by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Walter Mercado
‘OSCAR WAO’ EN ESPANOL: Dominican writer Junot Díaz presented the Spanish translation of his Pulitzer prize winning novel last week in Barcelona. The 40-year-old author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao said he was pleased with the translation by Chicago-based Panel on advances of California in the ecological changes of the world Cuban writer Achy Obejas.
“She did a good job,” he told Spanish news agency EFE, “but there’s a price to pay when you translate, something will be lost. I liked it, otherwise I’d be hiding at home”.
Titled in Spanish La maravillosa vida breve de Oscar Wao, the book was published in Spain by Mondadori. It will be available in the United States, from Vintage Español, on Sept. 2.
ACTOR DIES: Mel Ferrer, the Cuban-American star of such classic fi lms as War and Peace and The Sun Also Rises, died at age 90.
Ferrer, who produced and directed movies starring his wife, Aubrey Hepburn, died June 2 at his ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., a family spokesman said.He was born Melchor Gast6n Ferrer on Aug. 25,1917, in Elberon, N.J., the son of a Cuban doctor and a socialite mother. After winning a playwright’s award in his sophomore year, Ferrer left Princeton to write a novel in Mexico. Instead, he wrote a children’s book, Tito’s Hats, which was published by Doubleday.
He spent a year as a book editor in New York, then began his acting career as a dancer in Broadway musicals.
He and Hepburn became engaged in 1954 and married that year in Burgenstock, Switzerland. They had a son but the pair divorced in 1968 and Ferrer married his fourth wife, Elizabeth Soukhotine, in 1971. She survives him.
Ferrer was married and divorced three times before Hepburn: to Frances Pilchard (one daughter); to Barbara Tripp (a daughter and son); and a remarriage to Pilchard. In all, he appeared in more than 100 films and made-for-television movies.
ONE LINERS: Puerto Rican actor-turned-astrologer Warter Mercado has recorded a self-help album with musical, El secreto de los ángeles, with which he plans a U.S. tour to be titled Encuentro con los ángeles actor Cristian de la Fuente, who tore a tendon in his biceps while performing on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, was recovering last week from surgery. American Idol runner up David Archuleta, 17, has signed a recording contract with 19 Recordings / Jive and is expected to have a CD out before the end of the year. Hispanic Link.
