«At 18 I escaped from the poverty of Venezuela to Italy with 50 euros. At the GF Valeria Marini bullied me”

In Buen Camino, Mariana Rodriguez she is the girlfriend of Checco Zalone. A film that hit the box office where she is «a smart girl who tolerates his exuberance. Each of us takes advantage of the situation and wants something, he’s the pussy, I’m the riches.”

A film that even made her cry, she tells al Corriere della Sera. «My father had 4 other children with 4 different women, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. In the film Checco says to his daughter: “You never called me dad”, I burst into tears. I have two brothers 20 years older than me, my mother raised me alone, she did many jobs, a housekeeper, she sold products house to house…”.

He only remembers bad things about those years spent in Caracas. «Even when my father was there I counted the cents to go on the bus to school.

Dad was a policeman before he was shot in the face. I have a hard time talking about him. My mother worked in a dangerous favela. Drugs, violence. My cousin was killed in a showdown. Nothing bad has ever happened to me but you know the neighbors. Every now and then I slept with a friend who was worse off than us, my mother told me: now you see the real misery. She had me at 42, out of wedlock.”

She confesses to Corriere della Sera that after speaking about Maduro in Le Iene they took away her passport for four years: «The accusation was: traitor to the homeland. We have become the new Cuba.”

Mariana, now 34 years old, remembers her arrival in Italy at the age of 18. «In Caracas I had saved up the money for the plane ticket by working as a sales assistant. I learned Italian thanks to Tiziano Ferro, everyone said I had to be a model, I relied on Venezuelan friends who lived in Milan, but getting there was an adventure: they stopped me at Madrid airport, my fault was that I only had 50 euros in my pocket.” And so they put her in a cell for three days. «They made me feel like Pablo Escobar’s daughter. I was desperate.”

Then finally Italy, the world of fashion and entertainment: «I was a model, a film with Gigi Proietti and reality shows. At Big Brother Valeria Marini nominated me every week. He insulted me about everything, I preferred to be bullied than to speak…”.

And Mariana also has a son to look after. «When I’m with him I feel protected. I have a complicated relationship with my father, Gianmaria, the important thing is that we are good parents.”