My Review of "Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado"

Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado is a documentary that recently came out exclusive to Netflix. Prior to this documentary I wasn't familiar at all with Walter Mercado but now I see the huge impact he had on the world. Apparently I'm one of the minority that don't know who he is because in this documentary it goes on to explain how much of an influence he has had on the world.

The documentary starts out with an odd character named Walter Mercado. This man seems to be an androgynous looking man that tells fortunes in the past. I have to admit that his flamboyance had me intrigued as to who he was. They go into the past of how Walter came to be.

He had grown up in a poor farm in Puerto Rico. He didn't really conform to traditional farm life but did have a itch for the big stage. From an early age Walter seemed to be flamboyant and this was largely frowned upon by the Latino community for a long period of time. Luckily for him, his mother was very supportive of him and he went into theater.

On the big stage he learned to act and dance on stage. He was a natural on the stage because of his dancing background. Much of the mannerisms he had learned from dancing was brought out in his stage presence.

One day a producer had asked him to do a promotion of a show they were doing using his knowledge of astrology. The segment went very well and pretty soon this segment blew up into a full blown show for himself. He was able to command the stage all by himself and everyone was all ears for him.

Walter was a pioneer in televised fortune telling. He used his stage presence as well as his positive messages to keep his audience engaged. Soon he was known as a pioneer for a number of things. As he was very androgynous many people today in the LGBT community see him as an icon for pioneering acceptance. He had also pioneered the 1-900 numbers for psychic networks. If it wasn't for Walter astrology wouldn't be as commonly looked at today.

Seeing as Walter was so huge back in the day many wonder what happened to him. Why has he disappeared for so long? At the height of his popularity he was viewed by over 120 million Latino viewers around the world. People grew up with him and he just disappeared all of a sudden.

The documentary goes into the details as to what had happened. There were not only legal issues but also health issues that had prevented Walter from a comeback. It's not as if he didn't want to come back. From the sounds of it, Walter is always willing to adorn his fans with his presence.

By the end of the film we realize all of this is for a special day to commemorate his achievements. It's a really nice ending to the movie even though there are some sad messages at the end in the epilogue.

It was really fun to learn about this very eccentric man. He had lived one heck of a life by sending positive messages to the world. I now understand the appeal to Walter and why everyone was so obsessed with him. Every generation needs a Walter Mercado so that they don't forget that life can be good and things are going to get better.

I didn't know this but Walter has recently become relevant again to today's generation of kids. Even though he hasn't been on air for the longest time the new generation of kids are learning about him and see him as a pioneering legend. That's a really nice thing to know seeing as he had uplifted so many lives in the past.

Overall, I enjoyed this documentary even though they didn't go into too many of the faults of Walter. I guess you can say he is naive and a little self absorbed but if you've lived such a life I can understand why you're that way. If you haven't heard of Walter Mercado before it's worth checking this documentary out. I have to give this documentary an 8 out of 10. It is a very enjoyable documentary and I think Walter's story needs to be spread to the public.