Why Ignacio López Tarso left the priesthood for acting

Ignacio López Tarso is one of the longest-lived actors in the Mexican art scene, and over the years he has established himself as one of the most respected figures in national cinema.

The actor has had a prolific career since he became an icon of the Golden Cinema with the film Macario, for which he won numerous awards. But Lopez Tarso, although he always had the desire to study acting, first entered a seminary with a view to becoming a priest.

Already as a child, the veteran actor was impressed with the world of acting, film and theater, but it was in his youth that he joined a seminary to continue his studies, this because his family could not afford to transfer to boarding school.

“When I sought to continue my studies, my father didn't have enough financial freedom to send me to boarding school, not even to Toluca,” Ignacio López Tarso said in an interview with Gustavo Adolfo Infante for his program The Minute That Changed My Destiny.

It was then that the priest of the town, a friend of Ignacio López Tarso's father, convinced the family to enter the seminary today to continue studying.

“He said: 'Let him go to the seminary, I open the door of the seminary, there are magnificent teachers there. He is going to study a lot, they do a lot of sports', in a town in Temascalcingo, in the State of Mexico and I left. They were wonderful days at the seminar,” recalled the actor in the program Imagen Televisión.

The respected actor recalled that he spent four years attending the seminary, however he admitted that he did not have the vocation to become a priest, so he decided to leave the place.

“There I studied Latin, I studied Greek, humanities, philosophy (...) So, I already said no, not anymore because I didn't have a vocation to be a priest. I never thought I'd be a priest. One day the father, the rector told me: 'Look, you are occupying a place that the church needs a young man who is really interested in becoming a priest and you will never be one, '” he recalled.

On the other hand, at the end of March 2022, López Tarso lashed out at those who have headed the administration of the National Actors Association (ANDA) in recent years. In the midst of disgust, the actor recalled that during his tenure in the agency he achieved several benefits, especially linked to infrastructure because at that time Mexico City was trying to rise after the 1985 earthquake.

The performer of film classics such as El gallo de oro, El hombre de papel, Pedro Páramo, among many others, held a meeting with the media after casting his vote as part of that association. Like other member actors, he gave a glimpse of his disagreement and expressed solidarity in the search for transparency.

“A lot of things have to be corrected, we have to work hard. For the next four years, my son will have to dedicate himself body and soul to get ANDA out of the hole where the last executive committees have taken it,” he said.

In this context, the protagonist of The Useless Life of Pito Pérez recalled that in 1985 he took control of the National Association of Actors and his management was characterized by rebuilding the facilities that were damaged after the earthquake that struck the then Federal District, leaving an indelible mark on the heart of Mexico.

“I left a prosperous ANDA, I left an ANDA with the newly rebuilt theater, with the foundations of the buildings. I received ANDA in 1985, immediately after the great earthquake, so the first thing I had to do was renovate the ANDA buildings and then almost tear down the Jorge Negrete theater, which was already very old,” he said.

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