Wednesday night I was sitting at home minding my own business when I received a phone call from David Nash. David is a super Charo fan and regularly talks with Charo and then passes information along to me. David informs me that he just got of the phone with Charo and that she is going to call me sometime on Thursday. I had just recently changed my off days at work so now I work on Thursdays so I told him that hopefully she will call after 5pm. He told me he was going to send her a fax so it should not be a problem. David also pointed out that some of the photos were missing from the Charo site since it moved to the new server so I was able to fix it before Charo called.
So Thursday I get home from work and the phone rings. I squeal with excitement and try and locate the handset and rush to answer the phone. “Hello?” Turns out it was a survey company from EZ Lube where I got my oil changed last week. Needless to say I was disappointed. I am about to eat dinner when the phone rings again. I look at the clock and its 5:45, still within the window. I pick up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hello, can I speak with Josh Catalfo?” says a heavily accented voice.
“This is Josh”
“Hola Josh this is Charo!”
I was floored. I could not believe that I was speaking on the phone with Charo. We spent a good 20 minutes on the phone as she told me how much she appreciates the hard work I have done doing the fan site for her and that I know her better than she does. She then told me the story of her birth (she wants me to make sure I have the correct information on the site) and all about her new GEICO commercial that will be premiering this week or next.
The whole thing was surreal and I asked her a few questions including, “Do you have a picture of Cuchillo, the dog that inspired “Cuchi Cuchi?” She told me the story of when she was a child living in a Moorish castle in poor conditions and how her grandma took in this poor dog with fleas and lice and missing teeth. A car had also hit it and when it shook, it made a funny wiggle, which Charo imitated. She told be that back in 1952, 1953, and 1954 that no one had a camera back then (“It was not like America, Josh” she told me) so there are no pictures. “Besides”, she told me, “if anyone saw that dog they would say that is the ugliest dog ever.”
It was a great conversation where she told me that I was now her friend and that she feels like we have known each other forever. I mentioned to her that I work for Disneyland and she said what a magical place it was where you can have some chocolate ice cream and a churro. I told her those two things are my favorites too and she replied that we have so much in common.
I am still reeling a bit from the whole experience. She said she would call me again soon and tell me the details of her next big project that she wants to have the first announcement on Charo.info. Stay tuned!