Me, by Ricky Martin

This particular autobiography, which appears to have been written with an aim of introducing Ricky Martin’s story to the world, and his bold confession about his homosexuality, is a work with nine chapters and divides almost exactly into two halves. The first half discusses the musical and acting career of Ricky Martin, from his days as a young advertising model, to his days in Menudo, to his soap opera acting, forays into Spanish-language film, and his solo career up to Life and Almas De Silencio. The second half focuses much less on the music and much more on Martin’s sexuality, his exploration of Buddhism and the ways of karma, and his surrogate single fatherhood of two boys. Depending on what aspect of Martin’s life one is most interested in, his activity in the entertainment world or his personal philosophy, one will skim over some parts and focus on others.

As an account, this autobiography straddles a fine line between being personal and confessional and being discreet. Martin is pretty willing to expose himself to ridicule, even as he seeks to justify his own conduct and make his own stance in social issues clear. He is also willing to be honest where praise is due, to fellow musicians and especially the producers he worked with. That said, he is far more discreet about the identity of his lovers, about the name of a Sony executive who screwed him, figuratively speaking, in his initial contract as a solo artist, and about the identity of the birth mother of his sons. Speaking personally, I find his mix of honesty and discretion to be a wise mixture, even if it does make it somewhat frustrating for a gossipy sort of person to guess the name of the radio deejay in LA who would engage in a flirtatious and layered seduction by picking meaningful songs and using loaded words, or the identity of the titular Maria from Ricky Martin’s breakthrough single, or the identity of the married woman who drove Ricky Martin to distraction with her passionate and teasing ways.

It should be obvious from the foregoing why Ricky Martin did not go through with an early interest in Christianity, as he found its ethical demands too demanding. A few consistent qualities shine through in this autobiography. For one, Martin always had a taste for forbidden love–he admits his early bisexuality and his attraction to married women. For another, Ricky Martin had a complicated and even screwed up family background that included the divorce of his grandparents and parents when he was a kid, and a love for attention and affirmation that made him interested in acting, music, dancing, and theater from a young age. He was even an altar boy as a young child. All of this would appear to have made him somewhat vulnerable to exploitation on several levels, which accounts for his particularly harsh view on sex traffickers and child abusers, and record executives who take advantage of musicians. In short, this autobiography gives a very candid account of a very bluntly honest human being with strong virtues, including hard work, and some strong shortcomings as well.