CRISTINA COSTANTINI, KAREEEM TABSCH: MUCHO, MUCHO AMORE
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the star and co-creator of Hamilton, regards him as almost a god. Walter Mercado, whose story and celebration this is, is a legend in the Spanish-speaking world and far beyond. For fifty years he was the asexual, feminine, big-haired, magnificently caped shaman on Spaish language TV (though in the film he speaks good English) whose horoscopes could fill an hour-long show, or be the first thing people wanted to hear and see every morning. The most famous astrologer in the world. The documentary comes to Netflix July 8, 2020. In it, you find out Walter seemed to bring a bird back to life with his breath as a young boy in Porto Rico and became a local healer visited by many. Then he studied dance and acting and did ballet and drama (we see how handsome he looked), settling into telenovela - until he did a horoscope and the producer said: More of that, Walter! and it became all he did. His effeminate grandiosity - big hair, big rings, fabulous, weighty and costly costumes - is reminiscent of Liberace. But he represents something warmer, more directly, intimately appealing to the audience. With its extensive interviews, many voices, magnificent inter-titles, and coverage of a grand celebratory apotheosis and love-fest at the opening of a Walter Mercado museum in Miami three months before his passing at the age of 87, this is a fitting portrait. The cape outfits and their richness and variety are worthy of the fashion collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Walter Mercado leaves a warm impression of someone who brought magic to people.Once the world's most famous astrologer, Walter Mercado seeks to resurrect a forgotten legacy. Raised in the sugar cane fields of Puerto Rico, Walter grew up to become a gender non-conforming, cape-wearing psychic whose televised horoscopes reached 120 million Latinx viewers a day for 30 years before he mysteriously disappeared.
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