American-born Mexican actress and dancer Yolanda Montes, widely known by her stage name Tongolele, passed away today at the age of 93. She became an iconic figure in Mexican entertainment, celebrated for her captivating dance performances and contributions to cinema, performing with numerous top actors and directors of Mexico’s Golden Era of Cinema, including Germán Valdés 'Tin Tán,' Silvia Pinal, Pedro Infante, María Victoria, Pedro Vargas, Roberto Gavaldón, and Emilio Fernández.
Née Yolanda Ivonne Montes Farrington in Spokane, Washington, to a Mexican father and an American mother, she discovered her passion for dance at an early age and worked as a dancer for the International Ballet of San Francisco, California, as part of a Tahitian revue. She migrated to Mexico at age 15, where she continued her dance career, performing at local cabarets under the stage name Tongolele, derived from a mix of African and Tahitian words.
Tongolele made her film debut in the 1948 film Nocturne of Love / Nocturno de amor, directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and starring Miroslava Stern. That same year, she took on the lead role in ¡Han matado a "Tongolele"!, directed by Roberto Gavaldón. Set in Mexico City's Folies Bergère cabaret, the plot centers around "the dance goddess" who plans to retire and marry a journalist, inciting jealousy and anger among her colleagues. After she's found dead in her dressing room, a series of events unfold, leading to a dramatic confrontation involving a leopard and a magician.
Rapidly, Tongolele became a film sensation and one of the queens of Rumbera cinema, a popular subgenre in Mexican cinema featuring escapist fantasies starring women and set to music, particularly Afro-Cuban rhythms.
In 1949, Tongolele made a guest appearance in The King of the Neighborhood / El rey del barrio, directed by Gilberto Martínez Solares and starring Mexican comedian Germán Valdés 'Tin Tán' and Silvia Pinal. During the 1950s, she participated in numerous films, including Kill Me Because I'm Dying! / Mátenme porque me muero (Ismael Rodríguez, 1951), Chucho the Mended / Chucho el remendado (Gilberto Martínez Solares, 1952), The Mystery of the Express Car / El misterio del carro express (Zacarías Gómez Urquiza, 1953), Pensión de artistas (Adolfo Fernández Bustamante, 1956), and the musical Música de siempre (Tito Davison, 1958).
After a brief hiatus, she returned to the silver screen in 1967 with the horror film The Panther Women / Las mujeres panteras, directed by René Cardona. Two years later, she was featured in El crepúsculo de un dios, directed by Emilio Fernández.
In 1971, Tongolele starred in the Mexican-American co-production Isle of the Snake People alongside Boris Karloff. The narrative unfolds on a remote island where young women transform into blue-faced, man-eating zombies. Tongolele portrayed Kalea, a mesmerizing dancer accompanied by a snake. During the mid-1960s, CBS released an album titled Tongolele Sings for You, featuring ten tracks. In 2012, she made a brief cinematic comeback in Sebastián del Amo’s biopic El fantástico mundo de Juan Orol, portraying herself.
Throughout her career, she appeared in numerous films, cabaret shows, and television programs, leaving an indelible mark on the entertainment industry. In 1956, she married Cuban Joaquín González in New York City; they remained together until his death in 1996. The couple had twins born in 1950.
