"I'm so proud of my aunt," Alondra Ramirez said above the party scene at the restaurant, the first place to hire Moreno to sing.
"She worked up from the bottom," Ramirez said.
Her aunt grew up poor in Santa Rosa and endured hardships that included her parents' divorce and battering by a former partner.
Moreno, who studied at Santa Rosa High School and Empire College, performs locally with the 1970s cover band Rumors. Her primary job is caring for her 6-year-old son, Diego, who is autistic.
Friends and relatives urged Moreno to audition for "Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento," or, "I Have a Lot of Talent." She says she could not have gone to the finals in Burbank without the financial support and encouragement of La Fondita owner Elena Reyes and Antonia Alvarado, who runs Santa Rosa's Novedades Alvarado formalwear shop.
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