Christel Klitbo built her career as an actress, screenwriter and producer. But his first big role, at age six, was far from a happy memory. In the children’s soap opera Carrusel (1989), she played Valeria Ferrer. However, living with the children’s cast left deep marks.
Harassment behind the cameras
In a talk with Nacha Rock, Klitbo confessed that she experienced constant abuse from other girls in the cast, especially from Ludwika Paleta, who played the antagonist María Joaquina. “It wasn’t the best environment, they mistreated me a lot because I was very young. They did everything to me, everything,” she recalled.
The episodes of harassment included pushing, locking them in dressing rooms and entire weeks of silence from their colleagues. On one occasion, his parents asked him if he wanted to continue in the program. She chose to stay, but the bad times prevailed over any positive memories.
“I only have that recorded, I don’t have anything about Carousel recorded, I don’t have many memories.”
Stereotypes that marked an era
Klitbo pointed out that at that time the beauty standards on Televisa were very rigid. Blondes dominated the screens: Edith González, Erika Buenfil, Leticia Calderón, Laura Flores and her own aunt Cynthia Klitbo. “Nobody looked like me,” he said. While Ludwika and Flor Edwarda (Carmen Carrillo) continued receiving roles, they stopped calling her as she grew up.
The actress recognizes that the industry has changed towards greater inclusion. Today they call her for advertising, something that did not happen before. But he insists that the damage of those years persists.
Klitbo’s testimony opens an uncomfortable window on the treatment of children on Mexican television in the eighties, where talent was not always enough to protect them.
