Manolo Reyes
Encyclopedia
Manolo de Jesus Reyes Xiques, J.D.
(July 29, 1924 – January 3, 2008) was a Cuba
n-American
Spanish-language television news broadcaster
in Miami, Florida
. Reyes became a television news pioneer in the 1960s when he began one of South Florida's first Spanish-language newscasters. His first 15 minute news show, News En Español, debuted on WTVJ
on August 28, 1960 at 6:45 AM, at a time when Spanish-language broadcasts were rare in the Miami metropolitan area. His original broadcasts were aimed at making news accessible to the growing Spanish-speaking, Miami-based Cuban exile community
.
, where he worked as a child actor
, radio
performer and singer. He obtained a law degree
from the University of Havana
before moving to the United States
.
in the Cuban Revolution
.
Despite his limited English
, Reyes pitched his idea to the founder of WTVJ
, Mitchell Wolfson, and Miami television pioneer Ralph Renick
. Renick and Woflson agreed to let Reyes tape a test show. The station had to have the test show critiqued by a University of Miami
linguistics
professor because no one at WTVJ (Channel 4) spoke Spanish at the time.
Wolfson agreed to broadcast Reyes' Spanish-language news segments. Reyes' first 15-minute news show, News En Español, debuted on August 28, 1960. News En Español aired on weekdays at 6:45 a.m., just before the Skipper Chuck Show, and at 1 a.m., just before the WTVJ's sign-off for the night. Spanish-speaking viewers, especially the Cuban exile community, were delighted by Reyes's news show, despite the difficult viewing times. Conversely, non-Spanish speakers were equally outraged by the broadcast of an all-Spanish show.
Reyes' newscast was so popular that it was gradually expanded. His initial assignments for the station usually involved coverage of Miami's arriving Cuban refugees. Reyes remained at WTVJ for 19 years and was promoted to the station's Latin America
news editor. Reyes also became a regular contributor on the WTVJ's well-known English-language show The Ralph Renick Report. He also began contributing nationally on Walter Cronkite
's CBS Evening News
.
He left television after 19 years. He obtained a second law degree from the University of Miami before becoming an executive director at Mercy Hospital
in Miami. He remained at that position for nearly 20 years until his retirement in 2005.
Reyes was honored for his pioneering work in television by the Miami Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
in 1991.
Jose Martí
, the Cuban Sertoma Club
, and the Spanish Post of Veterans of Foreign Wars
. He also served on the board of directors several other organizations, including the Hialeah
-Miami Springs
Chamber of Commerce
, Easter Seals, the United Way and Barry University
.
on January 3, 2008 at the age of 83. His funeral was held at Saints Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church
in Miami. Reyes was survived by his wife Graciela, three children, Manolo Jr., Charlie and Grace, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Reyes was buried in Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Miami, Florida
, on January 4, 2008.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
(July 29, 1924 – January 3, 2008) was a Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Spanish-language television news broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. Reyes became a television news pioneer in the 1960s when he began one of South Florida's first Spanish-language newscasters. His first 15 minute news show, News En Español, debuted on WTVJ
WTVJ
WTVJ, virtual channel 6 , is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC television network, located in Broward County. WTVJ shares its TV studio and office facility with co-owned Telemundo station WSCV in Miramar, Florida, and its transmitter is located near Sun Life Stadium in north...
on August 28, 1960 at 6:45 AM, at a time when Spanish-language broadcasts were rare in the Miami metropolitan area. His original broadcasts were aimed at making news accessible to the growing Spanish-speaking, Miami-based Cuban exile community
Cuban exile
The term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
.
Early life
Reyes was born in CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, where he worked as a child actor
Child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting in motion pictures or television, but also to an adult who began his or her acting career as a child; to avoid confusion, the latter is also called a former child actor...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
performer and singer. He obtained a law degree
Law degree
A Law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers; but while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not themselves confer a license...
from the University of Havana
University of Havana
The University of Havana or UH is a university located in the Vedado district of Havana, Cuba. Founded in 1728, the University of Havana is the oldest university in Cuba, and one of the first to be founded in the Americas...
before moving to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Spanish-language news
Manolo Reyes, who resided in the Miami area in the 1950s and 1960s, realized that there were no television news shows aimed at the growing Cuban exile community, especially after the Communist takeover of Cuba by Fidel CastroFidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
in the Cuban Revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
.
Despite his limited English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Reyes pitched his idea to the founder of WTVJ
WTVJ
WTVJ, virtual channel 6 , is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC television network, located in Broward County. WTVJ shares its TV studio and office facility with co-owned Telemundo station WSCV in Miramar, Florida, and its transmitter is located near Sun Life Stadium in north...
, Mitchell Wolfson, and Miami television pioneer Ralph Renick
Ralph Renick
Ralph Apperson Renick was a pioneer television news journalist for Miami's WTVJ, channel 4 , Florida's first television station...
. Renick and Woflson agreed to let Reyes tape a test show. The station had to have the test show critiqued by a University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
professor because no one at WTVJ (Channel 4) spoke Spanish at the time.
Wolfson agreed to broadcast Reyes' Spanish-language news segments. Reyes' first 15-minute news show, News En Español, debuted on August 28, 1960. News En Español aired on weekdays at 6:45 a.m., just before the Skipper Chuck Show, and at 1 a.m., just before the WTVJ's sign-off for the night. Spanish-speaking viewers, especially the Cuban exile community, were delighted by Reyes's news show, despite the difficult viewing times. Conversely, non-Spanish speakers were equally outraged by the broadcast of an all-Spanish show.
Reyes' newscast was so popular that it was gradually expanded. His initial assignments for the station usually involved coverage of Miami's arriving Cuban refugees. Reyes remained at WTVJ for 19 years and was promoted to the station's Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
news editor. Reyes also became a regular contributor on the WTVJ's well-known English-language show The Ralph Renick Report. He also began contributing nationally on Walter Cronkite
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...
's CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News
CBS Evening News is the flagship nightly television news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast this program since 1948, and has used the CBS Evening News title since 1963....
.
He left television after 19 years. He obtained a second law degree from the University of Miami before becoming an executive director at Mercy Hospital
Mercy Hospital (Miami)
Mercy Hospital is a 473-bed acute care U.S. hospital located in Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida. It is Miami-Dade County’s only Catholic hospital and is a recipient of the MAGNET award for nursing excellence....
in Miami. He remained at that position for nearly 20 years until his retirement in 2005.
Reyes was honored for his pioneering work in television by the Miami Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences or NATAS was created in 1955 to advance the arts and sciences of television. Headquartered in New York, NATAS's membership is national and the organization has local chapters around the country....
in 1991.
Community work
Reyes founded a number of Miami community organizations including the YMCAYMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
Jose Martí
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
, the Cuban Sertoma Club
Sertoma International
Sertoma Inc., formerly known as Sertoma International, is an organization of service clubs founded on April 11, 1912. The name is an acronym for Service to Mankind. Sertoma has clubs all over the United States and in Canada...
, and the Spanish Post of Veterans of Foreign Wars
Veterans of Foreign Wars
The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is a congressionally chartered war veterans organization in the United States. Headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, VFW currently has 1.5 million members belonging to 7,644 posts, and is the largest American organization of combat...
. He also served on the board of directors several other organizations, including the Hialeah
Hialeah, Florida
Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 226,419. As of 2009, the population estimate by the U. S...
-Miami Springs
Miami Springs, Florida
Miami Springs is a Miami suburban city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city was founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss, "The Father of Naval Aviation", and James Bright, during the famous "land boom" of the 1920s and was originally named Country Club Estates...
Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
, Easter Seals, the United Way and Barry University
Barry University
Barry University is a private, Catholic university, which was founded in 1940 in Miami Shores, Florida, a suburb north of Downtown Miami. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami....
.
Awards
Reyes was the recipient of several awards for his work in the media and nonprofit arenas, as well as the greater Miami-Dade community including...- An Emmy AwardEmmy AwardAn Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for broadcast journalismBroadcast journalismBroadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are "broadcast", that is, published by electrical methods, instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. Broadcast methods include radio , television , and, especially recently, the Internet generally...
. - The Key to the City of Hialeah
- The Key to the City of Key WestKey WestKey West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
- The Archbishop Hurley Award
- Pentagon Award for Human Goals
Death
Manolo Reyes died of complications from Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
on January 3, 2008 at the age of 83. His funeral was held at Saints Peter & Paul Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
in Miami. Reyes was survived by his wife Graciela, three children, Manolo Jr., Charlie and Grace, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Reyes was buried in Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
, on January 4, 2008.