Mucho Mucho Amor Documentary Is About Love By: Rose Heredia

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Directors, Cristina Costantini and Kareem Tabsch created a documentary about the most famous and fabulous celebrity in the Latinx community. Mucho Mucho Amor was filmed in the last year before his death,  and we get a great snapshot into Walter Mercado’s early life in the theater and dance in his birth town of Ponce, Puerto Rico.

With interviews from celebrities like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eugenio Derbez, we hear testimonials of Mercado’s uniqueness with all of his bodacious capes and the joy received after his sign off after reciting the 12 horoscopes: “Sobre todo, mucho, mucho amor.”

While the documentary provides many comedic moments in which he evades questions about his sexuality (I have sex with the wind), we are also testigos to why he disappeared from TV in 2006. A contract dispute regarding his name and properties between his manager Bill Bakula is to blame for his disappearance.

The film is entrancing the most when we are in conversation with Walter Mercado. When he talks about his capes: “Each cape has a story. I am the picture and the cape is the frame.” Like everyone when they waited to hear their astrological sign, we can’t get enough of Mercado’s presence and positivity. Even during the moments of great physical pain, he still had a smile on his face and thought of others before himself.

In one of the best fan moments of the film, Lin-Manuel Miranda becomes the stand-in for the audience’s desire to be in Mercado’s presence. The joy on Miranda’s face is a pure delight because it matches how the audience felt all the years when they see Walter Mercado on the screen.

The greatest takeaway from the documentary is summed up best by one of the directors, Kareem Tabsch during a Q&A for the film hosted by the San Francisco LGTBQ film festival Frameline.

“For 50 years, Walter came into our homes every day and instilled in us hope and love and inspiration and you don’t have to believe in astrology, you don’t have to believe in any religion or anything for that matter. but the power of that message: loving one another, loving your neighbor, loving yourself, allowing yourself to be loved is so impactful. Love is a revolutionary act. if you lead your life with love, you will be a success.”

The documentary, Mucho, Mucho Amor is available on Netflix and it will certainly fill you with brightness and goodness upon watching.