Rita Moreno: A Memoir by Rita MorenoMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I would say that the entire story of Rita Moreno -- though it is hardly complete yet; she just put out a new record a few months ago, "Una Vez Mas" produced by Emilio Estefan! -- is one of overcoming. So many barriers; a language barrier, a cultural barrier, a climate barrier -- and that was just by the age of six! -- in moving with her mother to the cold, hard concrete sidewalks of New York City from the warm, lush tropical greenery and fruitful gardens of Puerto Rico. Becoming a professional entertainer began not much later, when she was a child of 11, dancing, singing, acting. Moreno grew up in show business, spending her late childhood and all of her teen years experiencing successes and setbacks while training and working in films and on stage. She survived to carry on in this profession into and throughout her entire adult life. If you're looking for an overnight sensation, you've got the wrong performer -- assuming there even is such a thing. Moreno is heralded as one of the few EGOT holders, having won at least one of all four of the most major American entertainment awards -- Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. Well, it was all uphill--! Puerto Rican, and proudly so, which was the ethnicity of her Oscar-winning role of Anita in the "West Side Story" film, but in an industry that cast her "exotic" look as everything else -- Chinese in "The King and I" film (black actress Dorothy Dandridge had been asked first--!--but turned down the supporting role); as a young teen from India on the "Father Knows Best" TV show; but especially the half-literate "Indian" (Native American) maiden in more cowboy Western films than Moreno could remember (or stand to sit through, she admitted, in the writing of this book!) -- at those times when they'd run out of the stereotyped oversexed "Latina spitfire" parts for her to play. There were some personal successes and setbacks along the way, too, and Moreno fills us in on many of those, the pathways of romantic relationships peculiar to actors in Hollywood. But Moreno's calling out on the various levels of quality -- especially when it was the lack thereof -- of health care that her husband received in various hospitals before passing is pertinent to anyone facing that situation. If there was one part of this book that I'd recommend everyone read, it's that one. But as I began, Rita Moreno is not finished yet. She continues to set new goals in her work and life. This is an excellently detailed and candid look back, on both the injustices and achievements in her past -- but look up and catch up, because the way for Moreno is always forward to her future.
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Rita Moreno Interview | Archive of American Television
