Meet Maritza Vives

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maritza Vives a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Maritza, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I grew up with a divorced mother with severe depression, the only times she got out of bed was to go to the bathroom, watch television and smoke, the basic care of me was done by the housekeeper and my father when he visited me and my sister once a month.

I had all the conditions to be a child, a teenager and now an adult woman, who was not interested in or concerned about moving forward in anything – personal, family and at work levels. However, my growing circumstances have not affected me negatively – obviously I had and have my ups, downs and sufferings like everyone else – but it did not affect me in the sense of abandoning myself and not achieving anything good in this life. On the contrary, I have always been characterized by moving forward with strength and resilience in the face of difficulties and by having projects for personal growth.

I believe that my resilience is a product of both the natural capacity we all human beings have for survival and mainly, since I am not Wonder Woman, it comes from a supernatural force that has helped me and always helps me: the strength of God. I am a practicing Catholic and as such, I am a witness to the strength/resilience that the Holy Spirit gives. My faith has kept me afloat and helps me every day of my life. I would never have gotten to where I am today if I had relied only on my strength.

Other elements that contribute to my resilience are discipline and creativity.
Discipline in daily routines as they focus me, calm me and help me to take better perspectives of difficulties and how to face them. And as for creativity, in the search for outside-the-box solutions to setbacks.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a native Argentine, actress and comedian, mother and wife (we celebrated 26 years of marriage last year), I have a degree in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires. I immigrated to the US more than 20 years ago for my husband’s PhD in Mathematics. The two of us came with our first daughter, who was three years old. We lived on a meager salary from my husband’s financial aid for teaching plus what I did as a babysitter. I remember bringing pots in my suitcases and collecting our furniture from the street and thrift stores (I still do, the things I find!) Thank God we never lacked anything. We never complained and our approach is always to look forward. Today we are a family of five. Two university students from Swarthmore College, brilliant students, creative, funny girls and field hockey players, and the youngest, a high schooler; but above all, good people. We instilled in them humility, effort and like their mother, collectors of furniture from the street and thrift stores!

God and my family are my priority, then comes my career as an Actress & Comedian. As for my degree in Political Science, although I never dedicated myself to it per se -I am not interested in partisan politics but in the philosophy of power- that education helps me to dig deeper in questioning my everyday life and society.

As an actress, I just filmed a feature film with Director Gigi Hozimah with whom I already filmed another feature film last year “It’s Always That Feeling”, which won the Golden Palm Award at the Saudi Film Festival in 2024. As a comedian, I don’t do stand-up or tell jokes because I don’t understand them, I don’t understand sarcastic verbal constructions, and if I do understand them, they require me to waste time thinking. I am not verbal, I am visual, I am amused by clown nonsense. I like doing physical comedy and creating characters. I like the absurd.

My complete Actress & Comedian profile is available on my website www.maritzavives.com I am always looking for interesting projects so if there are any filmmakers readers here…don’t hesitate to contact me!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three skills that were and are impactful in my journey are the ones I mentioned before: faith in God, discipline, and creativity.

I find it a great responsibility to give advice so I prefer to simply say what works for me.
I practice my faith in God through Catholicism. The book “Catechism of the Catholic Church” is a great source for those who want to know more about it.

As for discipline, my motto is not to think so much and do it, the well-known “just do it,” works.

And finally, I believe creativity can be applied and developed in all areas of life, from an MA in Fine Arts to finding creative home solutions like wiping snow off the floor or putting a little decoration here or there in the house, etc.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My father always taught us that when we want to ask someone something, we should ask the one who knows the most. Something like, “Oh, I should ask or call the President or the Pope…”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.maritzavives.com
• Instagram: @maritzavivesactress
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@maritzavivesactressyoutube
• Other: Comedy Web Gemelas Onassis @gemelasonassis

Image Credits

Foto Estudio Inglize @fotoestudioinglize