Mayra Veronica Bio

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Mayra Verónica (born Mayra Verónica Aruca Rodrí­guez August 20, 1977 in Havana, Cuba), is a Cuban-born American raised model who acquired her fame in the United States.

Mayra Veronica: Early life

Verónica was born in Havana Cuba in August 20, 1977. In 1984 she came to the US with her mother (Mayra Rodriguez), leaving behind her family including her father (Arturo Aruca) and sister (Giselle Guzman). Her father came a year later and reunited with Veronica and her mother, while her sister was unable to meet them until thirteen years later. Mayra grew up with barely any money, and food was difficult to access. Veronica has spoken about her difficult childhood, and is since estranged from her father and unwilling to reconcile. As a child Veronica wittingly made her way through ballet school, by finding paying clients (other girls from her school who could afford the training) and survived very difficult circumstances at home.

In Hialeah Junior High her body began changing, she got her now famous curves, and began noticing the effect she had on boys was anything but usual. Her first boyfriend at the age of 15 was an artist of the same age who often painted her in little to no clothing. She continued school and after joining a local beauty pageant(she was 3rd princess or runner up) she met a photographer who would do all the pictures for the event, and noticed the photographer did not have much of an interest in the winner or any of the other girls but was instead captivated by Mayra's photos and kept inviting her to his studio for free sessions. From this Mayra obtained her first modeling book and was signed by a local agent in Miami. This local agent sent her out for an audition for a local TV entertainment news show "Miami Hoy"(at the time Mayra was at Florida International University majoring in Psychology and Theater) she did not know much about being a reporter but figured she could act like one. She got the part and began as a correspondent and after a job well done was promoted to celebrity reporter and Host for the program. Here she got the opportunity to meet and interview celebrities like Donald Trump, Oscar de la Renta, Hugh Heffner, Dennis Rodman, and many more... throughout this time Veronica also traveled to NY to continue acting training at the famed Lee Strasberg Institute to fine tune her craft...until the station (owned by Media One) was bought out by AT&T and later closed. During this time Veronica also managed to land a made for TV movie called the Suitor and fit in commercial campaigns for Nike, L'Oréal, Coca Cola, and more.

Veronica then got a call from the Univision station, a new show was to begin hosted by Don Francisco, the top rated talk show host on the Network...and they wanted her to be their only model, but there was one catch. Due to her ample curves, her last appearance on screen for the day would entail her backside presence on camera before turning around to face the camera. Veronica did it gladly. Once the show aired, the model with the great backside became the talk of latins everywhere, so much so that even the American press got involved. FHM magazine, the top men's magazine of the time,contacted Veronica's publicist to ask for a feature spread on their magazine. Veronica agreed and after much mail requesting her return she went on to do the cover of the FHM exclusive collection book, which included top sex symbols of the decade, such as Pamela Anderson, Eva Longoria, Carmen Electra etc. and other covers for FHM, Maxim, Edge, Smooth, SSX, Smoke, Blackmen's, Open your Eyes and more.

Her popularity on such covers made her website at the time one of the top requested websites with over 4 million hits biweekly. With this came many emails from soldiers stationed in Iraq asking for her posters and by now famous calendars. Veronica had her management send in a care package of approximately 5000 posters and it wasn't long before the marines named her favorite pin up girl for the US marines and the USO asked her for a tour with our troops.The tour was a special Thanksgiving tour with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:General Cartwright, actor Wilmer Valderrama,comedian Russell Peters, traveling to six countries in six days, including Iraq, Afghanistan,Germany, Turkey, Africa, and Greenland. The troops' response was overwhelming and although Veronica had decided not to do any more calendars, she quickly changed her mind and decided to do one in 2008 dedicating all proceeds to the USO. Upon her return from the tour she was asked to appear on FOX's Bill O'Reilly and was quickly named a modern day Betty Grable.

During her time with the Univision Network, Veronica had the opportunity to meet top ranked music producers who collaborated with her on her first music album. It was titled Vengo Con To' (Im coming at you with everything) It was also a popular time for the reggaeton music movement and Veronica's album included as its first single "Vengo con to" which was later quoted by King magazine: "Mayra Veronica's moaning make Madonna's Erotica sound like bubblegum pop...chew on that Daddy Yankee"

The song soared to number one on the top station in the country, in New York and the video, banned from Latin Television because her curves seemed too much for TV. Europe did not seem to mind and Mayra signed a deal with a German Label for the release of the album there. The album's popularity landed Veronica a large deal with Universal Motown who put out a second single from the album, titled "Mamma Mia" which also did very well on radio. It wasn't until the third single "Es Tan Dificil Olvidarte" dedicated to the fallen troops,which was redone by Jose Miguel Velazquez ,that Veronica's voice was recognized by Billboard making her top 20 on the Pop Contemporary charts.

Veronica continued her work with the troops by visiting the wounded at Camp Lejeune, and was then asked by the New York Stock Exchange to ring the NASDAQ bell in Time Square on July 2, 2008 for Fourth of July week. Veronica decided to bring awareness to two of the organizations for which she's an advocate and spokesperson,The USO and UNICEF, and brought them to the bell ringing ceremony.Veronica is now working on her first English release through Universal Motown.

Mayra Veronica: Rise to Stardom

Verónica first became noticed on Univision's Don Francisco Presenta where her role as the model with the voluptuous body caught the attention of FHM magazine US edition. After appearing in FHM she was included in its 2004 calendar and went on to do the covers and feature spreads to Smooth, King, Edge Magazine, Maxim, Open Your Eyes, was chosen as the Cover for FHM's Exclusive Collection Book, and was included amongst top A listers on the cover of Smoke Magazine, a magazine that had never previously been graced by a Cuban woman only American Oscar winners. She made appearances on many Spanish language television shows and won the audiences favorite after they voted following her appearance on (El Gordo y la Flaca) Verónica appeared as the lead to Frankie J's hit video "Pensando en Ti" and did countless national commercials including a Nike Campaign with LeBron James, L'Oréal, Ford, Burger King, Coca Cola, She continued making waves on Don Francisco Presenta where hers became the top selling calendar in 2005 according to the Univision Network. She was on Spanish news indiscriminately for dating Donald Trump's partner Gil Dezer and after that for suing a strip club after they unlawfully used her pictures. During that time Verónica worked on a solo Spanish Album whose single "Vengo Con To' earned her a spot on New York's top 10 at La Mega in October 2006 and was interviewed by top entertainment shows including Extra. The album, produced by Kike Santander and Roy Tavares made headlines on King magazine where it stated "Mayra Veronica's moaning makes Madonna's Erotica sound like Bubble gum Pop... chew on that Daddy Yankee" Her body and voice were used as a character for the 2007 video game Def Jam: Icon. Verónica currently inked a multi-million dollar record deal with UNIVERSAL MOTOWN and is preparing for her English release next year. She is in the studio with songwriter/producer Eddie Galan of Mach 1 Music.

Mayra Veronica: See also

• List of Cubans