The Book of Unknown Americans: Chapter 18: Nelia Zafón Summary & Analysis

Nelia Zafón was born and raised in Puerto Rico. In 1964, at the age of seventeen, she told her mother that she wanted to move to New York City to be a Broadway dancer. Despite her mother’s objections, Nelia felt she was destined to be “the next Rita Moreno,” and she left. After sleeping in Grand Central Terminal for three nights, Nelia met a “chica de compañia”—an escort—named Josie, who offered her a place to stay. Josie was living in Queens, in the apartment of one of her friends who was off in the Vietnam war. Nelia moved in rent-free. After a time, word arrived that Josie’s friend has died, and the girls stayed in the apartment.

Nelia worked in a restaurant and put all her money toward dance classes. She went to every audition she could—at one for Man of La Mancha, she asked a casting director if it was okay for her to audition for a Spanish role even though she was Puertorriquena—he asked her what the difference was. Nelia tried for years and years to land a role, but was unable to. She left the apartment in Queens and found a place of her own. She continued going on auditions, but laments the fact that “Americans can only handle one person from anywhere,” and “the world already had its Rita Moreno.”

After finding out that taxes for new businesses were low in Delaware, Nelia saved money and moved out to Wilmington. There, she started a theater company of her own—a theater she still runs in the present. She delights in giving roles to young actors, and though she never became a “big star,” she still feels proud when she visits home in Puerto Rico. She is dating a younger man—a gringo attorney—and at fifty-three years old she is still excited by the “possibility” that her life holds.