Influences: Jenaro Montalbán



1924: Ricarda, Pedro, Carlos,
Jenaro, Ricardo, and Carmen 
Montalbán

 "Tell me what company you keep and I'll tell you what you are."  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

"Sons are for fathers the twice-told tale." Victoria Secunda

The socializing influence of fathers on sons is not easily exaggerated.  Ricardo Montalbán was influenced by his father, Jenaro Montalbán.  Jenaro was born in the town of Valladolid, Spain in the 1880s.  Because of a poor relationship with his new stepmother, Jenaro left Valladolid as a teenager and moved to Soria where he learned what would become his lifelong occupation: managing a store and commerce.  He met and married Ricarda Merino whom he had first noticed while she was sitting at her window as he rode his bicycle past (something he did with the sole purpose of glimpsing her).

As a father, Jenaro taught many lessons to his four children, Carlos, Pedro, Carmen, and Ricardo.  In an example of sons becoming the twice told tale, Ricardo's hobby of carpentry and his habit of keeping in good physical shape were gifts from his father.  Jenaro also loved reading, dominoes, and was one of the best dancers in town.  In many interviews, Ricardo Montalbán's humility wouldn't allow himself to acknowledge what an amazing dancer he was in his Hollywood films, able to keep pace with the likes of Cyd Charisse.  Yet, he was a great dancer, and there again, the inspiration of the father Jenaro.  

Ricarda and Jenaro Montalbán

Jenaro was married for 53 years to Ricarda.  For Ricardo, his father and mother's marriage was a role modeling of how to live happily.  He wrote of his father in his 1980 autobiography, Reflections: A Life in Two Worlds: "For fifty three years he was always faithful, always respectful of my mother....Imagine the romanticism that it took to keep a love affair going all those years!"  Ricardo was married to his wife Georgiana for 63 years. 

Jenaro Montalbán died in 1956, when Ricardo was 36 years old.  He lived long enough to see his son become an actor and a father himself.  And his influence stayed with Ricardo Montalbán long after.  According to a family friend in the History network's biography of Ricardo Montalbán, Jenaro shared three lessons with his son on how to live properly: love only one woman your entire life, love your Catholic faith, and be proud of your heritage.  The son Ricardo listened indeed.