| Rita Morena |  Rita Moreno (born December 11, 1931) is a singer, dancer and actress of Puerto Rican descent. Throughout her career, Moreno has broken new ground for Latinos in the field of entertainment. She is the first and only Hispanic female and one of nine performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. In 1961, Moreno landed the role of Anita in the Broadway musical, West Side Story. Moreno continues to be active on stage and screen. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Anita, the tough, but vulnerable girlfriend to the Sharks' gang leader. Moreno won the Academy Award for her performance in West Side Story; the Tony Award for The Ritz; the Grammy Award for her recording of The Electric Company; and two Emmy Awards for her television performances in The Rockford Files and The Muppet Show. She played the no-nonsense nun on the cable television series Oz from 1997 to 2003. For many years she has been a featured part of ensemble performing at the renowned Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Moreno has been married to Leonard Gordon since 1965. The couple has a daughter and live in Berkeley, California. She sees her grandchildren everyday. | | wikipedia.org/Rita_Moreno
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF . . . Rita Moreno From theater to charity to grandkids, Moreno packs it in
by Carolyne Zinko, Chronicle Staff Writer, Sunday, May 2, 2004 | | | Ground Breaking Latina super star |  | Moreno is perhaps best known for her work in West Side Story (1961), a modern musical inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Moreno asked why this story still resonates so powerfully and she says that no one had ever seen a musical like "West Side Story,'' where costumes didn't have sequins and spangles and the actors weren't "beautiful people.'' It was about gangs -- people fearing each other. "When was the last time you saw a musical about people at war with each other?'' she asks. "When was the last time you saw a story being driven forward by dances and songs?" |
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| | | Queen Califa |  | | Mythical Queen of California | |  | "Now I wish you to know about the strangest thing ever found anywhere in written texts or in human memory. […] I tell you that on the right-hand side of the Indies there was an island called California, which was very close to the region of the Earthly Paradise. This island was inhabited by black women, and there were no males among them at all, for their life style was similar to that of the Amazons. The island was made up of the wildest cliffs and the sharpest precipices found anywhere in the world. These women had energetic bodies and courageous, ardent hearts, and they were very strong. Their armor was made entirely out of gold—which was the only metal found on the island—as were the trappings on the fierce beasts that they rode once they were tamed.
This excerpt about the namesake of the State of California, a fascinating yet forbidding dark Amazon Queen was part of one of the first tales of chivalry to receive wide circulation in Spain. In 1510 the Spanish Editor Ordónez de Montalvo added his own sequel, starring a gallant warrior, to his translation of the popular Amadís de Guala by Portuguese writer, Vvasco de Lobeira. It inspired many a conquistador and led Cortez himself to name California after a dark Goddess | | more | |
| | Isabel Allende |  Isabel Allende Llona, (born in Lima, Peru; 2 August 1942), is a Chilean-American novelist. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is the most successful women novelist of Latin America with works translated into 30 languages. Reportedly, "the CIA-backed military coup in [September of] 1973 (that brought Augusto Pinochet to power) changed everything" for Allende because "her name meant she was caught up in finding safe passage for those on the wanted lists" (helping until her mother and stepfather, a diplomat in Argentina, narrowly escaped assassination). When she herself was added to the list and began receiving death threats, she fled to Venezuela, where she stayed for 13 years (1974-1985) as a columnist for “El Nacional”. Her first and most famous novel “The House of the Spirits” instant best seller when published in Barcelona in 1982. Stories of Eva Luna was written shortly after moving to California in 1989 where surrounded by close family. In 1991 she launched the first of her California novels. She became a citizen of the United States in 2003 and lives in Marin County California with an office in Sausalito and most of her family living nearby. In 2006, she was one of the eight flag bearers at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The Los Angeles Times has called Isabel Allende "a genius," and she has received many international awards, including the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, granted to writers "who have contributed to the beauty of the world." She has been recently called a "literary legend" by Latino Leaders magazine, which named Allende as third most influential Latino leader in the world in their 2007 article. | | | | | Reimagining Our Past with
an Eye to the future | In 1997 Allende marked the end  to a period of mourning for her daughter's death with the publication of the high-spirited Afrodita: cuentos, recetas y otros afrodisíacos (Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses, 1998), a collection of recipes for dishes with aphrodisiac powers, the culinary entries accompanied by historical and literary musings on the twin high Carnaval pleasures of Epicureanism and eroticism. The writing of this book was a healing experience for the author, as Allende explains in the book’s introduction: “…I knew that I was reaching the end of a long tunnel of mourning… with a tremendous desire to eat and cuddle once again….” |  After the French defeat, De la Vega returns to California via New Orleans, where he decides to continue the fight against the tyranny of his enemy from Spain, pompous Don Rafael Moncada and the landowning nobility—the caballeros—over the people of California. To avoid being recognized, De la Vega assumes the secret identity of Zorro. | Historical novel where the young, vivacious Eliza Sommers follows her lover to California during the Gold Rush of 1849. She enters a rough-and-tumble world whose newly arrived inhabitants are driven mad by gold fever. With the help of her good friend and savior, the Chinese doctor Tao Chi'en, Eliza moves freely in a society of single men and prostitutes, creating an unconventional but independent life for herself. The young Chilean's search for her elusive lover gradually turns into another kind of journey, and by the time she finally hears news of him, Eliza must decide who her true love really is. |
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Carnaval, the planet's longest running celebration of new beginnings marks a new one for 2009 here in the Bay Area. After seven years of Patricia Aguayo [1995-2001] running Carnaval San Francisco and seven years of Roberto Hernandez [2002-2008] we have the most accomplished event producer at the helm for 2009. 
![[RitaMoreno03.jpg]](http://www.carnaval.com/sf/RitaMoreno03.jpg)
