To any Latinx person, the name Walter Mercado will invoke a sense of nostalgia. Be it the dramatic music, flamboyant cape, or simply Mercado’s catchphrase “mucho, mucho armor” (lots and lots of love), they will tell you about growing up and watching Mercado on the television. To those not familiar with his name, Walter Mercado is much more than an astrologer. It is as if he is beyond explanation, but the documentary Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado attempts to tackle this feat.
Using archival footage, animated sequences, and interviews, directors Christina Constantini and Kareem Tabsch attempt to untangle Mercado’s life and legend. How did a gender non-conforming person rise to fame in an extremely homophobic time and culture? Why did Mercado disappear at the height of his career? Told in roughly three segments, Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado outlines his rise, fall, and reemergence.
The Birth of a Legend
The very first few minutes of the film tell us about the legend of Walter Mercado. Clips of his television show intercut with interviews of his colleagues, family members, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. They describe Mercado’s impact on their childhood, bonding with relatives as they eagerly awaited their horoscope to be told. Mercado not only told you your future but encouraged you to find love within yourself and others.
Once Mercado’s persona and importance are established, the man himself begins to talk about his childhood. He grew up in the poor countryside of Puerto Rico. But, early on he knew he had a gift. In an artfully animated sequence, he describes resuscitating a baby bird. His neighbor witnessed the miracle and word spread through town that he was a healer. Soon Mercado was seated on a throne by his mother awaiting visitors who merely wished to touch his hands in hopes of receiving his healing gift.
Perhaps the most memorable moments of this film were watching Mercado reminiscing his childhood and reflecting on his future. It does not take much to notice the connections of Mercado’s childhood sitting on a throne to the one he sat on in his television show. In some ways, Mercado took his childhood gift and expanded his audience. Instead of a countryside community, people all over the world flocked to their television to be touched spiritually by this man.
Beyond the Horizon
Sadly, Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado does not delve further into his childhood. Instead, interviews with Mercado focus more on his television show. Constantini and Tabsch quickly gloss over how Mercado began his career as an astrologer – he was promoting a play, but the showrunner requested he fill in a fifteen-minute segment on astrology. The most scandalous thing? Mercado was in brownface during his very first fifteen-minute segment. What would have been a bombshell topic in a biographical documentary, is quickly swept aside as fast as the archival images of Mercado’s brownface.
Brownface and all, Mercado quickly rises to become one of the most popular astrologers in the world. A fact Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado will not make you forget: Mercado was famous. And perhaps this is what makes the film quite tiresome to watch. Less than halfway through the film and the majority of the images that pass before our eyes is Mercado flamboyantly discussing the horoscopes of Libras, Scorpios, Capricorns, and more. Of course, we get the backstory to Mercado’s dramatic flair. “I’m going to fabricate, create a famous person in me,” he quips.
The Chariot into the Future
Constantini and Tabsch take the third act of their film to focus on Mercado’s reentry into the public sphere. Mercado was being honored at a museum in Miami and was invited to attend. Perhaps the strongest part of the film in its entirety (and yet grossly under-discussed) were the moments when Mercado flips between his grandiose personality and being half carried by his friends and family. The legend as we know it is succumbing to the reality of his age.
Instead of focusing on this topic, the filmmakers instead insert half-baked segments of Mercado’s influence. From his blatant disregard to follow Latinx cultural norms on masculinity to how Millenials obsess over a man they barely saw on television, Constantini and Tabsch introduce these topics so quickly without fully unveiling how Mercado influenced generations and cultures. By opening these topics up for discussion without adequately addressing it left me with more questions. With a rise in interest in astrology in Millenials and Generation Z, how does Mercado fit into this obsession? Does Mercado see himself as a queer icon?
Conclusion
Constantini and Tabsch rarely go deeper into the man that is Walter Mercado. Sure, they stress time and time again that Mercado is legendary. But they never explore why. Was it because he broke barriers on sexuality or gender? Was it his positive motivational approach to astrology? Was Walter Mercado aware of the harmful representation he contributed to by dressing in brownface? Finishing the film simply leaves you with the sense that Constantini and Tabsch let their love for an iconic figure block them from diving deeper into the inner workings of Walter Mercado.
Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado felt like it was a documentary stuck between a rock and a hard place. It wanted to introduce Mercado to the world, but how can you introduce a legend? It wanted to discuss Mercado’s impact, but it spent so much time focusing on Mercado’s rise and fall that there was barely any time to have a substantive discussion. The viewer was simply left to their own devices to figure out Mercado’s impact on the world. If I wasn’t a Latina, I would seriously question if I truly learned anything about Mercado beyond his panache and penchant for astrology. Which is a shame because there is so much more to Walter Mercado.
Do you know about Walter Mercado? What did Walter Mercado mean to you?
Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado is to be released worldwide on VOD on July 8, via Netflix.
Watch Mucho, Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado
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