When I heard that there was going to be a Gloria Trevi movie, I was finally excited that someone I have grown up with and have followed was going to have a movie based on their life. Normally, we have to wait until the person is dead before seeing their life story; but this time…her life still has more story to tell.
Gloria Trevi wanted to be a household name, wanted to famous, actually, she wanted to be infamous. She is and all before turning forty. Directed by Christian Keller, “Gloria” is the story of Mexican pop singer, Gloria Trevi, who rose to fame quickly and was so in love with her manager and producer that she allowed herself to be manipulated and used for his personal pleasures and gain. This isn’t a spoiler alert because this is the true-life story of Gloria Trevi.
The film opened in 2014 at various film festivals, and in Mexico on January 1, 2015. It was limited released in various cities in the US during the year but never made it is Houston, which has a big Latino community. We had to wait for the DVD and digital releases in October of 2015 to be able to watch the film.
We watched the English sub-titled version, as my wife wanted to watch it also, and I found that I honestly couldn’t tell who I was actually watching. Was that Gloria Trevi or actress SofÃa Espinosa? The story was intriguing, I was wrapped up in it. Any fan of Latin pop music knows Gloria Trevi and her crazy antics on stage, but what we never saw was the pain that she went through behind the scenes. While they portrayed Gloria as a victim in the movie, they still showed her as the strong and determined artist we all have grown to love.
I loved the film and want to watch it again. My only criticism about the film is a few of the timelines. When Gloria came out with her first album and appeared on Siempre En Domingo, it was 1989. As Gloria and her posse were walking backstage, you saw other key artists like Lucero (Lucerito) walking off stage. Because the producers were using iconic artists and looks, they put Lucero’s cameo in the era of 1982 with her gold jumpsuit and gold and black headband. Many casual movie watchers or even Gloria Trevi fans might not catch that quick error, but I did as I have interested in how they portrayed other people like Raul Velasco and Paty Chapoy.
Another small error in timelines was when Sergio Andrade and Gloria Trevi were sitting in the restaurant and Sergio told Gloria that he could have “La Jarocha” to sing the songs and that he didn’t need Gloria. By the time this was happening, Yuri was already working with Loris Cerronni & Gian Pietro Felisatti and had already cut ties with Sergio in the early ’80s.
The movie is definitely worth the watch. It told the story from beginning to end, the end being her being released from jail and starting her life order. Again, no spoilers because we all know that Gloria was released and has moved on, and is doing extremely well in the second half of her career. She has finally embraced the film and supported the story and the promotion. Give it a watch, if you haven’t already.
Since that day, I have been study Latin pop and rock music and have become a Latin pop music historian through the publishing of articles, fanzine, and websites. My goal is to teach people about Latin pop music and the history behind it with my website, Siempre En Domingo.
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