August 3, 2020 • 23 mins
Mucho Mucho Amor, honoring Walter Mercado’s legacy
Puerto Rico native and beloved Spanish language television personality, Walter Mercado captured the hearts of Latinos all over the world through his daily horoscope readings and message of love. In this episode, we chat with the producers of the popular Netflix documentary, “Mucho Mucho Amor”, Christina Constantini, Alex Fumero and Kareem Tabsch. These talented young filmmakers tell us about their experiences meeting Walter Mercado, what it was like to produce the popular documentary for Netflix and Walter Mercado’s legacy of love and acceptance.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Ala, my name is the and riquet those podcasts. Okay,
I guess today are three very cool people and then
I want you to meet and they deserve a little
little bit of attention because they've done something spectacular, really
that the entire Latino world is very proud of and
everyone's talking about. Um. One of them has a GLAD Award.
(00:33):
One is a former program director of the Miami Gay
and Lesbian Film Festival, among a bunch of other things
these three awesome Latinos have done. And one served as
vice president of Original Programming for HBO in the past,
and that was involved in a bunch of cool Netflix stuff. Cuentos,
Who are you? My name is Christina m hold On,
(00:56):
my name is Kareem. Hold On, my name is alec Us,
And we're the filmmaking team of Much. Yes, you guys, congratulations.
You guys did a beautiful job documented the life of
world famous astrologer who so many of us grew up
with and of course loved a great deal. And thank you.
Thank you for doing this and for reminding us that
(01:18):
was the original Tiger King. Why did you guys decide
to make this documentary? Well, the three of us, we
all grew up with Walter. Like almost every other Latino
in the country and maybe the world, we grew up
watching Walter with aur elitas. And for us, I think
(01:39):
he reminds us of some of the happiest moments of
our lives as we were kids. He reminds us of
the people we love most. But you know, he would
leave us every single day with a message of very
important message that we need now more than ever, of
um peace and love. And he taught us that inclusion
(01:59):
was more important than exclusion and that we need to
um try to lead our lives with love every day,
and so we wanted to celebrate him. He's also just
fabulous and uh, you know, over the top and hilarious
and and we thought that you know, the country and
Latinos in particularly needed him him right now, What did
(02:19):
your family and friends say when you guys told him
about this project, When they found out that you guys
were documenting the life of Welcome to Up. My mom
didn't really get it. After like both all my parents
were sort of like, huh, are you like like because
what we realized making it is that like our generation
(02:40):
loved Walter, are always loved Walter, but like our parents
were at work, you know what I mean, So like
they were really like standing Walter all day necessarily right.
So so like my mom, I remember my mom just
being like uh huh and like who's gonna buy that?
Like what who was that for? You know? Like and
(03:00):
now it's a completely surround where she's like, I I
just didn't know how interesting he was, you know. Um.
So yeah, I think that the reaction has been I
think you're away, I'll finally understood what you were doing
for a living, right Christina? Yeah, I mean she was like,
oh she does all this. I was an investigative journalists,
and she's like, oh, she's going to these dangerous places,
telling these boring, sad stories, and finally she's doing something
(03:24):
of work. So for for me, it's like the opposite.
It's like my gamma is like finally something I get.
My my mom's mom my Weather and Eat already passed away. Um,
but I remember every time I went I would see
me she was seeing a song that Walter sang on
your documentary, A main boat. That's two it too. So
(03:46):
my grandmother before she passed away, you know, she she
had Alzheimer's and and and dementia, but she would always
remember and Riguito, she would light up and she would
sing that song. You man, you guys got me in
the documentary. It was such a all coo serve emotions.
I was happy. I was proud um for so many
different reasons that you guys highlighted so so uh And
(04:08):
it's just as it's just a genius an organic way
telling just letting him tell his story and connecting the dots.
You guys really did something spectacular with us, But you
really touched on a lot of different things, uh, for
for a bunch of us, for me, for me personally.
Uh kareem. How difficult was it putting this together given
the fact that, at the time of the recording, if
(04:29):
I'm not mistaken, Walter couldn't even use his name. So actually, yeah,
I mean it was a complicated story to tell. Walter's
legal issues thankfully had already been resolved. I actually I
don't think we could have made the film if it
were in the height of the legal problems. But Walter
had already regained the use of his name when we
(04:51):
started in the project. But he what he had been
is away from the public eye for probably about a decade.
He would do things. I mean, everybody can remember his
uh annual Hue predictions at the end of the year
that would appear in the papers, and he do the
occasional interview, but he had no longer was on TV
(05:11):
every day like we remembered him. Um. So the process
of telling the story, there's a lot to tell, including
the losing of his name. Um it wasn't hard to
convince Walter to do because Walter loved being on camera
and love talking about himself. He loved he loved talking
about himself, and he loved himself. He always loved you
(05:31):
more though. That was the real interesting thing I think
about Walter, like that was the magic is that he
had a very strong sense of self, but you were
ultimately always much more important than he was, and he
made sure that you felt that way. And anybody that's
ever spent any considerable amount of time with him would
tell you the same thing that you think. It's for Mark.
(05:52):
You're listening to Olah My Name is THEOS podcast, This
(06:15):
is Ala, my Name is He? And Rikas on those podcasts.
You guys did a great job of well, you guys
went into the project. You know, the outline right, but
you don't really know what you can because it's a documentary,
So you guys know what you guys. I would imagine
you put it together that we need to talk hum
in his life. He's already lived and you're gonna find
(06:36):
out more things. But what surprised you guys in the
process that you didn't know about Walter and you said, oh, ship,
I didn't know that. M hm. Did you have a
lot of those moments? Yeah? I think for the production filming,
making a documentary is like a fishing trip. Like I
love being in the field because you you never know
(06:57):
what's going to happen or what you're gonna get. It's
kind of the most beautiful part of a documentary is
you're like writing the movie as the movie as you're filming,
which is very crazy for people who work in narrative film. Um.
But I think we were, you know, we were intent
on making the movie once he said yes, but we
didn't know what Walter was like we we People say
(07:18):
to never meet your heroes because it never works out well.
But I think for us, Walter was that was the
rare exception, Like he is even more lovely than we
had expected him to be and that was the biggest surprise.
Somebody who loves themselves that much, you you think you
might there might be something else there that's annoying or
you know, yeah, you think that there might be some
(07:41):
bad stuff there. But in Walter's case, it's just love
and like, but behind the facade of love is just
more love, which is like, he's a very rare creature. Um.
I also do think I underestimated him. I think, like
all the capes and the jewels and the sequence made
me think that he would be, you know, a performer, yes,
but I didn't understand how smart he was. And I think,
(08:03):
you know, he's incredibly well read. He's read every book,
he knows everything about every world religion, he knows his
world history. He can recite monologues from his youth, like
he is a brilliant man. And he used all of
this stuff, all the sequence and the pearls and the gems,
in order to capture our attention so that he could
really share with us something that was way more important
(08:24):
in his view, which was love and and knowledge. And
so uh yeah, I was surprised every day he would
also make his laugh I think, which I don't know
these guys have a bunch of funny stories about how
much he made us laugh. Yeah, he was a very
he was a very funny Uh he was in on
his joke, you know what I mean, Like he definitely
(08:45):
loved the jewels and the makeup and the sequence. Don't
get me wrong, But it's not like he was like,
I don't understand why people think the way I dress
is weird, you know what I mean. He was like, yeah,
I know I dressed different than everybody else, and if
everyone dressed like me, I would probably dress even more different,
you know. Um. But yeah he was Also he just
had like a great sense of humor, like he would
(09:07):
um and I think if if he knew how to
balance it will right he did, Yeah he did. And
and when he was when he when it was just
like him hanging out. He had like he also had
a way of like like Christina, Christina broke like one
of his bosses because his house is like a museum
full of like chat keys. It's like you're away lost
house and like an ash ram like mixed together, so
(09:30):
like naturally you shoot there so many days, eventually you're
gonna back up into something. So she broke this boss
and she replaced it and he never was like mad
about it, but like every time he would see us again,
like he would be like, oh, you know what I
was thinking about that vose that I loved so much,
you know, and he would just sort of look at you,
you know, and you were like you knew he was
(09:51):
breaking your balls and you know, like buck with you,
you know, and so like he was like that all
the time. You know, He's just like, uh, he was
always having a good time. He told us jokes. Uh,
kareem you want to tell him like the English the
English Lessons story. Oh yeah, you know. In making the film,
Walter gravitated towards English a lot with us, and we
(10:15):
finally asked him, like, how did you learn English? I've
always known English, but I like when before? Uh, in
the in the late eighties, I went to the l
A to take English classes and the professor told me
I had to learn how to pronounce, pronounce and enunciate.
And he said, Walter, you have to focus. That was it.
Fuck us? It's like no no focus, fuck us, no focus? Yes,
(10:43):
and that but that we laughed our a. But that
was like so Walter, that he would take something that
made fun of him, and he'd be in on the
joke and laugh along with it because us laughing was
more important to him. Also, he had a million freaking stories.
I mean, you laughed your ass off with Walter every day.
How long how long were you guys actually with him?
(11:03):
And how long did this whole process take to to
actually document this? Um? So, we were filming with him
for about two years. Uh from our first conversation, which
is an interesting story that maybe Alex can tell you.
That was our first conversation was about three years ago.
Three of us um met on the phone. Basically, how
(11:25):
was that, Alex? Uh? Which which is like when we
met or when we met, when you guys met Walter?
Oh oh yeah, yeah, Chris tells that tell that story
we've been on. We've been like together so much that
we're like, you just don't I'm just tell it better.
I'm not gonna tell it good. Um. So, when we
(11:47):
when we went to Puerto Rico, Cream and I were strangers,
we had never met before. Alex put us in touch. Alex,
it's an arranged marriage, a very strange little baby we made.
But um, we we were going to meet Walter and
(12:09):
we were all super excited. We were all really nervous,
you know. We, like Lynd said in the film, it
feels like we're going into the television and the Child's
of icon and so um Alexy like filmed a little
thing of us on his phone and where we're like,
oh my god. He's like, what are we about to do?
And we're like, we're going to go into Walter Mercado's house.
(12:31):
And I think we were nervous and excited, and then
he wasn't ready, so we had to sit in the
living room in his house for about an hour as
he got ready to come see us. So he kept
us waiting and he we were in a living room
that was sunken down. It was like three ft below
the hallway, and I just remember it was like a vision.
(12:53):
It's like the most really the closest thing to a
religious experience I've ever had. He comes in and he's
in white linen and like flowing, beautiful, elegant white linen,
and he just has these silver um glasses that are
like very nineteen seventies with like yellow tints, right like
the the weren't like the actual were like like Elton
(13:15):
like kind of Elkson. Josh, Yeah, yeah. Yeah, makes between
bad Money and Elton John. Yeah, exactly. That is also
kind of like what Walter McCard is. And he and
he comes in and he greets us each and he
looks us deep into the eyes and our eyes, and
(13:36):
he holds our hands and he makes us just feel
so um so good. And he had done his research,
so he told us each about who we were and
what we had done. And he says, Gary once real
lesson was Agraphia And I remember, I remember, he just
made us feel so wonderful, and it was it was
(13:56):
exactly how you would think meeting an icon. It's like
he just was channeling this other energy that we had
never seen before. So it was it was epic. It's
very epic. You're listening to Ola. My name is the
Endic Sandals Podcast. Welcome back to Olah. My name is
(14:50):
the dCas Sandals Podcast. I want to talk to you
guys about Carol Basking. I mean Bill, Bill is like
the Carol Baskin of this whole story. Yes, uh, I
mean I would say that like Carol Baskin, there are
(15:12):
some people that find Bill to be the villain of
the story. And there's some people who are a big
Carol Baskan fans, and there's some people who admire all
that builded. So I think we let you decide who's
who to certain I think look and think I think that.
I think the problem for us is that is that
we know a lot about this backstory, and we know
(15:34):
a lot about Bill's entire story, and the truth is,
and you see it in the film. It's just that
it's just that when it comes in the film, and
well really, it's just that it's just that what Bill
did was so hurtful to Walter that I think people
are apt to defend Walter right away, which makes perfect sense.
(15:55):
The fact is, though we know who what the mcgalo
is like outside of border Rico, like like met in
Bacht every day because of Bill Bakula. So it's this
very tricky thing for us as filmmakers because we're like yeah,
but also like I would not have been on my
grandma's you know, fake Rozzo floors in Westchester watching Walter, right,
(16:18):
it's like a weird back to the future thing, right
where it's like maybe he's our Biff, right, but like
without Biff, like it doesn't set off the chain of events, right,
Like so so you don't feel that Bill Baula took
advantage of Walter. Do you just think it was just
a business, you know, decision that went bad and they
just had a buttet heads and it was less about
Walter not having the correct representation or signing something that
(16:41):
he didn't know what he was citing me personally, I
think that the deal that Bill offered Walter was not
a good deal, and I think that Walter also was represented.
I think Walter's attorney at the time is as much
to blame as Bill, right, because Walter signed many contracts,
(17:02):
not one because he was advised that the contract was
fine and those terms were not properly explained to him, right,
So other people around Walter failed him right in that situation.
Do I think the terms Bill asked for were unfair? Absolutely?
And I think the courts the courts agreed right because
the courts found that Bill was right, his contract was legal. However,
(17:23):
in what is usually an unprecedented decision, they awarded him
zero damages. Right, So they're basically saying, like, yes, dude,
in principle, you're right, but in practice, no, we're nae.
Giving there's some contradiction there, and and a little bit
of the story because Bill in your documentary says he
just wanted one dollar at a matter of principle, he
didn't want money, but then it's also reflected that he
(17:44):
wanted millions of dollars. Yeah, And I think as filmmakers,
as journalists, we wanted to handle this with the like,
we'll tell both sides of the story. Will interview Bill
and will tell tell tell you the story that Bill
wants to tell, will tell you the story of from
a just perspective and the way that his family um
sees it, and we'll let you decide. And I hope
(18:05):
that that's what that the film presents. Would I if
I were in Bill's position, have acted the way that
he acted? Definitely not. But I think, you know, journalistically,
we we want to tell you the facts of the
case and how they happen. Oh boy, there's a lot
of things that are left to open to interpretation. With
this documentary, you guys have done so so brilliantly. Again,
(18:26):
but listen, if we can learn anything from this, and
it happens so much, it happens to Latinos because of
the language barrier. It happens Latinos because we're underrepresented for
so many years in the past, and I talked to
so many people that have gone through the legal system. Uh,
something as simple as a ticket or you can even
mean undrest that then puts your legal status in jeopardy
in the United States because so many Latinos they don't
(18:47):
have the right representation and they sign whatever somebody to
quickly a public defender you know, might tell a Latino
doesn't understand very well everything. Uh the magnitude of what
they're you know, to approbation that they're accepting, or some
type of terms that they're accepting that maybe less than
jail terms, but it can represent them later on being
departed or later on not being able to get a job,
(19:09):
or not being able to become citizens. So, if anything,
this really opened up my mind and said, wow, that
you guys again and brilliantly you guys did in a
brilliant way leaving things open to interpretation, because it must
be difficult to get getting all the parties to sit
down and actually open up and say what they gotta say.
But if anything I learned from there that's a great
takeaway from this is that Latinos, you know, ask for
(19:32):
that interpreter don't be afraid to say you don't. I'm
honestly don't get no freedom is so many people just
sign on a dout in line and say you see
to see my program and go fee and see got
anything went into what? And that happens so much to
our our that generation of our parents and grandparents, you
know that just genuinely good people that went back in
the days. Right they just shake hands and you know,
(19:54):
you gotta you gotta remember what that what that he
describes he outgain know because he was from a farm
outside of right So like he and his his sister,
who was very involved in the business, right like at
that time, they're not sophisticated business people, right like Walter
was an autodidact. He went to he was a farmer,
(20:16):
he was a pharmacist randomly like, he was a very
educated person, but he was not a business person. And
he was certainly not familiar with United States business conventions
in the way that Bill Bakula was. And that was yeah,
you're right, and that's that is oftentimes the situation that
many Latinos find themselves in. One of the one of
(20:37):
my favorite parts of the movie. And there's some things,
of course, get lost in translation or somethings just just
can't translate, and I think this is one of them.
But it's so funny that all Latinos, especially catty ails,
can identify with. And so Walter's partner, business partner says,
this part about the basilone in English, and it is
so funny. Everything everything he said, I used bustling, so
(21:06):
everything is slew it slew it over me. That's really Acusta,
who he describes himself as well. Well. We asked him
if he was well right hand and he says in
the left one too. He's our favorite. He's just a gem.
Walter Will also wouldn't be Walter if it were not
(21:27):
for Really, you guys are my favorite. Especially this year.
We needed this this, We needed this documentary. This year
has been on his head. It's been crazy, so much stress,
so many problems that everything's been going wrong. And you
guys did this right. So Facia, Alex kareem on, come on,
(21:54):
great job, great job, so much. We will see what's
an next one, what's the next one, what's the next
thing you guys are working on? I don't know any ideas.
Let us keep them coming. There's so many cool Latinos
that deserve this. There's so many encount on me. If
you guys need, I don't know, pick somebody's brain or something. Again,
there's so many, so many Latinos. I have a story
(22:16):
to say that I've made such an impact on you know,
our generation and our parents and our grandparents and even
generations to come. And you guys are onto something really
cool to continue this. Thanks dude, you know. I would
only add is that it's super important. Uh there's a
million Latino stories, There's a million Latino heroes like Welcome
mccau and we want to keep telling these stories and
getting to tell these stories. It's important that our community
(22:38):
supports us. So like this weekend, when you hear this,
get on Netflix, watch it. Tell everybody mommy away, Lati.
I see everybody in and of uh in and of
around your universe to watchman Netflix, so that it it's
top ten everywhere and we get to keep doing it
on Netflix right now on Netflix now what mucha much
(23:02):
more the legend of Walta Mircallo, mucho much more of
the legend of Walta Micallo on Netflix now, Felicia Place,
keep him coming clear, Say chu
This is Ala, my name is the and riquet those podcasts. Okay,
I guess today are three very cool people and then
I want you to meet and they deserve a little
little bit of attention because they've done something spectacular, really
that the entire Latino world is very proud of and
everyone's talking about. Um. One of them has a GLAD Award.
(00:33):
One is a former program director of the Miami Gay
and Lesbian Film Festival, among a bunch of other things
these three awesome Latinos have done. And one served as
vice president of Original Programming for HBO in the past,
and that was involved in a bunch of cool Netflix stuff. Cuentos,
Who are you? My name is Christina m hold On,
(00:56):
my name is Kareem. Hold On, my name is alec Us,
And we're the filmmaking team of Much. Yes, you guys, congratulations.
You guys did a beautiful job documented the life of
world famous astrologer who so many of us grew up
with and of course loved a great deal. And thank you.
Thank you for doing this and for reminding us that
(01:18):
was the original Tiger King. Why did you guys decide
to make this documentary? Well, the three of us, we
all grew up with Walter. Like almost every other Latino
in the country and maybe the world, we grew up
watching Walter with aur elitas. And for us, I think
(01:39):
he reminds us of some of the happiest moments of
our lives as we were kids. He reminds us of
the people we love most. But you know, he would
leave us every single day with a message of very
important message that we need now more than ever, of
um peace and love. And he taught us that inclusion
(01:59):
was more important than exclusion and that we need to
um try to lead our lives with love every day,
and so we wanted to celebrate him. He's also just
fabulous and uh, you know, over the top and hilarious
and and we thought that you know, the country and
Latinos in particularly needed him him right now, What did
(02:19):
your family and friends say when you guys told him
about this project, When they found out that you guys
were documenting the life of Welcome to Up. My mom
didn't really get it. After like both all my parents
were sort of like, huh, are you like like because
what we realized making it is that like our generation
(02:40):
loved Walter, are always loved Walter, but like our parents
were at work, you know what I mean, So like
they were really like standing Walter all day necessarily right.
So so like my mom, I remember my mom just
being like uh huh and like who's gonna buy that?
Like what who was that for? You know? Like and
(03:00):
now it's a completely surround where she's like, I I
just didn't know how interesting he was, you know. Um.
So yeah, I think that the reaction has been I
think you're away, I'll finally understood what you were doing
for a living, right Christina? Yeah, I mean she was like,
oh she does all this. I was an investigative journalists,
and she's like, oh, she's going to these dangerous places,
telling these boring, sad stories, and finally she's doing something
(03:24):
of work. So for for me, it's like the opposite.
It's like my gamma is like finally something I get.
My my mom's mom my Weather and Eat already passed away. Um,
but I remember every time I went I would see
me she was seeing a song that Walter sang on
your documentary, A main boat. That's two it too. So
(03:46):
my grandmother before she passed away, you know, she she
had Alzheimer's and and and dementia, but she would always
remember and Riguito, she would light up and she would
sing that song. You man, you guys got me in
the documentary. It was such a all coo serve emotions.
I was happy. I was proud um for so many
different reasons that you guys highlighted so so uh And
(04:08):
it's just as it's just a genius an organic way
telling just letting him tell his story and connecting the dots.
You guys really did something spectacular with us, But you
really touched on a lot of different things, uh, for
for a bunch of us, for me, for me personally.
Uh kareem. How difficult was it putting this together given
the fact that, at the time of the recording, if
(04:29):
I'm not mistaken, Walter couldn't even use his name. So actually, yeah,
I mean it was a complicated story to tell. Walter's
legal issues thankfully had already been resolved. I actually I
don't think we could have made the film if it
were in the height of the legal problems. But Walter
had already regained the use of his name when we
(04:51):
started in the project. But he what he had been
is away from the public eye for probably about a decade.
He would do things. I mean, everybody can remember his
uh annual Hue predictions at the end of the year
that would appear in the papers, and he do the
occasional interview, but he had no longer was on TV
(05:11):
every day like we remembered him. Um. So the process
of telling the story, there's a lot to tell, including
the losing of his name. Um it wasn't hard to
convince Walter to do because Walter loved being on camera
and love talking about himself. He loved he loved talking
about himself, and he loved himself. He always loved you
(05:31):
more though. That was the real interesting thing I think
about Walter, like that was the magic is that he
had a very strong sense of self, but you were
ultimately always much more important than he was, and he
made sure that you felt that way. And anybody that's
ever spent any considerable amount of time with him would
tell you the same thing that you think. It's for Mark.
(05:52):
You're listening to Olah My Name is THEOS podcast, This
(06:15):
is Ala, my Name is He? And Rikas on those podcasts.
You guys did a great job of well, you guys
went into the project. You know, the outline right, but
you don't really know what you can because it's a documentary,
So you guys know what you guys. I would imagine
you put it together that we need to talk hum
in his life. He's already lived and you're gonna find
(06:36):
out more things. But what surprised you guys in the
process that you didn't know about Walter and you said, oh, ship,
I didn't know that. M hm. Did you have a
lot of those moments? Yeah? I think for the production filming,
making a documentary is like a fishing trip. Like I
love being in the field because you you never know
(06:57):
what's going to happen or what you're gonna get. It's
kind of the most beautiful part of a documentary is
you're like writing the movie as the movie as you're filming,
which is very crazy for people who work in narrative film. Um.
But I think we were, you know, we were intent
on making the movie once he said yes, but we
didn't know what Walter was like we we People say
(07:18):
to never meet your heroes because it never works out well.
But I think for us, Walter was that was the
rare exception, Like he is even more lovely than we
had expected him to be and that was the biggest surprise.
Somebody who loves themselves that much, you you think you
might there might be something else there that's annoying or
you know, yeah, you think that there might be some
(07:41):
bad stuff there. But in Walter's case, it's just love
and like, but behind the facade of love is just
more love, which is like, he's a very rare creature. Um.
I also do think I underestimated him. I think, like
all the capes and the jewels and the sequence made
me think that he would be, you know, a performer, yes,
but I didn't understand how smart he was. And I think,
(08:03):
you know, he's incredibly well read. He's read every book,
he knows everything about every world religion, he knows his
world history. He can recite monologues from his youth, like
he is a brilliant man. And he used all of
this stuff, all the sequence and the pearls and the gems,
in order to capture our attention so that he could
really share with us something that was way more important
(08:24):
in his view, which was love and and knowledge. And
so uh yeah, I was surprised every day he would
also make his laugh I think, which I don't know
these guys have a bunch of funny stories about how
much he made us laugh. Yeah, he was a very
he was a very funny Uh he was in on
his joke, you know what I mean, Like he definitely
(08:45):
loved the jewels and the makeup and the sequence. Don't
get me wrong, But it's not like he was like,
I don't understand why people think the way I dress
is weird, you know what I mean. He was like, yeah,
I know I dressed different than everybody else, and if
everyone dressed like me, I would probably dress even more different,
you know. Um. But yeah he was Also he just
had like a great sense of humor, like he would
(09:07):
um and I think if if he knew how to
balance it will right he did, Yeah he did. And
and when he was when he when it was just
like him hanging out. He had like he also had
a way of like like Christina, Christina broke like one
of his bosses because his house is like a museum
full of like chat keys. It's like you're away lost
house and like an ash ram like mixed together, so
(09:30):
like naturally you shoot there so many days, eventually you're
gonna back up into something. So she broke this boss
and she replaced it and he never was like mad
about it, but like every time he would see us again,
like he would be like, oh, you know what I
was thinking about that vose that I loved so much,
you know, and he would just sort of look at you,
you know, and you were like you knew he was
(09:51):
breaking your balls and you know, like buck with you,
you know, and so like he was like that all
the time. You know, He's just like, uh, he was
always having a good time. He told us jokes. Uh,
kareem you want to tell him like the English the
English Lessons story. Oh yeah, you know. In making the film,
Walter gravitated towards English a lot with us, and we
(10:15):
finally asked him, like, how did you learn English? I've
always known English, but I like when before? Uh, in
the in the late eighties, I went to the l
A to take English classes and the professor told me
I had to learn how to pronounce, pronounce and enunciate.
And he said, Walter, you have to focus. That was it.
Fuck us? It's like no no focus, fuck us, no focus? Yes,
(10:43):
and that but that we laughed our a. But that
was like so Walter, that he would take something that
made fun of him, and he'd be in on the
joke and laugh along with it because us laughing was
more important to him. Also, he had a million freaking stories.
I mean, you laughed your ass off with Walter every day.
How long how long were you guys actually with him?
(11:03):
And how long did this whole process take to to
actually document this? Um? So, we were filming with him
for about two years. Uh from our first conversation, which
is an interesting story that maybe Alex can tell you.
That was our first conversation was about three years ago.
Three of us um met on the phone. Basically, how
(11:25):
was that, Alex? Uh? Which which is like when we
met or when we met, when you guys met Walter?
Oh oh yeah, yeah, Chris tells that tell that story
we've been on. We've been like together so much that
we're like, you just don't I'm just tell it better.
I'm not gonna tell it good. Um. So, when we
(11:47):
when we went to Puerto Rico, Cream and I were strangers,
we had never met before. Alex put us in touch. Alex,
it's an arranged marriage, a very strange little baby we made.
But um, we we were going to meet Walter and
(12:09):
we were all super excited. We were all really nervous,
you know. We, like Lynd said in the film, it
feels like we're going into the television and the Child's
of icon and so um Alexy like filmed a little
thing of us on his phone and where we're like,
oh my god. He's like, what are we about to do?
And we're like, we're going to go into Walter Mercado's house.
(12:31):
And I think we were nervous and excited, and then
he wasn't ready, so we had to sit in the
living room in his house for about an hour as
he got ready to come see us. So he kept
us waiting and he we were in a living room
that was sunken down. It was like three ft below
the hallway, and I just remember it was like a vision.
(12:53):
It's like the most really the closest thing to a
religious experience I've ever had. He comes in and he's
in white linen and like flowing, beautiful, elegant white linen,
and he just has these silver um glasses that are
like very nineteen seventies with like yellow tints, right like
the the weren't like the actual were like like Elton
(13:15):
like kind of Elkson. Josh, Yeah, yeah. Yeah, makes between
bad Money and Elton John. Yeah, exactly. That is also
kind of like what Walter McCard is. And he and
he comes in and he greets us each and he
looks us deep into the eyes and our eyes, and
(13:36):
he holds our hands and he makes us just feel
so um so good. And he had done his research,
so he told us each about who we were and
what we had done. And he says, Gary once real
lesson was Agraphia And I remember, I remember, he just
made us feel so wonderful, and it was it was
(13:56):
exactly how you would think meeting an icon. It's like
he just was channeling this other energy that we had
never seen before. So it was it was epic. It's
very epic. You're listening to Ola. My name is the
Endic Sandals Podcast. Welcome back to Olah. My name is
(14:50):
the dCas Sandals Podcast. I want to talk to you
guys about Carol Basking. I mean Bill, Bill is like
the Carol Baskin of this whole story. Yes, uh, I
mean I would say that like Carol Baskin, there are
(15:12):
some people that find Bill to be the villain of
the story. And there's some people who are a big
Carol Baskan fans, and there's some people who admire all
that builded. So I think we let you decide who's
who to certain I think look and think I think that.
I think the problem for us is that is that
we know a lot about this backstory, and we know
(15:34):
a lot about Bill's entire story, and the truth is,
and you see it in the film. It's just that
it's just that when it comes in the film, and
well really, it's just that it's just that what Bill
did was so hurtful to Walter that I think people
are apt to defend Walter right away, which makes perfect sense.
(15:55):
The fact is, though we know who what the mcgalo
is like outside of border Rico, like like met in
Bacht every day because of Bill Bakula. So it's this
very tricky thing for us as filmmakers because we're like yeah,
but also like I would not have been on my
grandma's you know, fake Rozzo floors in Westchester watching Walter, right,
(16:18):
it's like a weird back to the future thing, right
where it's like maybe he's our Biff, right, but like
without Biff, like it doesn't set off the chain of events, right,
Like so so you don't feel that Bill Baula took
advantage of Walter. Do you just think it was just
a business, you know, decision that went bad and they
just had a buttet heads and it was less about
Walter not having the correct representation or signing something that
(16:41):
he didn't know what he was citing me personally, I
think that the deal that Bill offered Walter was not
a good deal, and I think that Walter also was represented.
I think Walter's attorney at the time is as much
to blame as Bill, right, because Walter signed many contracts,
(17:02):
not one because he was advised that the contract was
fine and those terms were not properly explained to him, right,
So other people around Walter failed him right in that situation.
Do I think the terms Bill asked for were unfair? Absolutely?
And I think the courts the courts agreed right because
the courts found that Bill was right, his contract was legal. However,
(17:23):
in what is usually an unprecedented decision, they awarded him
zero damages. Right, So they're basically saying, like, yes, dude,
in principle, you're right, but in practice, no, we're nae.
Giving there's some contradiction there, and and a little bit
of the story because Bill in your documentary says he
just wanted one dollar at a matter of principle, he
didn't want money, but then it's also reflected that he
(17:44):
wanted millions of dollars. Yeah, And I think as filmmakers,
as journalists, we wanted to handle this with the like,
we'll tell both sides of the story. Will interview Bill
and will tell tell tell you the story that Bill
wants to tell, will tell you the story of from
a just perspective and the way that his family um
sees it, and we'll let you decide. And I hope
(18:05):
that that's what that the film presents. Would I if
I were in Bill's position, have acted the way that
he acted? Definitely not. But I think, you know, journalistically,
we we want to tell you the facts of the
case and how they happen. Oh boy, there's a lot
of things that are left to open to interpretation. With
this documentary, you guys have done so so brilliantly. Again,
(18:26):
but listen, if we can learn anything from this, and
it happens so much, it happens to Latinos because of
the language barrier. It happens Latinos because we're underrepresented for
so many years in the past, and I talked to
so many people that have gone through the legal system. Uh,
something as simple as a ticket or you can even
mean undrest that then puts your legal status in jeopardy
in the United States because so many Latinos they don't
(18:47):
have the right representation and they sign whatever somebody to
quickly a public defender you know, might tell a Latino
doesn't understand very well everything. Uh the magnitude of what
they're you know, to approbation that they're accepting, or some
type of terms that they're accepting that maybe less than
jail terms, but it can represent them later on being
departed or later on not being able to get a job,
(19:09):
or not being able to become citizens. So, if anything,
this really opened up my mind and said, wow, that
you guys again and brilliantly you guys did in a
brilliant way leaving things open to interpretation, because it must
be difficult to get getting all the parties to sit
down and actually open up and say what they gotta say.
But if anything I learned from there that's a great
takeaway from this is that Latinos, you know, ask for
(19:32):
that interpreter don't be afraid to say you don't. I'm
honestly don't get no freedom is so many people just
sign on a dout in line and say you see
to see my program and go fee and see got
anything went into what? And that happens so much to
our our that generation of our parents and grandparents, you
know that just genuinely good people that went back in
the days. Right they just shake hands and you know,
(19:54):
you gotta you gotta remember what that what that he
describes he outgain know because he was from a farm
outside of right So like he and his his sister,
who was very involved in the business, right like at
that time, they're not sophisticated business people, right like Walter
was an autodidact. He went to he was a farmer,
(20:16):
he was a pharmacist randomly like, he was a very
educated person, but he was not a business person. And
he was certainly not familiar with United States business conventions
in the way that Bill Bakula was. And that was yeah,
you're right, and that's that is oftentimes the situation that
many Latinos find themselves in. One of the one of
(20:37):
my favorite parts of the movie. And there's some things,
of course, get lost in translation or somethings just just
can't translate, and I think this is one of them.
But it's so funny that all Latinos, especially catty ails,
can identify with. And so Walter's partner, business partner says,
this part about the basilone in English, and it is
so funny. Everything everything he said, I used bustling, so
(21:06):
everything is slew it slew it over me. That's really Acusta,
who he describes himself as well. Well. We asked him
if he was well right hand and he says in
the left one too. He's our favorite. He's just a gem.
Walter Will also wouldn't be Walter if it were not
(21:27):
for Really, you guys are my favorite. Especially this year.
We needed this this, We needed this documentary. This year
has been on his head. It's been crazy, so much stress,
so many problems that everything's been going wrong. And you
guys did this right. So Facia, Alex kareem on, come on,
(21:54):
great job, great job, so much. We will see what's
an next one, what's the next one, what's the next
thing you guys are working on? I don't know any ideas.
Let us keep them coming. There's so many cool Latinos
that deserve this. There's so many encount on me. If
you guys need, I don't know, pick somebody's brain or something. Again,
there's so many, so many Latinos. I have a story
(22:16):
to say that I've made such an impact on you know,
our generation and our parents and our grandparents and even
generations to come. And you guys are onto something really
cool to continue this. Thanks dude, you know. I would
only add is that it's super important. Uh there's a
million Latino stories, There's a million Latino heroes like Welcome
mccau and we want to keep telling these stories and
getting to tell these stories. It's important that our community
(22:38):
supports us. So like this weekend, when you hear this,
get on Netflix, watch it. Tell everybody mommy away, Lati.
I see everybody in and of uh in and of
around your universe to watchman Netflix, so that it it's
top ten everywhere and we get to keep doing it
on Netflix right now on Netflix now what mucha much
(23:02):
more the legend of Walta Mircallo, mucho much more of
the legend of Walta Micallo on Netflix now, Felicia Place,
keep him coming clear, Say chu
Host
Enrique Santos
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