■ ‘Foot juggler’ turned heads & broke barriers
BY JULIE HUTCHINSON
Colorful characters appear everywhere on Capitol Hill and all have stories to tell, some of them true.
Few can match the story told by Raquel Setaro, a resident for the past two years of Emerson Gardens, a building with private apartments for older men and women operated by the non-profit Senior Housing Options.
And every amazing detail of Setaro’s story is the truth.
Raised in South America and Europe by her father after her mother’s death when Setaro was a young child, she grew up in a family of circus performers renowned for their skill as acrobats. Performing was the family business, with cousins, aunts and uncles filling all the roles in the show on and off stage.
“The Nelson Family was known, everywhere,” said Setaro, who speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
In the days before television, radio and movies, traveling shows acted as a prime form of entertainment, and the Setaro family’s act ranked as one of the best in the world as they traveled in 41 countries in the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s.
Later, Setaro followed her uncles to the Ringling Brothers circus, where they worked as stilt performers and she performed her own unique act.
Setaro turned heads and broke barriers as a so-called “foot juggler,” a challenging athletic skill in which she juggled heavy logs with her feet and legs, balancing them on her toes.
That alone would be enough of a story, but Setaro managed to do it all with an artful grace that brought agents knocking on her door – and made her a regular in the dawn of American television on programs hosted by such TV pioneers as Ed Sullivan, Perry Como, Polly Bergen, Kate Smith, Dennis James and Ted Mack.
Setaro also performed as a regular at nightclubs along the Atlantic seaboard and in Las Vegas and Florida, popular not only for her foot juggling, but also for her young, glamorous looks.
VARIETY CALLED RAQUEL SETARO ‘The girl with the educated legs.’
The only memento of her life as a performer displayed in her home is a framed review of her act published in the entertainment newspaper Variety, describing her as “the girl with the educated legs,” and listing her as a star performer whose tight costume showed off great curves.
Today, Setaro is a great-grandmother who treasures her quiet life and daily walks to Cheesman Park. But her astonishing trim figure, exotic accent and enduring beauty bear witness to the life she lived as an athlete and a performer.
Setaro looks decades younger than most women her age, and she walks with easy grace and balance and speaks fondly of all the phases of her life. She dresses with an innate sense of style and flair and keeps her snug apartment beautifully appointed.
A pet finch keeps her company.
“They were great times,” Setaro said of her life as a performer, but it’s clear that she derived equal satisfaction from raising two children as a working mother after she gave up the act.
Setaro moved to Colorado to be close to her children and spent 19 years working as a floral designer before she retired.
PHOTO BY JULIE HUTCHINSON
SHE LOOKS DECADES YOUNGER than most women her age, & she walks with ‘easy grace and balance.’
These days, she keeps busy cooking and dancing and is particularly proud of her 1980 Toyota Corolla, which she bought new.
She laughs as she tells how fellow drivers... men... often pull up next to her at traffic lights and give her a “thumbs up,” she says.
Setaro thinks it’s because they like her car.
A colorful Capitol Hill character if there ever was one, she is still turning heads.
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