When Spain’s Javier Bardem won the Academy Award for Best Supporting actor for his role in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, he responded by saying

Mamá, esto es para ti. Esto es para tus abuelos, para tus padres, Rafael y Matilde. Esto es para los cómicos de España que han traído la dignidad y el orgullo a nuestro oficio. Esto es para España. Y esto es para todos vosotros

which means

Mom, this is for you. This is for your grandparents, for your parents, Rafael and Matilde. This is for the Comics of Spain who brought so much pride and dignity to our profession. This is for Spain. This is for all of you.

OK. But what does that mean? Javier, or Javi as I like to call him (because we are old friends from when we used to hang out in Madrid. Well, OK, we didn’t hang out, I saw him in a plaza in Madrid, but we’re still close) comes from a long and impressive lineage of actors and filmmakers and activists. Matilde Muñoz Sampedro and Rafael Bardem, his grandparents, were stage actors. Javi’s date to the Oscars was his mother, Pilar Bardem, an actress who was in nearly 100 movies and who has advocated for a more liberal Catholic Church, women’s rights, and peace, shown here at an anti war rally in Spain. Pilar also raised three kids on her own, leaving her husband during a time when divorce wasn’t even legal. And Pilar’s brother and Javier’s uncle was Juan Antonio Bardem a legendary director and writer who, along with frequent collaborator Luis Berlanga, ushered in a genre of Spanish films which avoided Franco’s strict (but dense) censors, and used humor and satire to criticize Franco and his regime. Through films including Bienvenido Mr. Marshall, The Happy Couple, and Calle Mayor Bardem was able to question the provincialism and close mindedness of Franco’s Spain and depict the class tension and inequity that existed. Juan Antonio was imprisoned on several occasions under the dictatorship and, in fact, was in jail when his 1955 film Death Of A Bicyclist won at Cannes. He founded the production company with Luis Berlanga and Carlos Saura, but this was shut down by Franco after the company produced Buñuel’s Viridiana.

So why does Javier refer to cómicos and not actores? Probably because cómicos refers to the old school stage actors his grandparents were part of. His mother and uncle were part of that tradition as well, since they were raised in it. Of course Javi could also be paying tribute to his uncle’s first independent film Cómicos, of 1954, which was itself Juan Antonio’s homage to his parents Rafael and Matilde and stage actors. Either way, Javier is right. Although the Academy didn’t know it, last night’s Oscar honored the work of not just Javier, but the entire Bardem clan which made him the star that he is.

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