Marina Pombar

Pombar considers her works as her children, as they are born on her emotions and experiences. At the 1986 exhibition Forma Color y Movimentos she refused to sell her work saying that “one becomes possessive with their works, they are like children and have to find their own way without their parents.”

Pombar has exhibited her work in collective and individual shows since 1977. Main shows include: Centro Iberoamericano de Convenciones (1977) Escuela de Artesanias Mexicanas (1978) American Embassy in Mexico (1980) Centro Americano Ejecutivo de Idiomas y Murguia Garcia SA La Piramide Cultural Center (1984) Forma, Color y Movimiento in El Pedregal restaurant in Tamaulipas (1986). Dos pinceles, dos cinceles at the Galeria Art Centrum in Polanco (1991) Sentimientos in Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Mexico City (1995), Temperamento y Bronce in Mexico City (1997) and Las Jaulas in Polanco, Mexico City. She placed first at the Ventrina degli Artisti Latinoamericani Biennale in 2001 in Florence, Italy. where she identified as a Mexican artist.

She worked as a translator for various Mexican government agencies and ran the Centro Dinámico de Idiomas language school in Mexico City from 1975 to 1985. In the latter 1980s, she started a gym in her home in Tamaulipas as a hobby. Soon someone asked her to train them and she eventually became certified in both the US and Tamaulipas as a fitness instructor. She founded the Women to Women, Professioal Health and Fitness Center in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas in 1985 which she ran until 1991. Here she worked almost exclusively with women, noting that many felt "dead" by the age of forty. In 1991, she moved the business to the Polanco neighborhood in Mexico City after her divorce, making it a mixed sex gym, working with many men with sedentary computer/desk jobs. At its peak, the business had 245 clients but her breast cancer battle in this decade caused her to lose the business.

Pombar moved to Mexico in 1971, not long before her 30th birthday. Before and in addition to sculpture, she has been involved in a number of projects and activities, stating as a youth that she gets bored easily, and today still works constantly.

She graduated Pershing High School in Detroit and worked as a receptionist for the North Detroit General Hospital along with part-time modeling and hostess jobs during her beauty pageant years. In an interview in 1966, she stated that she wanted to study psychology, but would settle for marriage. In 1971, Pombar moved to Mexico and has lived in the country ever since. This long residency, as well as her Mexican citizenship, gives her Mexican identity as well.

Pombar's crowns include Miss Metropolitan Beach (1964), Miss Suburban Architectural Bowling League (1965), Miss Autorama 1966, Miss Detroit AMVET (1966), and a finalist for Miss Michigan Universe (1966). Her aim was Miss Universe. Her wins led to work in modeling and commercials.

Her participation in this field also allowed her to meet and work with various local celebrities such as Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, as well as international figures. At a Detroit radio station, she met Mick Jagger as both were scheduled to be interviewed. He asked her out, but her father would not permit it, concerned about drugs. She introduced the Beatles at their first performance at Detroit in 1964 at the Olympic Arena. In a later interview she stated, "It was strange at that time because the Motown sound was big then and the Beatles seemed just like any other group. At that time I didn’t realize who I was really with. During the performance girls started throwing things, then all of a sudden it got really wild, everything sort of went out of control and we were all literally carried off stage – and that was it. Everything was a mess. It wasn’t until later, looking back, that I completely understood the phenomena."

Marina Pombar (born 1947, Detroit, Michigan) is a former beauty queen noted for presenting the Beatles onstage. She is currently a sculptor who has exhibited in Mexico, the U.S. and Europe. She is also known for working to establish physiognomy as a field in Mexico.