If you were Latinx during the final decades of the last century – and even if you weren’t – odds are good that the face of Walter Mercado was a familiar sight.
Already a local celebrity as a dancer and actor in his native Puerto Rico, Mercado began his rise to international stardom after an impromptu discussion of astrology during a TV interview proved so popular that he was asked to return to the show with regular daily reports on the same subject.
Flaunting a carefully crafted yet unabashedly flamboyant persona, he became a staple of daily life in homes across Latin America and Europe, his popularity eventually spilling over into the U.S.