Ángel Ramos

Puerto Rican-born journalist and founder of Telemundo

• Born: October 3, 1902
• Birthplace: Manati, Puerto Rico
• Died: September 1, 1960
• Place of death: Harrison, New York

Ramos is best known as the founder of Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language television network in the United States. Ramos also developed the telenovela, or Spanish-language soap opera.

Early Life

Ángel Manuel Ramos Torres (AHN-hehl RAH-mohs) was born in Manati on Puerto Rico’s northern coast in 1902. The untimely death of his father forced Ramos to go to work at an early age to help support his family, but he continued his education in his spare time. When the family moved to San Juan to take advantage of better economic opportunities, Ramos landed a job in a print shop and continued his studies at Central High School in Santurce.

Ramos next was hired as a proofreader and sorter for El mundo, San Juan’s largest daily newspaper. With a strong work ethic and motivation to succeed, he moved up through the ranks with amazing speed, working as a reporter, translator, classifieds manager, and then editor. In 1924, at the age of twenty-two, he was appointed publisher. In 1929, Ramos and journalist Jose Coll Vidal seized the opportunity to purchase the paper when the owner retired. Ramos and Vidal expanded the paper’s circulation and became fixtures in the San Juan business community.

In 1944, Ramos became the sole owner of what was until the 1970’s the largest daily circulation newspaper in Puerto Rico. On a business trip to New York City, he met and later married Argentina Schifano, who would be instrumental in leading the Ángel Ramos Foundation after his death.

Life’s Work

Ramos’s media empire began in 1947 with the founding of WEMB Radio El Mundo, a classical music station. Two years later, Ramos consolidated Puerto Rico’s radio industry by purchasing WKAQ and WNEL, the first two stations established on the island. These acquisitions enabled him to dominate the communications market, but not everyone welcomed the change. A strike by the Newspaper and Radio Guild of Puerto Rico was the first of several labor disputes that would challenge Ramos’s leadership. Nonetheless, his newspaper and radio ventures were financially successful, allowing him to amass capital for his next venture, television.

In 1954, the Federal Communications Commission granted Ramos a license to establish the first television station in Puerto Rico. In March, WKAQ Telemundo began regular broadcasts, beating a rival station, WAPA, by only two months. Early programming on Telemundo was generally produced in Mexico and consisted mostly of comedy, variety, and cooking shows, news programs, and films. That August, Telemundo began broadcasting the first telenovela, Anita la ley, which also has the distinction of being the first television series produced in Puerto Rico. Other popular radio shows then began moving to television. Ramos signed Ramon Rivero, a popular actor, comedian, and producer, whose Tremendo Hotel was the most listened-to radio show in Puerto Rico, to produce comedy-variety shows for Telemundo. His well-received programs La taberna India and La farandula corona helped Telemundo capture a large audience. In addition, Ramos established a separate company, Film and Dubbing, to provide Spanish-language versions of popular American shows such as Superman, Wyatt Earp, and Hopalong Cassidy to Telemundo and other stations. By 1960, Ramos’s empire was complete and enjoying rapid growth as televisions became available to more households. At the time of his death, Ramos was in the process of constructing a massive $18 million building in San Juan to house his newspaper, radio, and television operations under one roof.

During the 1950’s, a wave of nationalism swept Puerto Rico. A fervent advocate of statehood for Puerto Rico, Ramos used the editorial columns of his newspaper to challenge the pro-commonwealth stance of Governor Luis Muñoz Marín, even though the two were personal friends. A frequent traveler to the continental United States, Ramos built a second home in Harrison, New York, and began dividing his time between there and Puerto Rico.

Ramos was active in a number of organizations. He served as chairman of the executive committee of the Inter-American Press Society (IAPS), which he helped found. The IAPS worked diligently to safeguard freedom of the press throughout the Americas, often in the face of hostile governments. He also supported a variety of arts and cultural activities in Puerto Rico, including the Casals Festival. In 1950, Ramos received the prestigious Maria Moors Cabot award from Columbia University for his contributions to inter-American friendship and understanding. In 1957, the Institute of Puerto Rico of New York City named Ramos its citizen of the year.

Having risen from humble beginnings to a position of wealth and influence, Ramos wanted to give back to the people of the island he loved. In 1958, Ramos, along with his wife and mother, established the Ángel Ramos Foundation. The foundation is a trust fund controlled by nine directors who initially oversaw the Ramos media empire, with the income shared by employees and a number of educational and charitable organizations in Puerto Rico. Over the years, the foundation has been involved in numerous projects, including the Ángel Ramos Foundation Visitors Center at the Arecibo Observatory and the Puerto Rico Museum of Art.

Ramos died at his home in Harrison, New York, in 1960. His widow remarried but continued to take an active role in the Ángel Ramos Foundation.

Significance

Ramos was a major figure in developing mass media in Puerto Rico, bringing news and entertainment to the citizens of the island. The media empire that Ramos founded continued to prosper after his death. Telemundo has gone through several changes of ownership, and by 2010 was the second-largest Spanish-language network in the world. One of its unique programming innovations, the telenovela, has proved to be immensely popular throughout the Spanish-speaking world. Aside from the economic benefits that Ramos’s business success brought to the island, thousands of Puerto Ricans have been helped by the educational and charitable work of the Ángel Ramos Foundation.

Bibliography

Ayala, Czar J., and Rafael Bernabe. Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007. A detailed and scholarly history of the island during this past century, this history provides context for the economic and political world that Ramos operated in, as well as some information on the rise of Telemundo.

Benavides, Hugo O. Drugs, Thugs, and Divas: Telenovelas and Narco-Dramas in Latin America. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008. A cultural study of origins and popularity of the telenovela and related forms among Latin American television audiences.

Rogers, E., and L. Antola. “Telenovelas: A Latin American Success Story.” Journal of Communication 1985. Details the history of the telenovela genre and Ramos’s role in its development.