María Antonieta Gómez-Rodríguez, more commonly known by her stage nameMaría Antonieta de las Nieves, is a Mexican actress, comedian, and singer. Her best remembered role is that of La Chilindrina, one of the main characters of the Televisa sitcom El Chavo del Ocho.
Early life
De las Nieves was born in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit. She is the youngest of the seven children of Estanislao Gómez Ocampo and Delfilia Rodríguez Ocampo, who owned a women's clothing store.
Career
She made her film debut in the fantasy filmPulgarcito, starring María Elena Marqués, José Elías Moreno, and Cesáreo Quezadas in the title role. At age 8, she became a voice actress; she provided the Spanish voices for characters such as Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family, Eddie Munster from The Munsters, Batgirl from Batman, and Invisible Woman from Fantastic Four. Her first telenovela was Estafa de amor, starring Carmen Montejo and Amparo Rivelles. De las Nieves became famous as La Chilindrina in the Televisa sitcom El Chavo del Ocho. She was also the lead actress in El Chapulín Colorado until 1973, when she left and Florinda Meza replaced her. She was a voice actress at Televisa, when Chespirito heard her talk. Thinking her voice was perfect for the Chilindrina character, he offered her a job at his new television program, and she accepted. Both El Chavo del Ocho and El Chapulín Colorado became hits across Latin America, in New Zealand and the United States, as well as various other countries where the program was translated into local languages. The casts of Chavo and Chapulín toured extensively whilst the series was on; after cancellation of the series' filming in Mexico, its actors continued travelling, and the series continued to be featured in many Latin American countries. In 1997, she was cast as the lead in Aquí está la Chilindrina, in which she lives in a convent with various nuns and orphan girls. It had big success. She played Dulce Amado, an elderly aunt, in the Telemundo telenovela Dame Chocolate. In 2012, de las Nieves participated as a contestant in Univision's third season of Mira Quién Baila. She has voiced Vanellope von Schweetz in the Spanish dub of Wreck-It Ralph.
Lawsuit
María Antonieta de las Nieves was able to win a legal battle over Chespirito in 2003, one that gives her permission to act as La Chilindrinain public whenever she wants to, and grants her rights over the character she played. Chespirito owns the rights to most of the other characters of the shows he created, which led some of the actors like Rubén Aguirre and Carlos Villagrán to move to Argentina at separate points of their careers to revive the characters. In addition, because of the lawsuit, La Chilindrina is the only major character in the series that doesn't appear in the animated seriesEl Chavo Animado and in its spin-off video game, El Chavo Kart.
