Legendary Puerto Rican astrologer Walter Mercado dies

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO >> Television astrologer Walter Mercado, whose glamorous persona made him a star in Latin media and a cherished icon for gay people in most of the Spanish-speaking world, has died. He was 88.

Mercado was known throughout Latin American for the melodrama of his daily horoscopes, delivered on internationally broadcast networks such as Univision with an exaggerated trilling of the “r”. He favored colorful brocaded capes and huge gemstone rings, which he flashed while pointing at viewers.

Mercado never publicly discussed his sexual orientation but his screen presence was a source of comfort for many people in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual communities throughout Latin American and Latin communities in the U.S., said Alex Fumero, a Los Angeles-based producer who has spent two years working on a documentary about him.

“This is a culture that’s been dominated by machismo and homophobia for a very long time,” Fumero said in a phone interview. “He was really brave.”

Fumero said Mercado’s silence on his orientation may have allowed him to keep the adoration of LGBTQ fans and maintain acceptance from conservative Latins who could have rejected an openly gay television star.

Fumero said one LGBTQ activist told him, “You don’t ask about what you can see,” adding that he believes that was the attitude held by many from Mercado’s generation.

“It’s the plausible deniability that chauvinist or homophobic audiences need in order to give Walter the pass that they needed...to enjoy the message he was sending them,” Fumero said.

Fumero said he grew up watching Mercado and recalled his grandmother shushing him every time the astrologer delivered his predictions: “If Walter was on TV, everybody had to be quiet.”

Hospital spokeswoman Sofía Luquis told The Associated Press on Sunday that Mercado died from kidney failure at the Auxilio Mutuo Hospital in San Juan late Saturday. He had been living in the suburb of Cupey and had spent several days in the hospital before his death.

Mercado was born in Ponce, one of Puerto Rico’s largest cities. Although he took university courses in pharmacology, psychology and pedagogy, he became a well-known dancer and theater actor and also appeared in several soap operas.