Few know that the mother of the great Marilyn Monroe was born in MexicoMrs. Gladys Pearl Baker moved to Los Angeles without expecting that her daughter would become a a great Hollywood actress. For the year 1961, Marilyn was married to a playwright and screenwriter named Arthur Miller.originally from the United States.
On Friday, January 20 of that year, the actress and singer would have stepped on this border to divorce that man.
After that, I would have lounged in the iconic and now decommissioned Hotel San Antonio, and sipped margaritas at the Kentucky Bar.
The next day she would have returned to the United States as a free woman, without anyone noticing her presence in the town.
This is the story told by word of mouth, however, It’s a version that can’t be checkedso it is considered false by most local historians.
Did Marilyn Monroe come to Juarez City?
Marilyn did come to Ciudad Juárez to carry out an express divorcearound 3 in the afternoon, on Friday, January 20 and just on January 23, their marriage was formally dissolved in Ciudad Juárez.
And although all this was done within a framework of discretion, The newspaper El Continental reported the fact on its front page the next day.
The representative lawyers were Aureliano Gonzalez Vargas, who worked for Miller; Y Arturo Sosa Aguilarby Monroe.
Both carried out the necessary procedures so that the actress only came to sign, taking advantage of the Chihuahua Divorce Law issued in 1932which had a collection intention.
In other words, thanks to this regulation, issued by the then governor Roberto Fierrothe locality obtained the fame of being a place where divorces and marriages were carried out “steamed”.
All this is reported by the city counciland it is recorded in a official record that it is under the protection of the State Government; and it is only exhibited on special dates.
So far the data is verifiable, but everything else is a myth.
In a chronicle of Jaime Federico Rico Granados, released on social networks through the Facebook group Juárez en Postales; It is argued that Marilyn never stayed in a hotel, because if she did, there would have been photographs of it.
The foregoing, given that, according to the international importance that it already enjoyed at that time, it would have been very difficult for any employee or guest of the Hotel San Antonio or any other not to have noticed it.
On the other hand, Rico Granados denies that the Hollywood actress had gone to the Kentucky Bar to drink margaritas, in any case, he says, he bought cakes to eat, on board a car, which later crossed over to the United States at that very moment .
Marilyn traveled from New York to Dallas, then arrived in El Paso, Texas, and crossed into Ciudad Juárez. Moments later she signed her certificate, bought something to eat, and crossed the border again to return to the city from which she came.
“The reality is that she slept tired and peacefully in New York the next day,” says the historian and chronicler.
Where is the Hotel San Antonio?
For its part, this myth is one of those that keep this structure alive, which is out of operations, and even during 2022 an announcement emerged that the property was for sale for more than 46 million pesos.
And although the evidence points to the fact that Marilyn never stepped foot in that place, what is certain is that the then president Adolfo López Mateos did it.
This happened in 1964, when the symbolic delivery of the Chamizal park and the president had to come to this city for said act.
In accordance with Antonio Ramos Solis, “Don Chendo”who explains that this building was built in 1947, under the administration of the then municipal president Carlos Villarreal.
Until the date of this publication, the Hotel San Antonio stands on 16 de Septiembre Avenue, in front of the Mercado Juárez, as one of the main architectural jewels of Ciudad Juárez.