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Manela Bustamante (Manuela Bustamante; November 14, 1924 in Havana, Cuba – February 12, 2005 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) was a famous Cuban actress, who performed the character Cachucha in perhaps the most remembered Cuban comedy show of its era “Cachucha y Ramón” (1955-65 approx.). She later became a household name in Puerto Rico during the 70s as she became part of the cast in the show Los García. [1]
Manela was the only daughter of Spanish immigrants; her father was the owner of a guesthouse in Havana but lost the business during the depression of the 1930s. After finishing her basic education at age 20, Manela embarked to pursue her desire to make a living in the entertainment world. She toured around Latin America in a theatre company and worked for the Cuban radio station CMQ as a singer and story narrator.
Manela became a famous TV star in the mid-1950s with her character of “Cachucha” in the TV comedy “Cachucha y Ramon” together with co-star, Idalberto Delgado as “Ramon”. The show (mostly live), originally produced by Francisco Vergara and sponsored by Uncle Ben's rice, grew in popularity from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s. In a trip to N.Y. Manela appeared in a Garry Moore show, as his show was also sponsored by Uncle Ben's rice.
After Cuba fell to communism in 1959, Francisco Vergara left Cuba to sell the idea of the show to other Latin American countries. It is known that a copy of the show, its same title, and characters was done in Venezuela at the same time the original show was still running in Cuba.
The show ended when Manela Bustamante went empty handed into exile with her family. After leaving Cuba in 1971, she lived in Spain for three years, and moved to Puerto Rico in 1974. In Spain, Manela put her artistic career on hang; it was her husband that became able to provide the main monetary income for the family as an architect. In Puerto Rico, Manela Bustamante became “Doña Tony” in the popular TV show “Los Garcia”, produced by Tommy Muñiz. She also did several commercials including a small role in the 1988 soap opera “Ave de Paso.”
Her last TV appearance was in 2004 as a special guest in a one-hour tribute to “Los Garcia”. Manela Bustamante died a year later in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on February 12, 2005, and is survived by her daughter and two grandsons.
Lucas Tomás Muñiz Ramírez, better known as Tommy Muñiz, was a Puerto Rican comedy and drama actor, media producer, businessman and network owner. He is considered to be one of the pioneering figures of the television business in Puerto Rico. Although Muñíz was born in Ponce, he was raised in the capital city of San Juan where he studied. Muñíz developed an interest in the entertainment business thanks to his father Tomas and to his uncle and godfather Félix Muñíz, who also produced radio programs. Muñiz was a successful radio producer in Puerto Rico during the mid- to late 1940s. Five of his radio programs -comedies for which he was often the scriptwriter, sometimes with the assistance of Sylvia Rexach- would consistently earn a strong following, as judged by the attendance to personal presentations of the artists featured in them. He was responsible for introducing more than a dozen new artists to the media. He bought Radio Luz 1600 (WLUZ-AM) a radio station in Bayamón, Puerto Rico During the first years of commercial television in Puerto Rico, and after a brief period during which revenues from his radio productions trickled down, Muñiz opted to start producing television programs as well. During the 1940s, when radios where ubiquitous in Puerto Rican households, Muñiz's radio scripts then became increasingly successful, beginning with El colegio de la alegría, in which he performed along José Miguel Agrelot. This was followed by La familia Pérez, Adelita, la secretaria, Gloria y Miguel and ¡Qué sirvienta!, all of which featured him in some function. He was producer or executive producer for dozens of television programs and specials between 1955 and 1995. At one time in the early 1960s, five programs produced by Muñiz were in the top five television rankings in local audience surveys. One of the programs even spawned a 1967 film, "La Criada Malcriada", starring Velda González, Shorty Castro and Muñiz, among others. He is credited for producing most of José Miguel Agrelot's television programs during his career. He is also credited with discovering and promoting other television artists as well, particularly Otilio Warrington. In the 1970s he was the owner of WRIK-TV Channel 7 in Ponce.
Giuseppe Michael Agrelot Vilá, also known as José Miguel Agrelot or Don Cholito, was a Puerto Rican comedian, radio and television host.
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Lola Rodríguez de Tió,, was the first Puerto Rican-born woman poet to establish herself a reputation as a great poet throughout all of Latin America. A believer in women's rights, she was also committed to the abolition of slavery and the independence of Puerto Rico.
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Ramón Emilio "Raymond" Arrieta Vázquez, is a Puerto Rican actor, comedian, host and philanthropist. Starting his career as a comedian in various local shows, Arrieta gained popularity in the 1990s when he hosted a string of successful comedy shows where he showcased his various characters and personifications. Since 2007, Arrieta has been hosting the mid-day variety show Día a Día, along with Dagmar. Arrieta is also a radio show host and a theater actor.
The guaracha is a genre of music that originated in Cuba, of rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics. The word had been used in this sense at least since the late 18th and early 19th century. Guarachas were played and sung in musical theatres and in working-class dance salons. They became an integral part of bufo comic theatre in the mid-19th century. During the later 19th and the early 20th century the guaracha was a favourite musical form in the brothels of Havana. The guaracha survives today in the repertoires of some trova musicians, conjuntos and Cuban-style big bands.
Los García was a Puerto Rican television sitcom from the 1970s. First shown weekly on WAPA-TV, and later on TeleIsla, it depicted the life of a local fictional family, as well as that of some of their neighbors. The series' characters were based real individuals. It was the best-rated television program in Puerto Rico in three out of the six years of the program's run. It is still aired in re-runs by the local Puerto Rico community channel for DirecTV.
General Juan Rius Rivera, was the soldier and revolutionary leader from Puerto Rico to have reached the highest military rank in the Cuban Liberation Army and to hold Cuban ministerial offices after independence. In his later years he also became a successful businessperson in Honduras.
At the time of first contact between Europe and the Americas, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean included the Taíno of the northern Lesser Antilles, most of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles, the Ciguayo and Macorix of parts of Hispaniola, and the Guanahatabey of western Cuba. The Kalinago have maintained an identity as an indigenous people, with a reserved territory in Dominica.
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Aurora de Albornoz was born in Luarca, Asturias, Spain. As a youth, she lived in Luarca with her parents, sister, and extended family, throughout the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939— an event that inspired her later poetry.
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Alberto González was a humorist and iconoclast; known for his biting political satire and popular comedy shows, he was a prolific writer, journalist, and scriptwriter during a career that spanned sixty years in show business. Alberto González was born in Guanabacoa, Cuba, in 1928.