lit a candle 6h agoJust had Hasta que la plata nos separe on in the background last night, my mother's favourite, and now this. Doña Leonor Rengifo scolding everyone at that dinner table, I can still hear the voice. Que descanse en paz, Ana.
Their story
Ana María Arango Cardinal was a Colombian actress of television, film and theatre whose career spanned more than five decades. She was one of the most familiar character actresses in Colombian drama, remembered for roles such as Doña Matilde in Francisco el matemático, Gertrudis in La Pola and Perpetua Bautista…
Ana María Arango Cardinal was a Colombian actress of television, film and theatre whose career spanned more than five decades. She was one of the most familiar character actresses in Colombian drama, remembered for roles such as Doña Matilde in Francisco el matemático, Gertrudis in La Pola and Perpetua Bautista in La nieta elegida.
She was born in Bogotá on 3 September 1950 to Jesús Arango, a lawyer, professor and dean, and Helena Cardinal, also a dean. Her sister is the architect and historian Silvia Arango. She attended the Colegio Refous and then the Universidad de los Andes, where she acted with the university theatre group from 1967 and graduated in anthropology in 1972.
She went on to work with the Acto Latino group, studied acting in Mexico with the director Héctor Mendoza in 1976 and 1977, and then studied film and theatre at the University of Vincennes in France, performing there with the group El Metro. Her stage work included Cada vez que hablas se te crece la nariz, La excepción y la regla and El espantapájaros.
On television she built a long list of supporting roles across Colombia's main networks, including La casa de las dos palmas, Vuelo secreto, Francisco el matemático, La Pola, Hasta que la plata nos separe and La nieta elegida. She also appeared in more than a dozen films, among them María Cano, La pena máxima and Retratos en un mar de mentiras. Across these roles she was known for playing mothers, widows, matriarchs and comic busybodies with a lightness of touch that made minor parts memorable, and she was still listed among the actors represented by her agency at the time of her death.
She married Luis González in 1981 and they had two children. Ana María Arango died in Bogotá on 8 October 2026, aged 76. Her agency, Armonika, announced her death; its founder Mónica Forero called her a wonderful mother, an incomparable grandmother and an actress the country would always remember, and recalled the advice and unconditional love she had given her over the years. El Tiempo reported that her death was not an accident and was related to her health.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), El Tiempo and news reports.
In their own words
“Una mamá maravillosa, una abuela inigualable y una actriz que este país recordará por siempre”
Mónica Forero, her manager, announcing her death, October 2026
Photos
1by People Forever
That dinner table scene, my whole family quoted it for years