalozzi College in Cuernavaca and then at the Washington Institute in Mexico City. Despite her artistic aspirations, her father conditioned her to study "something useful", so she learned