Julio Yúdice & Francisco Gattorno find truth in comedy and pain.

What happens when two Latin icons sit down to unpack the cultural bombshell that is La Balada de Hortensia?

In this episode, Zay Zay meets Julio Yúdice — the legendary Salvadoran comedian behind "La Tenchis" — and Francisco Gattorno, a Cuban telenovela powerhouse known for his roles that cut deep. Together, they reflect on how El Salvador’s civil war shaped an entire generation, how grief and trauma birthed comedic gold, and why their latest film is not just a breakout hit, but a healing force for a nation.

They discuss everything from finding balance between humor and heartbreak, to the deeply personal stories behind the characters, and what it means for Salvadoran cinema to premiere in U.S. theaters. This one’s filled with belly laughs, powerful truth bombs, and a raw honesty you don’t want to miss.

- La Balada de Hortensia premieres May 2nd in the U.S.
- For the culture. For the history. For the healing.

Transcript

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Hello, I am Francisco Gattorno and this is When Zay Zay Met, and this day, Zay Zay Met Us. We can edit that, right? ¿Que pasa y como estamos mi gente? I am Zay Zay, and welcome to When Zay Zay Met. Today, we are meeting with two powerhouse performers. One, a cultural icon who's made generations laugh, and a beloved star of stage, screen, and telenovelas. Both legendary. Today, they're here with us because they bring fire and heart to La Balada de Hortensia, the Salvadoran smash hit, biggest box office that El Salvador has ever seen. And today, they're here with us. Ladies and gentlemen, show your love. This is Julio Yudice and Francisco Gattorno. Hello. Thank you. Thank you. Muchas gracias por darnos la oportunidad de estar en tu programa y hablar de este que se estrena este 2 de mayo en los cines de Estados Unidos. Un suceso. Ver una película latinoamericana en las salas de Estados Unidos y acá en Los Ángeles, la meca del entertainment, para nosotros es un sueño hecho realidad. Y primero que nada, darte las gracias por darnos la oportunidad de estar en tu programa, Zay Zay, aquí, ¿no? Exactamente, estamos preparados. My English is not very well, but I prefer the Spanish. No, eso está bien, eso está bien, y Julio que aprendió en the United Kingdom, solo UK, British. We're very glad to be here for the premiere and the release of La Balada de Hortensia because it's a Salvadoran movie and we are very glad to present this to the world and the United States to be one of, maybe the first Salvadoran film to be released in the United States. Eso, eso. Mira, no sabía que hablaba inglés. Pero si habla inglés, ya está preparado para el crossover y ya tiene su discurso para los Oscars preparado y todo. Mira para allá, mira para allá, no se deja atrás, ¿no? Oscar speech. Que bien, men, le tengo que preguntar, ¿ustedes esperaban un hit tan grande, un smash tan grande como esta película, un público que se los comieron tanto así cuando ustedes hicieron esta película? Yo la verdad no me lo esperaba, no sé, Julio. No. I didn't either. I said, well, people are going to like it, but I didn't think it would be at such a high level as we achieved in the three months that the film was in the cinemas in El Salvador. The biggest film in the history of the country. How do you feel? Well, I feel... I don't know... Words, right? For me it has been a great blessing, but I still wonder at what time this happened. I never thought it would happen in my life, because I was used to what television gave me, to the fame that television gave me, but this is something else. With television, yes, it was internationally, with all the Salvadoran people who live abroad, who still saw us, or other Latin people who liked my character in El Salvador. But this is something that reaches levels beyond normal, so I never thought we would get to that, but obviously it was also because of the good work that all the actors did and the good production that was achieved throughout the filming of the film. Let's take it back a little bit. Las Tenchis, you've been playing that character for over 30 years, bringing so much laughter and joy to people with that character. Where did the inspiration for that character come from? Well, it all started when we were little, with my brothers, since I have a sense of reason, we liked to watch movies and we would dress up and do parodies of the same thing, and suddenly we lived for many years without mom, 10 years, because my mom died when I was very young, and my dad didn't come home until 10 years later. So we took care of the housemaids, since they were humble people who came from a small town or another small town, so we saw that as they expressed themselves, and we took it for our games too. And when we grew up, when we were teenagers, we did it as a joke with other colleagues, and that's how it was formed. And when they called me to offer me a job on television, they told me, look, we would like you to play this character. And that's how we got the character of the person, the teeth, the eyes, the makeup, and everything. But it does have specific characteristics of many people who live in the rural area of El Salvador. Well, maybe not anymore, but before, when I was little, women didn't have family planning and spent most of their lives pregnant. Using the apron, which is an important part, where they take their money, the woman of the market, to be able to give the change when they buy it. The braids that are also used in other countries, in Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, in all the countries they braided their... And the handkerchief that many women use when they go to churches. So I was taking all those characteristics to join them. And the braids, I don't know how you call it, you also call it, when you don't have a tooth, cholco. We call it cholco. And the braids, that was a matter of mine, how to say, I want the woman to look ugly, to be ugly to look sexier, to make her face look sexier. But there are people who don't have teeth. So I joined all those elements to form the characteristics and the visual image of the character. The character. And why do you think it was such a big hit with the people? Why do you think that character was so successful? Through the 37 years on television, people left. I think the most important thing was that I left with the character in the time we were in the civil war in El Salvador. There were gunfights every day, in the towns, in the city. So people, when we left with the character, inspired by a program called Not Necessarily the News, which was very... And then came The Light, I don't remember what it's called. So that was the foundation we took, and that's where we included our character. So for the people who have expressed it to me, some people tell me, I couldn't have gone through those years of war if it hadn't been for you, for La Tencha, for what it did to me, to take away the stress of the war, of the shootings, of the bombs. So that stayed impregnated in people and obviously they were transmitting it from the 80s to now, they were transmitting it to their new generations and it was always on television. So they were like, look, that's La Tencha, the one that came out, and then they went on and on, and so they have been taking care of the lady. That's it, man. Francisco, you've had an incredible career, right? Scenes, television, movies. Usually, what attracts you to a role? The first thing is that it has a strong spiritual content, that it has a real existential conflict that can be expressed, that it has a truth to tell, that the story is coherent, that it is understandable, and above all, that it makes us reflect on what we are seeing. I have always believed in the power of comedy, of laughter. It is a powerful weapon, and comedy is a way of expressing and facing our problems through the laughter, so typical of our Latin American countries, both Cuba and the Dominican Republic. We laugh at our own problems, at our own misfortunes. We laugh, and I think this is what the film is about, right? That's right, that's right. You know, the other day we were talking to Arturo, and I was asking him where this idea of this film came from, and he was telling me about the moment when the idea was born. And it was born during a time when his mother died, and a time when there was a lot of turbulence in his life. And I asked him, but with so much turbulence in your life, did you make a comedy? And he told me, what fascinates you is that yes, for a while like that, laughing is the important thing, right? It saves you, exactly, yes. Believing saves you, exactly. And apart from comedy, comedy and tragedy are, what divides comedy from tragedy is an imperceptible thread, I don't get tired of saying it, right? Because it's the reality, between comedy and tragedy, it's not known. Also, remember that when you're under stress, because the mother is the other one, the mind starts looking for situations to release that stress. So, you do it through what you like to do. Maybe a painter does it through painting. In this case, a writer or a film director does it through thinking about what they could do. There are a lot of works of art, of all kinds of art that have been created under specific situations of stress. Even artists say, well, I created it because at that time I had left it with my wife and I was so distressed that I started writing a piece of piano. Let's see the case of Maria Bonita, created by María Félix. Agustín Lara was in love with her at that time. And things like that. There's a movie by Benini called La vie de vela. It's a movie about the holocaust, and yet it's a movie that makes you laugh. It's a perfect example of comedy and tragedy. It's about a boy who's with his father in a concentration camp, and the father makes him believe all the time that they're competing for a prize, and that it's all a game. It's a classic example of what I call tragedy and comedy. Yeah, yeah, life is beautiful. Life is beautiful, Benini. Ancalo Benini. Arturo was also saying that he depended a lot on you to find comedy and drama in the movies. He depended a lot on you. How did you find the balance between the two in your roles? Well, in my case, I've always thought that comedy is very serious. I always think that the more serious you do it, the more effective the comedy is. You don't make comedy by being comical, but by being very serious. And of course, it has a process, it has a timing, it has a whole process of creating a character that makes people laugh, but maybe they're laughing at something very sad that's happening to that person, or that incredible things happen to them, like in the case of the movie, where you wake up in a woman's body. What would happen if suddenly, from day to night, you wake up in a woman's body and there's a man next to you who starts hitting you and trying to rape you? That's the story of this movie. Exactly. And you, Julio, as one of the icons of comedy. Look, I, personally, in the character of Alex, I took it from my own experience because I'm a very angry person. All my life I've been very angry. I'm very reactive, as we say in my country, I'm short-tempered. They tell me something and I quickly explode. But all my friends, all the people who know me, when we're at a party or something, they already know the things that bother me, so they start telling me so that I get upset. So I tell them, I already told you I don't know what, and they're laughing, and they're, let's say, running away. The fact that when I'm angry makes them laugh. So I said, well, I'm going to use that. When the character is angry, I get angry because maybe there's something that I project that makes people laugh when I'm angry. And I'm going to project it in the film to take advantage of the fact that in the moment of tension, there's something to say. And this idiot is laughing at him because he's mad at something. So I took advantage of that part to add it to the character. I don't know, but I think you need better friends. I don't know if it's because you like it when I yell at you, or when I scream at you, but you laugh more when I say, let's take a picture! I don't like taking pictures. And you say, what? Let's take a picture! And I say, no! Enough! Enough! Again, again, again! And you keep doing it. And when I die in front of you... Well, get ready for today's premiere. Get ready for today's premiere. Shut up! Because today you're going to take millions of pictures. I don't know, I'm going to take a pill. Make sure you give him aspirin, please. Okay, gentlemen, do me a favor. Look at the camera, each one, 15 seconds. Why should we go see La Balada de Hortensia? Sell it to me. Well, I think you have to go see La Balada de Hortensia, because it's a film that talks about a country that practically many of us did not know existed on the world map of cinema, and that is premiering for the first time, its first film, with long coats, in the United States. A film that has crossed borders, and has entered through the border with a film that tells the story of El Salvador, with a character who is an icon in El Salvador, who has been in the public's taste for more than 30 years, who is Julio Ídiz with his character of La Tenchis, and that all Salvadorans who are here in the United States have to support their cinema, and be proud that this event is taking place right now in the United States. That's it. La risa es privilegio de las almas nobles y la sonrisa de las almas limpias. Si sabemos sonreír y reír, haremos del mundo un punto de paz donde Dios podrá descansar de su diario que hacer. Tenemos que ir a verla para reír, para dejar ese lastre que cargamos en este mundo que nos produce tantas lágrimas, tanto terror, tantas angustias. Entonces, tenemos que ir a verla para, aunque sea un pedacito, un ratito, empezar a dejar ese lastre y crear un nuevo mundo, un mundo más agradable. ¡Eso! ¡Qué palabra, Julio! Francisco Gatorno, se lo agradezco mucho. Gracias por estar con nosotros. Muchas gracias. Continued success. We appreciate you. Gracias. Thank you.