Born Enriqueta de Valenzuela, she came to Hollywood from Mexico City at the age of 19 in April 1928 and secured a five-year acting contract.

[1] Her first role of significance came opposite John Barrymore as the third lead in a United Artists motion picture, Eternal Love.

It was reported that she was sitting in the casting room of the studio when a girl's hands were needed in a film test being made by Ernst Lubitsch.

[citation needed] She married wealthy sportsman James N. Crofton, part-owner of the Agua Caliente Club resort in Baja, California, on October 19, 1932.

He denied this, saying that he was in Reno for a business trip and planned to visit Rico in San Diego, California, afterward.