Brush With Fame

Today a little aside.

Today is one of the most significant days in the history of Puerto Ricans and Hispanics in our nation's history. The first Latina was selected to sit on our U.S. Supreme Court. Good for her. Being a Californian, I'd have preferred a Mexican-American, but you can't have everything. Today Sonia Sotomayor is our most well known Puerto Rican. Quick, who is the second most famous woman from Puerto Rico?

Today, as I was walking out of my neighborhood Whole Foods market, I was fumbling with my things and a little distracted. I stepped outside and from the corner of my eye I saw someone walking toward the entrance. I paused and froze in place without looking up. Again, out of the corner of my eye I saw the other person pause. A connection was occurring.

I looked up and simultaneously waved my hand and said "Go ahead." At the same time this small, cotton-top-haired, about eighty-year-old woman said, "Go right ahead" to me. Something weird happened. She was wearing simple clothes, just pants and a sweater. She had really huge, white-framed, dark sunglasses which covered about half her face. This person was never really part of my thoughts, I'd never known much about her, she was from an earlier generation. She was eighty, and fifty percent of her face was covered by those glasses. But in just a half second, somewhere deep in my brain, before I even realized what was happening, I said, "Rita?". She casually responded, "Yes." I elaborated, "Rita Moreno?" Again, she said, "Yes?"

Sometimes I can't remember my own age or zip code, but somehow I instantly looked at this person and identified her correctly and spoke to her long before I actually had a conscious thought. Spooky.

Of course it got a bit comical. I held out my hand to shake hers and she responded in kind and I said, "I loved you in Guys and Dolls." (Some of you are snickering at me right now.) She said "Guys and Dolls? I think you mean West Side Story." To which I mumbled 'oh yeah.'

She then walked into the store.

I regret that I didn't make the connection to Judge Sotomayor until a few minutes later. I really think she would have appreciated that comment more then 'Guys and Dolls.' I almost went back to congratulate her on her native Puerto Rico's important day, but thought better of it.

I got a kick out of bumping into a star, the weird way this star who I've never really followed or known popped into my head so immediately, and that it was on the very day on which our country built on this particular Puerto Rican's groundbreaking legacy. Rita Moreno deserves to be very proud. And Rita, if you're reading this, I'm proud of your trailblazing ways.