Overnight: Actress Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno, headlining a fundraiser for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, talks about her life and performs at the Marriott Rivercenter on Sept. 21, 2012. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net Rita Moreno, headlining a fundraiser for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, talks about her life and performs at the Marriott Rivercenter on Sept. 21, 2012. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net Photo: MARVIN PFEIFFER, Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News Photo: MARVIN PFEIFFER, Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News Image 1 of / 21 Caption Close Overnight: Actress Rita Moreno 1 / 21 Back to Gallery

One-woman show: EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) award-winning actress and singer Rita Moreno showed off her storytelling skills Saturday night and proved she still has smooth singing pipes while performing at a fundraiser for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. Moreno spoke about her journey from Puerto Rico to New York City at age 5, and the poverty in which she and her single mother lived until she was discovered and presented at age 16 to Louis B. Mayer, who declared her “the Spanish Elizabeth Taylor” and gave her a contract with MGM.

Even after being in films, there was hardship. Moreno was escorted to a Hollywood party where she was sexually assaulted by multiple men. She said she ran out of the house and the Mexican gardeners working outside saw her and drove her home in their pickup. Shortly after, she began her “romantic sinkhole” relationship with Marlon Brando, which lasted five years and took a few more to recover from.

These stories and more will be in Moreno’s memoir, to be published next year.

Breaking into song: Moreno’s voice rang clear when she sang in Spanish about the dreams of Puerto Rico that she had while she traveled to the U.S., then of the dreams she had once she arrived. The song everyone hoped to hear was also about America.

“I guess I should talk about ‘West Side Story,’” she joked, then sang a few bars of “America,” changing one of the lines to “Oscar for me in America!” She shared a story that actress Liz Torres told her: On the night she won the Oscar, the usually noisy barrio went dead-quiet when Moreno’s category was called, and then when she won, the streets were filled with cries of “We did it!” Moreno concluded with a quote that she spoke in Spanish and English, which summed up her experiences so far: “No life is ever hurt by the passion of spirit.”

sarias@express-news.net