Flamboyant Puerto Rican astrologer seeks crossover success
Posted on Sat, Apr. 12, 2008
By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ
AP Hispanic Affairs Writer
AP FILE
On Sunday, Walter Mercado, 76, will debut on a new VH1 reality show entitled 'Viva Hollywood' in which bilingual actors live together and compete to star in a telenovela.
MIAMI -- If the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards and the musician Liberace ever had a Spanish-speaking love child, it would be Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado.
The platinum blond who favors brocade jackets, satin capes and kumquat-sized gemstone rings has built a commercial empire across the hemisphere with his dramatic daily horoscope predictions in Spanish-language papers, TV and radio.
Then there's his psychic network, perfume company and other promotions. On the go? Walter will send a horoscope directly to your cell phone.
Now, Mercado, 76, is looking to conquer the market that is still beyond his grasp: the English-language one, where his exposure has mostly been "What the heck was that?" pauses during channel surfing. On Sunday, Mercado debuts on a new VH1 reality show entitled, "Viva Hollywood," in which bilingual actors compete to star in a Telemundo telenovela. Those who are voted off must act out a death scene before they go. The show is as over the top as Mercado, but if his strange success is any sign, it might just be a hit.
"They asked for comedy on the show, so I did it as comedy, but in my work I'm very serious," Mercado said
as he played with the feather plumes hanging from his cape during a recent horoscope taping.
Diana Taylor, a New York University Tisch School of Performing Arts professor, has studied Mercado's rise, and even she is somewhat baffled at his popularity in a culture that coined the term "macho." She attributes it in part to the history of "curanderos" or healers who serve as alternative authority figures in Latin America, and to a greater acceptance in general in Latin cultures of dramatic flair.
"He endows the drag queen with papal authority," she wrote in a 2003 critique. "He reads politics through astrology and comments on the brutality of conquest, slavery, sexism and other social ills through the movement of the stars."
Mercado's view of his success is simpler.
The divine, he maintains, combines the feminine and the masculine, a sort of yin-yang.
"My message is positive, and I am honest about who I am," he said.
Mercado didn't start out as a gender-bending soothsayer. As a child in San Juan, he was often sick and was drawn to alternative healing arts, including astrology. But Mercado garnered initial success as an actor in telenovelas and on stage.
All that changed one afternoon in the late 1960s when he took a break from a local play and did a TV interview still dressed in his outlandish stage costume, according to legend. The topic was astrology, and the segment was such a success Mercado was immediately asked back.
A producer told him to stick with the theater getup because it added gravitas to his predictions.
Although he maintains publicly that he is celibate thanks to meditation and other spiritual pursuits, Mercado quickly became an icon in the gay community.
And then celebrity took over.
"There are certain people in any culture that sort of transcend gender, transcend to a certain degree common sense. Walter Mercado is one of those iconic figures," said Randy Barbato, executive director of "Viva Hollywood."
"Even the very macho guys screamed when he came on," he said. "For the contestants in the house, he is not only this icon, he's also very familiar. Having Walter is like having your family."
Despite his flamboyant presence, Mercado speaks seriously when it comes to politics. He says he is an avid supporter of Hillary Clinton, a Scorpio, for president. He chalks up Democratic rival Barack Obama's speaking prowess to being a Leo, and he couldn't remember Republican John McCain's sign, muttering that no one predicted he would win the nomination. But he demurs at predicting who will win the 2008 election, or answering one of the most common questions in Miami: When will Fidel Castro die?
"He's in the last stages, but anyone can see that," he shrugs at the obvious.
Although he is called a psychic, Mercado says he is more interested in spreading his messages of love and tolerance as he reels off the week's horoscope. A more personalized 60-minute consultation by one of his trained psychics starts at $117 on his Web site.
Mercado tapes days' worth of horoscopes at a time, using almost no notes.
"What you say that is written has the taste of the written word," he said. "The spoken word is more alive, even if you trip up."
His own words have tripped him up. Mercado was named in a 1998 lawsuit after he promoted the healing properties of hematite necklaces for a jewelry company that was running a Ponzi scheme. The company president went to prison. Mercado settled with the victims.
But even the attorney who sued him now says he believes Mercado was an unwitting player in the scheme and never meant to defraud anyone.
Mercado is now suing former business manager Guillermo Bakula in Puerto Rico for $5 million over a breach of contract in a separate case.
Legal troubles aside, Producer Barbato believes the VH1 show is just the beginning of a new stage in Mercado's career.
"Walter Mercado is about to make a huge crossover," he predicted. "He's ready for his close-up."
