Merced was born and raised in Carolina, Puerto Rico, and came to the United States as an adult in 1982. He started out as a dancer in college and went on to receive an undergraduate degree from the City College of New York Theatre Department, also studying at the Escuela Internacional de Teatro de América Latina y el Caribe in Cuba and at the Alvin Ailey School in New York. Merced is fully bilingual in English and Spanish and performs in both languages. He has trained, performed, and directed throughout the U.S. and abroad in Brazil, Chile, Cuba, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, and Spain. Merced is openlygay and has spoken about how his personal experiences in Puerto Rico and New York have been profoundly marked by his sexuality.
Work
Merced's numerous professional credits include acting in and directing more than 50 theatrical productions including El bolero fue mi ruina, El apagón/The Blackout, Baile Cangrejero, Blanco, El huésped vacío, and Brides. Creative collaborations in both dance and theater include premieres with Eduardo Alegría, Pablo Cabrera, Antonio Martorell, and Arthur Aviles. Merced's commitment to AIDS prevention led him to spearhead Pregones's El abrazo/The Embrace from 1987 to 1993. This AIDS community education project was based on the theories of Augusto Boal and has been carefully analyzed by the Puerto Rican scholar and actress Eva C. Vásquez in her book Pregones Theatre, which includes an interview with Merced. In 2002, Merced created the Asunción Playwrights Project as a way to "showcase the work of Latino playwrights exploring issues of difference and transformation at the limits of queer identity." The project includes a play competition, public readings of up to four plays, and workshop productions of the winning play. Winning playwrights have included Gonzalo Aburto, Ricardo Bracho and Pablo García Gámez, Charles Rice-González, Chuy Sanchez, and Aravind Adyanthaya. Merced's performance in Pregones's play El bolero fue mi ruina has received significant critical reception. In this one-man show, Merced portrays two Puerto Rican characters: Loca, an incarceratedtransvestite bolero singer, and Nene Lindo , her boyfriend, whom she murdered. This Spanish-language play was directed by Rosalba Rolón. It is an adaptation of a short story by the deceased Puerto Rican gay author Manuel Ramos Otero. Merced has also collaborated with the Puerto Rican gay scholar Luis Aponte-Parés in documenting the history of gay Puerto Ricans in New York City and Boston. He has spoken extensively about his gay activism in a 2001 interview with Arnaldo López.
Awards
Merced has received multiple awards from the New York ACE Latino Critics and Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors, including Best Actor and Best Director recognitions. He has also received the Puerto Rican Institute of New York Distinguished Actor/Director Award, the BRIO Bronx Artist Award, and the New York PRIDE Award for his advocacy on behalf of the Puerto Rican Transgender, Bisexual, Lesbian and Gay Community. In 2008, the New York City Spanish-language daily newspaperEl Diario/La Prensa honored him with the "Él" Award as one of the 25 outstanding Latinos of the year.
