I am back today with another El Periódico article from Mauricio Bernal about my dear friend Nastasia Urbano, the 1980s top model from Spain. Apparently, friends of hers who have known her far longer than I have are reaching out to help Nastasia, and efforts to get her out of harm's way and relieve her of her plight are accelerating. I am heartened greatly by this news.
As with my previous post on the subject, I present this article translated from the original Spanish, with the inevitable corrections and cleanup work necessary for a foreign-language text translated automatically by computer software. It is Mauricio Bernal's article and his alone; I take no credit for it. The picture of Nastasia was taken by photographer Elisenda Pons. Thanks to my fellow journalists in Barcelona for everything they do.
*
A group of former co-workers of Nastasia Urbano has decided to organize to help the ex-model who, in the 1980s, was part of the elite world of modeling, and who now, in poverty, has to sleep in the streets of Barcelona. Overwhelmed by the story of Urbano's fall from grace published by El Periódico, Ruth Schuler, Liz Beltrán, Patricia Soler Beltrán and photographer Robert Suárez are getting in touch with other professionals from the business who knew the model at that time that she began her career - to let her know that she is not alone and, in the end, to reach out to her.
"It has left me in shock. I believe that all of us never expected this, to say the least of it," says Schuler, Urbano's partner in the Group Model Management agency. "We were at the princess level, but she, she was at the goddess level," she recalls, "I remember her as an introverted person, very beautiful and very generous with others." Then, in the '80s, Urbano did her first modeling work. Almost immediately, global stardom awaited her - first in Milan, and later in New York, where she worked with famous models such as Linda Evangelista and world-famous photographers such as Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton.
"We are gathering more people, many people are signing up to help. The first thing is to talk to her, know how she is and what she needs. Every one of them is collecting information to see how we can help her, Schuler says. "We have to help her in a sensible way; opening an account in her name may not be a solution. We have thought about going to the homeless program at Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, helping her in the process, of course, but above all, letting her know that she is not she is alone, and that there are people who appreciate her and who remember her from that time. You have to make that help concrete, but a lot of people are signing up."
The 1980s were Urbano's golden age. In New York she worked with the Ford modeling agency and did advertisements for brands such as Revlon, Yves Saint Laurent and Virginia Slims, among many others. She made a lot of money, but she lost it because of an unhappy marriage. From her beginnings in Barcelona, Schuler recalls that at the headquarters of the agency, "in a tower on Muntaner Street that no longer exists," they spent a lot of time together, "because it was like a second home" for models. "We were eating there, we spent the day there. Sometimes we went together to the castings. Then of course, we'd follow each other's work. 'Have you seen David Lynch's commercial?' I remember we were talking about that."
It is not the only show of solidarity that has awakened memories of Urbano. Hernando Herrera, a former model who now works at HH International Modeling in Barcelona, believes that a person with Urbano's experience still has much to contribute in the world of modeling. "She could do many things - not only work as a model, but also give lectures, host talks on fashion, and do countless activities," Herrera says, "and I am willing to retrain her and talk with photographers and agencies so that she can return to work." Esteve Llanes, who works for Foto K, a Barcelona store specializing in photography and video equipment that organizes workshops in which models often participate, has also offered his help. "We do workshops with models and I think that somehow she could share her experience with these women who start," Llanes says.
Beyond the world of modeling, Urbano has generated sympathy among people who have lived similar stories. Rosa Montané, a friend of Urbano in the town of Torroella de Montgrí just northeast of Barcelona, says she knows what the ex-model is going through. "Everything she talked about in your article, I lived through. I was an advertising producer and I was ruined at a difficult age, like she was, at 55 years old. I lost everything and the world turned its back on me; it took me almost seven years to get back up again. I know how it is that society will blame you by saying that if you end up in such a situation, that's because of something you must have done. Now I have a non-buoyant situation, but it's stabilized, and have a place where I have some room. She's welcome if she wants to come. "
*
The one thing that makes me feel worse than knowing that Nastasia is homeless is that there is little if anything that I can do about it. But she clearly has a lot of friends in Spain who want to help her. And I'll let you in on a little secret; as a fashion and modeling outsider who's befriended many models of the eighties through social media as a result of me preserving their work on my beautiful-women picture blog, I can assure you that Nastasia has many more friends in America and elsewhere who want to help her. Dozens of us have expressed a desire to do whatever we can to come to Nastaais's aid. For now, all I can do is relay translations of these articles coming out of Spain to arouse more awareness of her plight. Until and unless she makes it back to New York and needs help from those of us in the Tri-State area, this is all I can do.
Nastasia, if you're reading this . . .. If you ever make it back to New York, I hope I'm one of the first people at the airport to greet you. And when I see you, I'm going to give you the biggest hug and the smoochiest kiss I can give you for a welcome. Not because I want to fulfill a fantasy of being with the woman in the Yves Saint Laurent Opium ads - because that woman is a fantasy herself, a fictitious image. Rather, it's because I love you as a friend because of who you really are - a sweet, generous and caring woman who's always been very dear to me and who I know would help me if the situation were reversed. I don't care about the fantasy goddess in those old ads. I care about you.
Hold strong, my dear . . . you have friends who love you and want to see you back on your own two feet.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment