Agustina Otero Iglesias (Ponte de Valga, Pontevedra (Galicia), Spain, November 4, 1868 - Nice, France, April 10, 1965), dancer of Spanish origin known as La Bella Otero. Based in France and one of the most prominent characters of the French Belle Époque in artistic circles and the gallant life of Paris. “Carolina Otero fascinated me that at forty-six I decided to retire completely so as not to destroy her own myth.” These are the words of Carmen Posadas, the writer who followed the steps of Agustina Carolina Otero Iglesias and the two It became a demystifying book and at the same time full of admiration.
Like many other divas of any age, the beautiful Otero invented her own history, an Andalusian origin and a gypsy family. With them, and with a beauty and talent that shook men, he made his way into the dazzling Parisian entertainment. However, it was not Andalusian but Galician, a poor Galician and an unknown father whom an evildoer forced with only ten years. Perhaps because of that premature and traumatic encounter with sex, his modesty vanished without problems at the doors of the first brothels to never return. Thanks to a first village boyfriend he left Galicia and thanks to the first important protector he jumped from Barcelona to Marseille and from there to the Folies Bergère de Paris, and as La Bella Otero. His dances, half erotic half aflamencades, made her the great sexual symbol of the European Belle Epoque. In a few years his star would end up shining all over the world.
But he not only danced; Otero was also one of the most famous and sought-after courtesans of Parisian high society. He was a lover, among others, of Alberto de Monaco, of the Kaiser William of Germany, Nicholas II of Russia, Leopold II of Belgium, Alfonso XIII of Spain, Edward VII of England and Aristide Briand, an important French politician considered one of the precursors of the European Union. He got wonderful jewelry and gifts from everyone. Some important businessmen were ruined by their guilt and others killed themselves mad with passion and jealousy, but none managed to tear it out of what was their true great love: the game. He dilated his immense fortune among the numerous casinos he always had at his disposal, and especially in what was his true downfall, that of Monte Carlo.