Charo: Still Cuchi-Cuchi-ing

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/08/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

That quintessential '70s personality, Charo, who appeared on "The Love Boat" more than any other star, is back in the news. Tagged to her brief appearance in an Off-Broadway '60s send-up called "Pete 'n' Keely," the Spanish-born classically trained guitarist best known for shrieking "cuchi-cuchi" in the seat next to Johnny Carson's tells Time Out New York magazine that she doesn't "give a s---" about the current Latin invasion. Asked whether or not she thinks that Christina Aguilera should get down on her knees and kiss her feet for paving the way, Charo, 50, replies: "Listen, even if you go wild, I like CLASS. Everybody in show business never should forget that there is a line, and that you should have class." Now living in Hawaii, Charo -- born Maria Rosario Pilar Martinez Molina Baeza -- describes herself as "a very serious person, very family-oriented, and we moved to Hawaii solely because of my son." She also had to learn to speak Japanese, she said, because in Honolulu, "My God, there's more Japanese than in Tokyo!" And is her Japanese anything like her still-fractured English? Replies classy Charo, "When I learned Japanese, they say that I sounded like a Chinese with diarrhea!"