Google Is Honoring Katy Jurado With a Doodle. Here’s Why

Katy Jurado, a groundbreaking Mexican actress who built a Hollywood career without sacrificing her identity, is the subject of Tuesday’s Google Doodle.

Jurado, born María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, rose to the top of Mexican cinema and, soon after, Hollywood with her portrayal of complex women in the 1950s.

Google is celebrating her remarkable career on what would have been her 94th birthday.

Jurado was the first Mexican actress to be nominated for an Academy Award. She won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Helen Ramirez in the 1952 film High Noon, which also starred Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper. She also won several Silver Ariel Awards, the highest honor in Mexican cinema.

“I am very proud to make this picture because I look and act like a Mexican — not imitation,” she said of High Noon, according to her IMDB page. “Some Mexicans go to Hollywood and lose [their] career in Mexico, because they play imitation. I don’t want this to happen to me.”

Jurado specifically aimed to portray complex, nuanced women, rather than those who were sexualized. “I didn’t take all the films that were offered — just those with dignity,” she once said, according to her obituary in the Washington Post. Her trailblazing career in Hollywood helped paved the way for other Mexican and Latina actresses.

She died of heart and lung ailments in 2002 at the age of 78.

The Google Doodle celebrating her birthday was created by artist Ana Ramirez and includes a backdrop “inspired by the set of her film High Noon,” as well as a rose, which represents her birthplace of Guadalajara, Mexico.