A roller coaster life with vertigo and adrenaline, where like a Phoenix Bird resurfaces resilient, with courage and wisdom. The long life of this woman, lived intensely in just a few years — some fifty — astonishes with episodes of her reality, surpassing the fictions that she starred in. Entrerriana, born in Concordia, was Miss Pinamar at 15 and a model; She made her career as an actress on Latin screens, worked on soap operas seen around the world and presented TV shows of different caliber. She overcame several breakups, committed relationships, fleeting romances and cancer, which she develops in her book Survivor (Grijalbo). She speaks at the speed of sound although not everything anymore. Therefore, she denies an affair with Luis Miguel despite having told the media that “Micky’s skin is the best (…) he had never caressed the buttocks of such a man in 50 years.” Curiously, here in his country, he achieved greater visibility when he embodied the cursed woman from “Pasión de Gavilanes”. Cute, skinny, and tall, she drives “Girls Afternoon” (NET TV), a talk show focused on the female audience, accompanied by specialized journalists and panelists. “I never conducted a similar program; I was the presenter of Big Brother of the Pacific that was made in Colombia and of “El gordo y la flaca” (Univisión). But I like challenges. I get up at 7 in the morning to study the script, I do my housework. We go from Monday to Friday, from 17 to 18 hours; we deal with reality, not gossip,” she says.
News: How was your childhood in Entre Ríos?
Lorena Meritano: My childhood was the happiest and healthiest stage of my life. We lived with mom, dad and my brothers at my grandparents’ house. We used to go fishing on the weekends on the banks of the Uruguay River. I went to the state school and in the afternoon to an arts institute.
News: And his adolescence?
Meritan: More complicated. At 15 they took some photos of me in Concordia and took me to the parades in Pinamar; They entered me in a contest and I came out Miss Pinamar. I was the cover of magazines and I went to Buenos Aires to work as a model. At 15 years old and 1.80 m tall, she was a girl who came from another reality. I found myself far from mine, without being physically, mentally or emotionally prepared for that. I suffered a lot, I started to gain weight, they told me I was fat. At 17, I burst into tears and returned to Concordia.
News: And decides to go to Mexico
Meritan: I gathered a few pesos and left. He didn’t want to return to Buenos Aires because this city meant ridicule, pain, he had had a very bad time. Criticism about how she walked or talked with an entrerriano accent. When I went to Mexico I took a quantum leap to grow as a woman and as a professional. I arrived in 1992, I worked as a promoter for a year, then I did a massive casting for Televisa and won a 3-year acting scholarship.
News: Where did you start your acting career?
Meritan: There I trained and began my international career. With my theater teacher and neutral accent, Adriana Barraza, the first thing I did was theater. Then the telenovela “Prisionera de amor” with which she would win the Palmas de Oro award for Revelation. Later, for a heart issue, I left Televisa for Madrid. I would buy a pack of cigarettes and a can of tuna and half of it was for my dog. One day, my compadre José Pérez, Luis Miguel’s assistant, invited me to Acapulco to spend some holidays. And I went to dance at Baby’ O (Luismi’s favorite disco) and there was the president of Azteca Digital, Elisa Salinas. With her I signed an exclusive contract with Televisión Azteca, Televisa’s competition, to make “Rivals by accident”.
News: How did you get to Peru?
Meritan: I was selected for the telenovela “Escándalo”, the most successful project of my life. At that time, my mother got cancer and they wouldn’t let me travel. In Lima they suggested that I do “The Woman of My Life” in Miami. It was an audience record, I got the Ace award in New York and the Mara de oro. After those busy days, I ended a relationship and I was sad. I went back to Mexico, filmed three movies, traveled to Argentina and met Pablo Lapiduz, a boy from Concordia. In love, I left everything, got married and went to live in the country. In 2000 I got pregnant, unfortunately it was an extrauterine pregnancy and life made me a crack. I began to study social psychology and, in 2001, they called me to make “Ecomoda”, a sequel to “Betty, la fea”. And so, with a marriage in crisis and having retired, I returned to the ring. I got divorced and at the time I formed a couple with Juan Maldonado, Colombian producer and director, for almost 6 years. Although I always wanted to be a prophet in my land…
News: It’s just that she seemed more Colombian or Mexican than Argentine, with a constant coming and going.
Meritano: Yes, I spent it coming and going, like a gypsy. The tick tock of my heart beat doubled. But I separated from Juan and bought my first little apartment on Yatay and Sarmiento to settle here. And they just offer me “Desperate Housewives”, a Colombian version.
News: How did you meet Ernesto Calzadilla?
Meritan: I met Ernesto (actor, model, presenter and former Mister Venezuela ’98, based in Colombia) in a hallway on RCN (Colombian open television channel). A while later he started following me on Twitter and we started dating. We built a very nice relationship until 2016.
News: Did they try to have a child?
Meritan: Yes. The in vitro process had begun in Bogotá. I always had my social work here, that’s why we came to Buenos Aires, I did my routine checkups and they were fine. Back in Bogotá, one day I touched a small ball and I flew to the doctor. It was cancer. Ipso facto I returned to Argentina and the surgeries began. First the right breast and the nodes. Afterwards, a very long chemo treatment and the left breast. Soon they suggest removing my tubes and ovaries… It was a tremendous year in 2016.
News: During the nineties he had a relationship with Yolanda Andrade, the Mexican actress and host.
Meritan: While I was studying my scholarship at Televisa, Yolanda sent me letters and flowers and we had a bond. We live it with absolute tranquility and freedom. I started to like a boy, Yolanda was annoyed, we fought and I went to Spain. That relationship remains in my memory as something beautiful that I do not hide.
News: How do you perceive yourself?
Meritano: As a congruent woman, who thinks, feels, says and does congruently. It was hard for me to do it. I am doomed not to meet anyone’s expectations, to continue leaving the comfort zone. That’s why I’m starting a Star+ series in October that I won through a casting. It’s called “The Absent Voice.” I am a passionate, honest, simple professional. I am focused on enjoyment because I have to enjoy.
News: What provokes the Argentine reality?
Meritano: It goes through me, it hurts me, it worries me, it occupies me. For my retired mother, my nephews, the young people, for me. For inequality, corruption and machismo. For violence, lack of respect, education and values. The justice, education and health systems do not work. We have to go out to work and stop fighting!
