by Rita Moreno
First published 2013
Rita Moreno chronicles her path from Rosita Dolores Alverio, born in Puerto Rico, to becoming the only Hispanic performer to achieve EGOT status. She recounts her childhood voyage to the Bronx at age five, where harsh barrio life led her to discover performance as refuge. Moreno details her Broadway debut at thirteen and early Hollywood career working with Gary Cooper, Yul Brynner, and Ann Miller. Louis B. Mayer called her a "Spanish Elizabeth Taylor" upon signing her to MGM. She describes landing roles in Singin' in the Rain and her Oscar-winning turn in West Side Story, then confronting Hollywood's racial barriers that trapped her as the "utility ethnic." Moreno reveals intimate relationships with Elvis Presley, Howard Hughes, and Marlon Brando, including a romance so intense it drove her to attempt suicide. She examines her marriage, motherhood, and the struggle between her public persona and private self.
Genres: 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: overcoming-adversity, rags-to-riches
Setting: Puerto Rico, Bronx, Hollywood
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Celebra
Content warnings: racism, suicide