--- description: Born María Dolores Flores Ruiz, the celebrated dancer, singer and actress would have been 93 today title: New Google Doodle Honors Iconic Spanish Dancer Lola Flores image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2350f17055db6823/698879f05f570ff9beb1f469/screen-shot-2016-01-21-at-12-36-22-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # New Google Doodle Honors Iconic Spanish Dancer Lola Flores by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 21, 2016 4:47 AM CUT  Google by [Rishi Iyengar](/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 21, 2016 4:47 AM CUT The striking, fiery woman featured on Google’s latest [Doodle](http://www.google.com/doodles/lola-flores-93rd-birthday "undefined") is none other than Spanish dancer Lola Flores, who would have celebrated her 93rd birthday on Thursday. Born María Dolores Flores Ruiz in 1923 in the southern Spanish town of Jerez de la Frontera, Flores rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s as a dancer, singer and actress, not just in her native country but also across Mexico and the U.S. Known as much for her hit songs like “[Pena Penita](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjIiG1xghog "undefined")” (Little Sorrow) as her popular nicknames like “La Faraona” (the Pharaoh, a reference to the supposedly Egyptian features resulting from her partial Gypsy heritage), she died in 1995 after a prolonged battle with cancer. Describing her in 1952, TIME [wrote](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,857219,00.html "undefined"): “Some other dancers have perhaps been more beautiful. But none combined beauty, grace and voice like Lola Flores.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4188163/google-doodle-lola-flores-93-birthday/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4188163/google-doodle-lola-flores-93-birthday/"},"headline":"New Google Doodle Honors Iconic Spanish Dancer Lola Flores","datePublished":"2016-01-21T04:47:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:29:01.081Z","description":"\"La Faraona\" would have been 93 today","url":"https://time.com/4188163/google-doodle-lola-flores-93-birthday/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Mexico","Spain","Google Doodle","Birthday"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2350f17055db6823/698879f05f570ff9beb1f469/screen-shot-2016-01-21-at-12-36-22-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rishi Iyengar","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2350f17055db6823/698879f05f570ff9beb1f469/screen-shot-2016-01-21-at-12-36-22-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2016-01-21 at 12.36.22 PM","caption":"","creditText":"Google","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4188163/google-doodle-lola-flores-93-birthday/","name":"New Google Doodle Honors Iconic Spanish Dancer Lola Flores"}}]}] ```