Mapy Cortes was a famous actress from Puerto Rico who ignited Mexico's big screen during the country's golden age of cinema.

Born Maria del Pilar Cordero, Cortes was born March 1, 1910, and was involved in acting from a very early age. She worked for several radio shows in Puerto Rico, and achieved a modest measure of success.

In the early 1930s, Cortes began searching for fame elsewhere. She traveled to Mexico, where she met and married well-known Puerto Rican producer and actor Fernando Cortes, who was already a Mexican citizen. Their marriage was a great blessing for the young actress in terms of, both, her professional and personal life. She landed her first film role in a 1933 movie called Dos Mujeres y un Don Juan (Two Women and a Womanizer).

This proved to be the beginning of a long acting career, including roles in more than 50 Mexican and Puerto Rican films. Her nephew, Paquito Cordero, was born around this time and went on to become a famous comedian and television presenter in Puerto Rico. Her niece, Mapita Cortes, was born shortly later and also became a well-known telenovela actress in Mexico.

The Cortes family became very popular throughout Latin America. They traveled to many different countries to film movies. Mapy became quite a celebrity in Cuba and Argentina, where she filmed a number of movies considered to be classics. Besides being an actress, Cortes was also a popular comedian and singer. She recorded various albums and starred in several musicals during the 1940s including La Picara Susana (Mischievous Susan) and La Corte del Faraon (Pharaon's Court).

In the 1950s, the Cortes clan came back to Puerto Rico, and Mapy starred alongside Maria Judith Franco and Paquito Cordero in one of the island’s first sitcoms, Mapy y Papi. She also co-starred in a TV series featuring popular comedian Yo-Yo Boing.

Following the death of her husband in 1982, Mapy led a fairly quiet life. She died in August 1998 in Puerto Rico, but only after a long and successful career as an actress, singer and Latin American superstar.