Rita Moreno is one of the most celebrated actresses in America. She has been honored with an Oscar, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award for a lifetime of meritorious service.
Not bad for an immigrant who spoke not a word of English when she arrived in New York at the age of 5.
That was about 74 years ago, and Rose Dolores Alverio, as Moreno was known before she met studio mogul Louis B. Mayer, has lived a remarkable life.
Moreno will share stories from her past, including anecdotes from her work with the likes of Marlon Brando, Susan Hayward and Gene Kelly, in Denver on Monday as part of the Unique Lives & Experiences series.
Moreno will discuss the history of movies, theater and television and offer acting monologues from each medium.
She’ll talk a little about herself too — about those years being typecast as a “Mexican spitfire” or “Indian maiden.”
“It has never been easy,” she said during a telephone interview last week.
Moreno was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico, which was then a small town on the island’s east coast. She said she has mostly sensory memories of those early years near the rain forest, of her mother taking her there, snapping off some sort of greenery and presenting it to her young daughter. By smell, little Rose would identify the plant and “impress the heck” out of her mother’s friends.
Moreno probably couldn’t see over the ship’s rail when she and her mother sailed to New York City.
They arrived in February, when it was snowy and cold, and moved into a tenement where Moreno contracted measles before she had learned but a couple of words in English.
In a hospital ward with other sick children, she kept calling, “Hey, boy. Hey, boy,” to another child. His repeated reply of “shut up” taught her another new phrase.
“It didn’t get better for a long, long time,” Moreno said. “English is a very difficult language. And there was racial prejudice, kids calling you names.”
A year or so later, Moreno’s mother had a friend who was a Spanish dancer and she came to visit. “She saw me bopping around the room and told my mother, ‘I think Rosita might have some talent.’ “
At 17, she was discovered by a talent scout who took her to see Mayer, the creator of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s star system.
Under contract to MGM, Moreno made some 30 films in the early part of her career. She appeared with Tyrone Power and Gary Cooper and was featured in “The King and I” with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr.
“But for many years, I had to do all these stereotypical Spanish señoritas, the Conchita/Lolita parts. At that point, I could speak perfect English, but I always had to speak with an accent. The makeup was always very dark. It certainly didn’t help my self-image.”
Moreno was finally recognized as a major talent when she won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for her performance as Anita in the film version of “West Side Story.”
In subsequent years, Moreno portrayed an Irish teacher, an Italian widow, a reformed prostitute, a female evangelist, an English lady and a Southern belle, breaking the mold of Latino stereotyping.
“I am an actor, and that’s what we’re supposed to do. You play the part of someone not like you. Take Sister Pete in ‘Oz’ for HBO.” Moreno played a nun trained as a psychologist for the popular TV series. “I can be a doctor or a lawyer. I don’t know what the big deal is.
“But it certainly was a big deal for people who were producing and casting those films. Even now, Asian people have a hard time getting roles. They become the ones who are really invisible. There are certainly more opportunities for Latinos in films and TV. There’s still a tendency for a lot of those characters to have accents. Those kinds of things die very slowly and very hard.”
Moreno admitted to feeling very fortunate, especially in light of anti-illegal-immigrant sentiment that, for example, makes it tougher for children of immigrants to go to college.
“You can only say that it is horribly unjust. Unfair doesn’t begin to cover it,” she said.
This story is also available in Spanish at
An evening with Rita Moreno
What: The Denver Post Unique Lives & Experiences series
When: Monday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre, 1245 Champa St.
Tickets: $35 and up; call 1-866-449-8118 or go to
