Niurka, Norma

Niurka, Norma

1942-2009

Norma Niurka Acevedo was an entertainment reporter, theater critic, and actress. She was born in Havana, Cuba on November 15, 1942, and arrived in Miami in the early 1960s with her parents and sister, Marta. Largely inspired by her aunt, the Cuban actress Miriam Acevedo, Niurka was interested in acting from a young age and in the late 1960’s she went to Madrid, Spain to study acting at the Royal School of Dramatic Art. Norma Niurka and her aunt Miriam Acevedo of Man de La Mancha fame, co-wrote the literary work El Charco De Sangre.

In 1966, she began her career as an actress when she starred in a production of Tennessee Williams' Glass Menagerie (Mundo de cristal), alongside actors Salvador Ugarte, Nismi Nazar, and Alfonso Cremata, directed by Miguel Ponce, and performed at the Koubek Center of Miami Dade College. Later, she went to Puerto Rico, appearing in telenovelas such as “La Criada Malcriada.” She worked alongside well-known Puerto Rican actors such as Johanna Rosaly. In San Juan Puerto Rico, she became involved in experimental theater. She continued her involvement in experimental theater in New York in the 1970’s with The Living Theater as well as acting with the prestigious La Mama Experimental Theater, doing street theater in the Bronx area. Upon her return to Miami in the late 1970’s, Niurka founded the Latin American Center for Theatrical Information and Experimentation. The group performed locally as well as traveling abroad to perform in festivals. Niurka wrote poetry and a poem titled “Al paso del viento” about her time in the world of experimental theater, specifically her time with La Mama Experimental Theater, was published in 1970 in an anthology Poesía en exodo, which was edited by Ana Rosa Núñez. Niurka also published her poetry in early exile publications and at literary events, such as the one she organized with her friend Mauricio Fernández in December of 1966 for the Latin American Fraternal Association in Miami. In 1970, she published a collection of her poems titled “Mordiendo el tiempo.”

In 1977, she began her career as a prolific culture writer, stage critic, and entertainment reporter, becoming one of the founding writers for the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald, where she had her column "Entreactos" ("Between Acts",) which first appeared on January 12, 1977. Niurka also wrote a monthly column called “Entre tu y yo” for the entertainment magazine, People en Español. She interviewed many stars like Sara Montiel, Salma Hayek, Enrique Iglesias, Andrea Bocelli, Óscar de la Renta, José Feliciano, and many more. In the 1980’s and the era of the Mariel Boatlift, Niurka hosted literary readings in Coconut Grove for newly arrived Cuban writers, actors, musicians, and artists to mingle with Cubans who had arrived in the first wave of the 1960’s.

In the 1990’s she hosted a series of video recorded interviews and meetings at her house in Schenley Park, in the southeast part of Miami, which was called “El patio de mi casa.” The series provided a gathering place for Cuban, Spanish and Latin American artists who arrived in or were passing through Miami and was an important addition to the cultural development of Miami. In the 1990’s, Niurka also interviewed artists and prominent cultural figures for the television series “Qué pasa Miami” for the TV network Gems which ran from 1994–2000. It was a Weekly Variety show covering music, television, film and culture primarily filmed in Miami and aimed at Spanish-speaking women and their families. Through her platform of People en Español, Niurka brought the names of Latino/a artists and musicians like Julio Iglesias and Gloria Estefan into the mainstream. Niurka was awarded the Premio Humanitario y de Artes Alegoría Bolivariana by the art collector and great admirer of Simón Bolívar, Simón Daro Dawidowicz, in Miami Beach. She was the first Cuban to receive the award, which had been given out since 1970, an initiative founded by Dawidowicz. Niurka died on December 25, 2009.

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Biographical note written by Kate Villa, 2020-2021 UGrow Fellow for Manuscripts and Archives Management

1. Cuban Theater Digital Archive (miami.edu)

2. Muere la periodista Norma Niurka | People en Español (peopleenespanol.com)

3. The Roaring 1970s, Cuban Theater in Miami, 1960 - 1980

4. QUE PASA MIAMI 1996 - RAPHAEL - YouTube

5. MORENO, SARAH. "NORMA NIURKA, 67: Norma Niurka Theater columnist for El Nuevo Herald." Miami Herald, The (FL), 27 Dec. 2009, p. B5. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/12CDC05D31CDE0C0.

6. NIURKA, NORMA. "A 'literary citadel'." Miami Herald, The (FL), A1 ed., 11 Nov. 2008, p. A17. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/1246456960FC1B68.

7. CONNOR, OLGA. "NORMA NIURKA: ARTISTA DE LA PALABRA." Nuevo Herald, El (Miami, FL), Final ed., sec. Galeria, 3 Jan. 2010, p. 1D. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/12E0CF4E5D9E90B8.