In full success, she rejected fame and money to return to anonymity: the story of Paty, from El Chavo del 8Ana Lilian de la Macorra was not an actress, but Chespirito thought he saw something in her and convinced her to join the cast. She was not mistaken: she soon became popular. However, she was never able to enjoy it. And she gave it all up

The Chavo of 8 it had as one of its particularities the fact of having become a television product that marked several generations over several decades. Both adults and children enjoyed what was happening in the beautiful neighborhood, beyond the fact that it was created for a teenage audience. Until Diego Maradonaalready being a professional soccer player, recognized that in those moments in which he was feeling badly, he put on the program to make him smile and, for a moment, forget everything.

That was the premise that impressed him Roberto Gomez Bolano. Broadly speaking, not much introduction is needed on what the series was about. From there emerged characters that remain in the collective memory, such as the guy, kidthe Chilindrina, Mr Ramon, Mrs. Florindathe Professor Jirafalesthe witch of 71… It must be one of the few television broadcasts that has such an even cast, protagonists on the same level.

Of course there were other characters that appeared sporadically. Here we meet patty (listed in the books as Patricia Jimenezbut she is known by her nickname), performed by Ana Lilian de la Macorra. His case was quite striking: participating in many episodes over several seasons, he had everything to establish himself, but he never took off. And this happened because of Ana, so she proposed. She just didn’t want to. Only with time did it become known that the possibilities were there, that Chespirito always had a lot of faith in her, but it was the actress herself -although she wasn’t…- who preferred to avoid her fame.

Who was patty? The pretty girl”. The one that left her naivety caused her to kid faint after, for example, a kiss from her on the cheek. The one that aroused the wrath of the Chilindrina because she was the one who got all the looks. How not to remember that first dialogue, when patty came to the neighborhood with his aunt Glory (in his case, he dazzled Mr Ramon) to the neighborhood and the first one he found was the guy. “Hello I am patty”, greeted him. “For me?”, he was surprised. “Nope. What’s my name? patty”, she clarified, so that later the scene continued with kid and the guy seeing which of the two gave him the biggest gift.

The arrival of Ana Lilian de la Macorra to the success created by Chespirito happened almost by chance. Before, two actress had played that girl: Patty Juarez (the character’s name came from his nickname) he did it in 1972 and Rosita Bouchot, in 1975. When Gómez Bolaño wanted to return the character to the strip, he asked Ana, who was the casting director, to look for the right young woman. Different actresses passed by, but no one was convincing. Roberto was in a hurry, he needed to include someone, but Ana remarked that all the ones who showed up did not give Paty’s physicality: they were “very busty”.

So Chespirito, with his shrewd producer’s eye, asked his casting director to be Paty. She first refused, she warned him that she was not an actress, but over time she gave him the pleasure: she joined the story and her role gained popularity that grew with her appearances. It happens that the producer had promised her that she would be in only three chapters, and that is why she gave in. In the end, it would end up being 25 episodes. However, she never found herself comfortable being in the strip as part of the cast. “It wasn’t my roll, my little heart was somewhere else,” she said on one occasion.

Ana Lilian was born on November 27, 1957 in Mexico City. Her childhood was linked to books and music. A great animal lover, she used to rescue abandoned dogs and cats. When she finished school she worked as a receptionist and even became a nurse. At the end of the 70s, she enrolled in the university to study Psychology and at the same time, she joined Televisa, since she needed extra money to pay for her studies.

Some time ago, chatting with Day D, a Peruvian television program, spoke of his sporadic passage through acting. “For me it was a game, I imagined that one day I would have children and they would see her actress mother when she was a child. Every time a scene ended and we cut, everyone’s laughter came. I think they all knew each other as good actors and knew that what we were doing was successful,” she said. “Because I wasn’t an actress, acting mensa was easy. I really love being a part of that…”

When Ana’s fame began to overwhelm her, reaching the limit of not being able to go out on the street or have dinner in a restaurant, she decided to slam the door. She was not prepared for such an impact. And besides, he wasn’t her target. Her popularity generated a fear in her that she could not control and she warned Chespirito that she would not continue being patty. That was her closure for her short-lived acting career. Of course, her resignation would not be easy for him. Not only did her mentor beg her to continue, but from the highest levels of the channel they made her the same request, offering her an exclusivity contract and money that made her doubt her. But she understood that she had to return to anonymity. What did she do after she left the media? She finished her degree in Psychology and later did a master’s degree. To this day she remains tied to her true vocation.

“I was never attracted to go that way (of television). Well, I always said: ‘No, thanks.’ Some time ago I googled myself and I got a big surprise: there were many photos and they wondered what happened to patty. I said, ‘What do I do with all this? How do I reply? I’m alive!’” she commented in that interview.

Ana was first working in the United States, until some time later she returned to Mexico, although not alone: ​​she did so with her husband and a son. They settled in Colonia San Francisco Chimalpa and there they built a wooden house, near a wooded area. There, in the midst of tranquility, without the noise of the big cities or the echoes of fame, she began to work in a private practice as a psychotherapist.

“Seeing that sparkle in people’s eyes and being able to see myself reflected, and being a reflection of them is a pleasure. I really like being able to peel an onion, and although it seems that everything is the same, you get to its center and to a core where an internal change is generated in the person. And from that change, the person begins to live differently, “explained Ana, as a summary of what would end up being an adventure. It could well be said that I was in the right place. But she was not the right person. So, at least, she believed it herself.