 welcoming arts presenters, president and CEO, Mario Garcia Durham. This works great. Good morning everyone. How are y'all doing? That's the spirit we want you to take with you back to your jobs and your communities. So welcome to this special moment when we come together to reflect a bit on all that has been accomplished over the past days and to bid each other great success and well wishes for a successful new year. Once again, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors, our more than 100 volunteers, and hopefully you had a chance to thank all of the students. They are a terrific team. They were in the T-shirts. Yeah, let's give applause to those students. They were just amazing. Also the production crew behind the scenes that have made this conference such a success and I especially want to call out the members of the conference committee. Scott Stoner leads this effort but we cannot do this in all the programs that you saw without an outstanding conference committee. So can I please have a round of applause for our amazing conference committee for this. But the leaders of the conference committee, our co-chairs, were on the phone almost daily with Scott, if not weekly, constantly going back and forth about ideas, directions. It was just they were so so engaged I have to say. So Rachel Cohen, Kathy Edwards and Daniel Bernard-Romain, can you please stand and accept our thanks for your work. I now want to take a moment and you all are involved in organizations and lead organizations and know how important your staff and team is. You know I'm just kind of pushed out and told where to go what to do during the conference and I can't do any of this without this incredible team of staff and conference members. So I'm going to you will indulge me I'm going to take just a moment because I think it's important for everyone to hear their name to know the acknowledgment. So please hold your applause to the end but Megan Redmond, Judy Moore, Tiffany Gauthier, Mallory Bum, Sue Nosworthy, Keisha Shorter, Shruti Makun, Scott Stoner, Kailin Saylor, Danielle Rohar, Jenny Thomas, Sarah Martin, Melinda Lambert, Nikola Turner, Taylor Rambo, Margaret Stevens, Katina Lancaster, Adam and Kristi Kisik, Mara Zuckerman. Oh I'm sorry hang on I'm going to come back to that. The HowlRound team want to thank Bill Seaman, Robert Baird who helps us so wonderfully, Bill Carlton, Caitlin Davis, Alicia Anstead our editor of the Inside Arts magazine, Suzanne Roche and our media relations team Carol Miller and Nancy Wrethepard and I also want to thank our signers Mara Zuckerman and Jane Adler. So can I please have a special round of applause please stand up all the staff members please, please, please, please, please. But I wanted to just highlight three special mentions. One is Marty in the room? Marty are you in the room? I don't know if Marty Wallace is in the room. He's on our board and Marty contacted me a couple of months ago. For those of you did not know we had to change management of the conference in October and so board was terrific as usual and Marty Wallace and Clarice Misson are in our area down near Washington. Volunteered if you can imagine one of his staff members who is who's in our technical team and his name is Mark Lanks. So Mark if you're here thank you and then Marty please convey thanks to Marty. Mark has been here on Marty's dime the entire conference working his you know what off for us on the tech team so thank you Mark and Marty. As I mentioned in October I had to make a change at the very top of our conference team with changing conference directors and something happened that is fortunate to us all and that is that I was referred to an amazing amazing woman who many of you know who came in and I can honestly tell you as one of the most professional unflappable goddesses I've ever worked with and her name is Victoria Abrash and can you please give her a huge round of applause there and then finally you've seen him running around blonde-haired Craig I don't know if Craig's right here that's my other half he's a volunteer here so please give him a round of applause he works and works and works. So staff did I have any glaring of Mrs. here okay very good you know how that is with names always so great so each year we work with the conference committee to identify a speaker who will deliver a high level of enthusiasm and inspiration to culminate a successful conference and those that have been those be that have been attending these we've been so fortunate to have such amazing speakers here at this final talk this year will be no exception because because we have with us a stunning and multi award-winning artist multi meaning she has won all four annual major entertainment awards an Oscar an Emmy a Grammy and a Tony award she was in DC last month yes that's amazing she was in DC last month to receive a Kennedy Center's honors award for lifelong achievement in the arts all of these in addition to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in the National Medal of Arts from President Obama those are some major kudos I am of course referring to Rita Moreno over the past four days we have learned much about what it means to be a maker Scott carries this thing forward it's in front of you all times and he is passionate about it and so she embodies that we have learned that the art of making is not simply something one is born with Rita Moreno has exemplified what it takes to have an incredibly successful career by always standing up for one's principles and embracing rather than running from obstacles that may lie in the way she makes us proud as a member of the arts community she makes a difference as a champion for equality and social justice a theme that ran throughout the entire conference especially on this weekend and these are principles that we have celebrated strongly ultimately she makes us wonder how can anyone after decades of accomplishing dream after dream still be as busy as ever and she just told me before we came on that this Saturday she has a performance at Lincoln Center the American Songbook which should be fantastic unfortunately it sold out but try to get a ticket if you can anyway ladies and gentlemen again as happens in this conference these are individuals that I never in my wildest dreams thought I would meet much less introduce so please a huge round of applause for the amazing Rita Moreno Wow, goodness gracious, goodness I'm so delighted you're here I am so delighted with be with you today actually I'm thrilled to be anywhere that's not outside today can you believe it we Puerto Rican girls do not do well in this kind of weather so anyway yesterday some of us celebrated and remembered with profound gratefulness the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Octavio Paz the great Mexican poet and diplomat said what sets worlds in motion is the interplay of differences their attractions and repulsions death is uniformity life is plurality August 28th 1963 was a boiling hot day in Washington DC I sat not more than 15 feet away from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and as he rose to address that massive that sea of over a quarter of million souls assembled at the base of the Lincoln Memorial stretching on both sides of the reflecting pool and all the way to the Washington Monument and as he stood to speak excuse me I heard I was there I heard Mahalia Jackson the great gospel singer who was a good friend of Dr. King's call out to him he said Martin tell them about the dream tell them about the dream Martin and that's when he changed his talk is that amazing I was 32 years old less than a year later during his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize he said he said I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality and then is the New York Times story that I read yesterday Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith won't attend the Oscars why well you can find the answer on the editorial page of the New York Times and the Oscar goes to white people so I was 32 in 1963 I am now 84 that's 52 years ago more than half a century and yet the struggle continues sometimes you know sometimes you have absolutely no idea this is on another subject by the way it's a terrible segue sometimes you have absolutely no idea who's watching or listening to you and you certainly have no clue how life can affect them you may know that I received the Kennedy Center Honors Award in December and let me tell you I was so surprised and delighted when Gina Rodriguez my TV granddaughter on Jane the Virgin appeared on stage and said in paying tribute to me among other things she said to me you gave me hope you gave me a reason to fight and to speak up you gave me a voice and how can I ever thank you I'm not sure how but I can tell you this when you followed your dreams Rita you gave me the allowance to follow more that's where the words left me undone so you might ask how does a little girl from hunkos Puerto Rico who dance for her grandpa oh one Puerto Rican in the whole show so how does a little girl from Puerto Rico hunkos Puerto Rico who dance for her grandpa in his tiny casita where he rolls cigars out to eat out a living how does this person become a well-known American actress whose story would inspire others you know who would have thunk in 1936 when I was five years old my 22 year old mother set sail with me for the United States me her little girl Rosita Dolores on the SS car a bubble that name literally translated means the SS stupid face bubble stupid gotta face a ship would like that with a name like that is not a good omen she was leaving behind an unhappy marriage on the stinging poverty that was prevalent on the island at the time she filled a trunk and tour to poor people's suitcases also known as shopping bags then took my hand and we climbed the gangway to begin a brand new life in America however sometimes God's plans are very different from ours a few hours later we were met by a violent storm the storm that threw everyone into a collective state of panic now Latino people have many natural talents but one area in which we particularly excel is panicking when it comes to panicking we are the envy of the world it is part of our world view we are profoundly passionate people pathologically passionate people everything in excess nothing in moderation where other cultures believe in restraint and self-control we believe in the principle of constant combustibility when in doubt flip out not kidding the storm raged for what seemed like an eternity and thankfully we finally found safe haven in New York Harbor this enormous green lady shooting right up out of the water wearing some sort of crown on her head holding what looked like a huge flaming ice cream cone oh mommy my mom tells me that that's a new day is a very special senora that she's inviting everyone from around the world to come to America to come and live here to come and be citizens of los estados unidos especialmente people who are pobres cansados hambrientos sin hogar poor tired hungry and homeless we are definitely overqualified but when I look up at that big green ladies face all I can think is oh my goodness lady runs this country and look where we are right now when we get to New York we make a beeline for the Bronx where we proceed to move into a four bedroom apartment the only problem is that there are three other families living there as well the hallways are dimly lit they are like the light bulbs are just so dim some missing from their sockets the walls have been painted so long ago that they turned into a shade of kind of mustard the color of all tenement apartments the good news is that we don't stay there in the four bedroom apartment for very long the bad news is that our next apartment has only one room I sleep in a tiny iron bed with my mommy the place is so small even the cockroaches can't move around and these are New York cockroaches I mean you turn on the light instead of scattering scattering they're all standing up straight and saying so I get a tool turn off the light yes they do put their little legs on the little that's a New York cockroach for you they don't do that in LA we had to keep moving when you're that broke it moved just to get the rent concession most of the time you just move across the street this is true and then a little while later you move back again it's sort of like a poor people's version of alternate side of the street park but at least a new apartment would always be freshly painted and the walls weren't flaking at that moment when I started exploring the outside it was to go to a big scary place called school where millions of other kids knew everything I didn't know and absolutely nobody spoke Spanish because this was before the Puerto Rican diaspora the only way my mom could get me to go to drop me off and tell me she was going to buy me a packet of cheeky gum and I'd be right back okay I cried and I thought she left me forever once I settled into this new routine I felt safe in my classroom but walking home that was a different story because I ran home I ran home from school almost every day I got a lot of exercise because I never ran in a straight line I had to crisscross the street every half block to avoid the gangs of kids who owned the sidewalks I couldn't get to our apartment building soon enough let me tell you I crisscross from side to side trying to escape the jeers and name-calling spake garlic mouse pierced ear grease ball names I had never heard until we arrived in this cold gray grit frozen hell in the dead of winter I was actually amazed to see that the trees had no leaves I had never seen trees with no leaves before it was like it was so unlike the tranquil idyllic fragrant paradise where I was born and oh boy how I longed for my homeland my island and grandpa who's Tino the pain of those terrible words would stay with me throughout my childhood right into my adult life I'd run from the feelings caused by those words I must have believed them because I had I had to must believe them because later I would run from myself Rosita Dolores al verio the niña who just didn't fit whose skin was too dark whose hair was too curly what was it that I carry the smell of my abuelos cigars oh boy I really wanted to be somebody the problem is I wanted to be somebody else so what do you do when reality bites you dream my sanctuary was beside our cathedral shaped table radio that's set by the window in our barrio apartment when the weather was friendly mommy would let me go out that window under the fire escape and I would spread my blanket like a magic carpet on those steel rungs I would lie there and look up at the sky and the stars and I would listen to all of my favorite singers and bands Miguelito Valdez Celia Cruz Frank Sinatra these were my Shakira my Ricky Martin my maroon five my Pharrell Williams and when I closed my eyes I could go anywhere I could be anybody and I would sing along with my favorite group my favorite group was the Pied Piper's and I was singing three to do watch the smoke rings rise in the air your share that as they sing earnestly hope that phone was turned off because if I hear it again you die no we tend to make big threats like that right don't really mean it most of the time my greatest longing my dream was to be in show business and my mom allowed me to pursue it like many immigrant mothers before and many who would follow she spent much of her time just getting by all the while encouraging me to pursue my dreams and reach for the stars and I did for years I mistakenly thought I had no role model but oh boy it wasn't till much later that I would appreciate my mom's example of hard work persistence and a spirit that would not surrender somehow those values became deeply embedded in my character and motivated me throughout my life and career to never give in never quit I look back and see her as a hero and of course like all heroes she had feet of clay oh my god how she could embarrass me once well she had a little trouble with the English language so once when I had a little girlfriend over to play she said okay girls is too hot she said yes I remember she started to fan herself walk up and down the apartment listen gales I defy you to try to do this accent good luck listen gales gales she said it's too hot to do any work today for piss sake you said it you said piss she says well tell you what we are going to do we're gonna pack up evening lunch and have a nice swing at the bitch you can imagine how mortified I was oh my god and you know another time she said to me she's a Rosita is Saturday once a month you know it's time to change the shits and I was so mortifying me mommy for God's sake Benito Seattle mommy and I said why mommy and she said because I got trouble with my bowels yes she did and yet my precious wonderful sweet and tender mommy understood my passion and genuinely sacrificed for my my benefit she would take me for dance lessons then traveled with me so I could perform at any bar mitzvah a wedding reception that would book me for the entertainment in those early years I was a miniature Carmen Miranda the Brazilian Samba singer some of you may remember my mommy a sweatshop worker handmade my costumes and fashioned me a fruit salad headdress just like Carmen Miranda's sometimes I would get an after-school job at Macy's Little Theater situated in the toy department in New York City we would entertain the kids and their parents with songs anyway a few years later I was performing at a dance school recital when a talent scout was so pleased with my performance can you believe it that he whispered my name into the ear of the great Mr. Louis B. Mayer as in Metro Goldwyn Mayer the studio that made the Wizard of Oz the scout arranged for mommy and me to meet this giant of film industry and the only way I thought I might make an impression on the great man was tried to look like my idol Elizabeth Taylor and once again mommy was there to help we bought a waist cincher and invested in a set of feminine enhancements my dress my hair my nails my shoes my face my gloves every single last inch of me was prepped and powdered and covered and uncovered until it lasted time for the unveiling had come we rode the elevator up and up to the highest turret in the Waldorf Astoria and when the doors finally opened there he was the little wizard himself oh five foot four of him just like the little man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz my eyes were like this he took my hand and held it and gave me a quick one sober the inspection took all of 30 seconds before he said why she looks like a Spanish Elizabeth Taylor how does a seven-year contract sound to you young lady well my feet just lifted off the floor as I flew around the room I was 16 years old 16 six months later I was on the NGM lot in Culver City California well MGM was the most amazing place in the world with a constellation of all the greatest stars in the Hollywood heavens they were everywhere I remember being in the studio cafe for lunch overwhelmed and occupied with all the choices of exotic foods on the steam table like roasts beef and gravy mashed potatoes Boston cream pie listen I was brought up on black beans and rice and then as that wasn't enough they sauntered in like real people Clark Gable Lana Turner Ricardo Montalbana and oh my god wet my knickers so for the first three years the studio happily cast me to play every kind of ethnic role you can imagine Polynesian girl Indian princess Arabian girl or any dark-skinned girl they needed I now refer to them as my dusky maiden roles I had to deliver lines to my white lover like why do you know love who are no more and then my character who let the Indian maiden is so distraught when he summarily white person of course summarily rejects her that she flings herself off a cliff and you know when I was thinking of this story to tell you my long-term memory kicked in as I was recalling this story and I remembered that at the end of that scene the director cut to the waves lapping over Ula's lifeless body on the beach at the bottom of the cliff which of course in reality was me and in that water this was filmed in Mexico where hundreds thousands of tiny jellyfish stinging me so of course this dead person is wiggling with discomfort the director barks to me stop twitching on damage it's supposed to be dead but but mr. Allen I'm getting stung by these jellyfish shut up and do as I say he sees me not as Rita Moreno young actress he sees me as Ula so you have to ask yourself what was in the mind of these studio executives and writers the parts they were creating for young minority actresses gave a clue these roles objectified us they almost always portrayed as as dig ignorant uneducated totally passive unable to read and write and morally bankrupt usually some white man's mistress so you ask how does an Indian princess speak or an Arabian girl for that matter so I think what can I do to make these terrible parts at least more authentic we were given no dialogue coaches and the directors never seemed to care so I decided to solve the problem myself I gave accents to these characters as I thought they should have well a while back I found a couple of my old movie clips on YouTube and started laughing out loud the accent I create the accents I created all sounded the same if she was Arabian she sounded like these she was Indian she sounded like these Hawaiian she sounded like these I had created a universal ethnic accent so why did you take these parts I'm asked it's called paying the rent in real life most of us have periods when our careers are not satisfying but I could never give up if I wasn't being cast in the best roles on the best projects I could at least dream and I did for inspiration I visit the sound stages where these kind of movies were being made at Metro Goldman mayor I love visiting the movie sets any set and every one of these sets was like a little village with its own cast of characters directors and designers gaffers grips hundreds of people all working together under the mantle of a great star the Humphrey Bogart set the Judy Garland set and there I was in 1952 on the Jean Kelly set Mr. Jean Kelly had taken a chance on me and cast me in the non-ethnic role of Zelda Sanders and singing in the rain what an experience to work with Jean Kelly and to be given a non-ethnic part I even had to wear a red wig all right I thought this is the beginning of a new career and by the way it's such a great movie go see it again I was so young you won't recognize me but I was Zelda and I had a red wig I mean every time I look at it I think oh God not one wrinkle now every profession has telltale signs of failure signals from your employers that your talents may no longer be required in the acting business what happens is very simple your phone goes dead so when the phone stopped ringing three years into my MGM contract I was filled with dread a whole six months went by without being in a movie I was finally called into the casting office and told listen dear you know you're in trouble when they call you dear we're letting you go just like that well I cried for two for two months never in front of my mother how could I it took both of us to care for my baby brother and us if I don't contribute we don't eat I considered every employment possibility even at secretarial school but my internal compass kept pointing to that dream so I took any job I could get movies like the fabulous senorita cattle town Fort vengeance ma and pa kettle on vacation that was a low Latin lovers the yellow tomahawk seven cities of gold of oolah fame so you see some careers could start off slow and then go downhill from there the studio controlled my life in many ways even my social life the studio executives would use big movie magazine spreads to test which one of their contract players might catch the public eye the movie magazines are now sort of like people magazine so they sent you out with someone you hardly knew a guy and staged fake dates two pieces of hot young hollywood eye candy deck to the nines pretending to be as happy as uneaten clams with a photographer and a writer in tow to chronicle every move you made on that date here we are driving in the star spangled Buick here we are dining at the rainbow grill here we are dancing at the oh so hot macambo and as boring as they were these fake dates were better than the alternative one afternoon I was sent off to a cocktail party on the arm of a man named Harry Carl the famous shoe tycoon and lover of all things young and beautiful which he most definitely was not well with a meets minutes of meeting Mr. Carl inside the vast confines of his bright yellow Cadillac convertible it's clear that he and I don't even have the weather in common and by the time we enter the home of Alfred Hart the famous whiskey tycoon and the butler took my rap I realized that I've been abandoned Harry Carl went somewhere in that house so left to swim in a sea of powerfully rich men who are looking for any poor woman willing to show some gratitude the head of Columbia pictures Harry Cone comes over to where I'm sitting and says and I am quoting him and by the way I looked adorable like borrowed a beautiful little cocktail dress from the costume department and he approaches me and says to me I want to fuck you I had maybe heard that word twice in my life I was a very young 17 18 I tried to laugh and when I moved to get away another man grabs me from behind this is a cocktail party seeing my distress the host of the party comes over and pulls me onto the dance floor yes his living room had a dance floor and a band but now he's squeezing me tighter and tighter and then he begins to breathe heavily and a little beads of sweat begin to form on his upper lip and he's whispering you're a sexy little bitch aren't you I bet you're wild in bed I try to pull away but he pulls me back up hard against his body and moves against me ostensibly dancing with me and I just say please please mr. Hart and he says don't play that game with me baby and I finally pull away really hard I'm going to throw up I'm throwing up I go to the bathroom and say to myself what am I gonna do what am I gonna do finally somebody knocks on the door the scare is running I run out of the bathroom I forget about my rap and I run out of the house and I stumble right onto the Mexican gardeners and I see them and they see me they don't know my name they don't know who I am but they completely see me they place a jacket over my shoulder and carefully fold me into the front seat of their pickup truck and they take me home I don't go to another party for years one day in 1955 I received a call from my agent bullets dergum yes that was his name he was very short and he had a bullet head which is why they called him bullets hey Rita reader used to call me reader listen honey they're doing tests for the king and I and they want you to come in and try out yeah the stage version was great but man this is gonna be it's gonna be really fabulous well it was yet one more ethnic part but what a movie I love the king and I and bullets was right it was an instant classic for the next five years it was more of the same I kept playing these ethnic parts always hoping for something better it was 1954 I was all of 23 years old when my entire universe became defined by the figure of an older man I was visiting the set of the film Desiree that's 20th Century Fox where I was under contract when I coincidentally stuck my head into the makeup room and there he was Marlon Brando in that single moment I learned that the eyes are windows to more than just the soul I'm telling you that room became so hot the walls began to sweat I was gone head over heels heels overhead have you ever been so obsessed with someone that you feel like you can't breathe without them now have you well Marlon felt that way about himself happily I agreed with him you know that phrase I thought I would die when he walked into a room I'm telling you I could feel the pores of my skin expanding and he left the room my hands would actually turn cold I was in a fever for eight years it's in the book by the way which I'm going to sign after this I was a happy prisoner of my own desire to please him to impress him to fill myself with him Marlon though wasn't even at that stage fascinating man outrageously funny impossibly charming with a voracious intelligence could devour the world but personal development in a romantic relationship he never believed in it he believed in Marlon Brando not the person the persona well I was God smacked head over heels in love with him along with at least two other women at that time I had no idea of course apparently I was not enough for him he required a harem a girl does have to have a little ammo in her arsenal I got a call at about the time when I had discovered some ladies clothing in his in his bedroom and I got a call from a man named hello Miss Marina this is a Colonel Parker ah I'll manage Elvis Presley Elvis would like very much to meet you would you like to meet him and I thought of that clothing and I said yes I would I would like to meet Elvis what was he like well you can find out more in the book but I can tell you this no no no I can tell you this he was no hound dog at the time we were seeing each other Marlon made a very telling observation about my personality he said you know you're the most ridiculously optimistic person I have ever met I have an image of you carrying a stick with a nail at the end like a park attendant but instead of picking up trash you pick up bits of hope and deposit them into your little brown paper bag and it still makes me smile because it's absolutely true hope is an essential part of my DNA I am a prisoner of hope when I was 28 I was offered the part of Anita in West Side Story oh yeah I loved Anita she was real she was Puerto Rican she fought for her rights she had plenty to say about stereotypes and at this point I had never ever been given the opportunity to play the role of a woman who stood up for herself so that Anita's suffering her anger were my suffering and my anger even while we were filming West Side Story all of the sharks our gang were required to slather on very dark makeup the same shade every one of us and I took come back to with my makeup man about this universal shade we were all being painted and I argued I said this and Puerto Ricans come in all varied shades of the human rainbow we are Spanish we are French Dutch Taino Indian and black and he said oh do you have a problem being Puerto Rican and I said yes I do have a problem being your kind of Puerto Rican just wear the damn makeup he said becoming Anita turned into a personal mission for me I had fled down those mean streets and fear of the gangs I had been chased and haunted by that awful word spic and Anita West Side Story would alter my trajectory and help change my life and career forever there were less glorious projects to follow some important most not but playing Anita fundamentally changed my outlook I could actually be a person of strength and character I could choose what was best for me for my career I even discovered I could make a difference which is why I found myself sitting no less than 15 feet from Martin Luther King Jr. as I told you looking beyond myself and engaging my energies in a wider range of interests I began to see myself as part of the bigger picture as someone who was now a public figure I felt a responsibility to help others and to this day I find service an important discipline I finally I'll tell you how I met my husband I have to make it quick because I'm running out of time a friend said you've got some eight Lenny he's a wonderful guy he's a nice Jewish doctor and I said isn't that redundant anyway I finally met him and I I would look to tell you more about how it happened but it was it's my time is almost out so I know it is a wonderful story but I got this and I really need I think I need to pay attention because there's so many other things going on today I can go on okay so okay so I met my husband and I married him and and then there was the Jewish family and first of all you can imagine how both thrilled both families were talk about Romeo and Juliet so the capitalist so the Puerto Rican side of the family is saying I the Jewish side of the family saying oh the Bronx was a flame so I finally said to my mom mommy why don't you meet Lenny he's really a great guy and I think you're gonna like him very much and she I said we need to make peace this is silly and she said you are so right she said okay let's have let's make piss she did well she's still alive anyway Lenny came to my house rang the doorbell my mother opened the door she takes one look on when she says Jew are you and he says a Jew are you the poor man was so flummox he said yes I am anyway we were married 46 years it worked okay it is a long story I'm not 84 for nothing so you know I'm gonna fast-forward to act too which is 60 years old besides it's almost time for my nap it had been a decade since that my last movie at this point 1960 the four seasons with Alan Alda and Carol Burnett that was a 1981 10 years of no movies is a lifetime for an actor so I was delighted when my agent sent me to try out for a role in a movie that was being cast by a famous director I worked so hard on that part I killed myself I wanted that part so badly and it wasn't the money that would be nice but I needed it for my own self-respect so I sweated over that script for weeks every word every nuance making sure that I had a great handle on the material by the time of the audition I actually felt so confident that I knew for certain that they would have to give me that job I bounced into the room and there sat Mr. Major Director surrounded by his minions and I said I can't wait to do this scene for you because I think I really get it and he glanced down at my script and the awkward silence fell over the room oh no no dear no that's that's not the role I want you to read for we called you in for the part of the Mexican whorehouse madam my agent had given me the wrong part to read the whorehouse madam wait a minute wait a minute Oscar Tony Grammy Emmy one Emmy two this being this being had brought me into audition audition try out for a role with two lines of dialogue in Spanish my face is a flame with humiliation I feel stripped of every ounce of dignity my life is unraveling and falling down and pieces around my feet I am diminished suddenly I'm that little six-year-old girl criss-crossing those streets I'm the girl at the cocktail party I'm Rosita what do I say to this classless piece of insensitivity and then it happened I made eye contact with him and mustered up all of my dignity I must have grown four feet mustered up some part of some part of me that had too often willfully forgotten and I said from my lofty perch I'm sorry but I don't do whorehouse madams oh no no darling you don't understand no no no you don't understand and I slowly very deliberately slowly picked up my coat put it across my arm and my shoulder bag and very slowly walked oh that sounds so good doesn't it the grand theatrical exit with my pride now fully restored that's not what happened I was devastated and obviously I had some work to do pick myself up dust myself off and keep moving people say that when you get to a certain age you start to mellow and that is your bones start to calcify you have to slow down I don't know what the hell these people are talking about I'm now in my life in act three I am so engaged in this the third act of my life that every day is a new adventure mellowing what's that I have tried meditating but every time I do I think of all the things I need to do I have been so busy what a year this has been and fortunate I mean look what's happened to me the last year Jane the Virgin an independent movie remember me a movie the Kennedy Center honors performing with pink martini an album produced by Emilio Estefan and distributed by Sony Rita Moreno it's called and coming soon to a Netflix new you one day at a time a series produced by Norman Lear and finally as I approach the prime of my life I find I have the time of my life learning to explore at my leisure every single pleasure and so I happily concede this is all I ask this is all I need listen I don't worry about my bones calcifying I figure if I keep my spirit in shape the bones will take care of themselves it's all part of the Puerto Rican world view and let the music play as long as there's a song to sing and I will and I'm going to sign it for you and that person is dolly no no that's not that's the name of the center I need a person I need a girl a wonderful girl Lee Woodham director are you here Lee Woodham no okay we'll send it to Lee Woodham so I'm going to sign okay in the back see you there you were marvelous can we have another round of applause for them and I want to thank David Bellon's on management for making this possible as well thank him and the books are in the back room is $20 $20 and the proceeds go to the food bank so please head to the back you like your book thank you thank you all this conference is now ended