Álvarez Guedes
Guillermo Álvarez Guedes (8 June 1927 – 30 July 2013) was a Cuban comedian, actor, writer & businessman.[1][2][3][4] He was better known across Latin America as Álvarez Guedes.
Guedes was born in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas. He launched his career in the 1940s on Cuban radio, and later on television. In 1960, he was forced into exile, first to New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico, before settling in Miami. He and his brother Rafael, together with composer/band leader Ernesto Duarte Brito, founded Gema Records, the first company to help launch the international careers of "El Gran Combo", a Puerto Rican Salsa music group. A friendship united Guedes with the orchestra's director, Rafael Ithier. The company also launched the careers of Elena Burke and Rolando Laserie, among others.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Álvarez Guedes dedicated himself to recording comedy albums and writing comedy books. He routinely expressed his desire for Cuba to return to the way it used to be; such was the occasion when he made one of his famous jokes, involving a TWA flight he supposedly took between Havana and Miami. That route was actually flown by TWA, Pan Am and Cubana before Fidel Castro's rise to power.
Guedes wrote over 20 books, and his albums, alongside television presentations and stand-up comedy appearances have made him one of the most well-liked entertainers, both among the Hispanic public and fellow entertainers alike.[5]
Guedes died on 30 July 2013, at his home in the Kendall neighborhood of Miami.[6]
Discography
- Álvarez Guedes
- Álvarez Guedes 2
- Álvarez Guedes 3
- ..and so on.
References
- ↑ Identity, Memory, and Diaspora Page 136 Jorge J. E. Gracia, Lynette M. F. Bosch, Isabel Álvarez-Borland - 2008 -"Even more chaotic if you add the nonliterary influences, which may have left a deeper mark: American song lyricists from the 1930s and 1940s; Cuban and American comedians like Leopoldo Fernández, Guillermo Álvarez Guedes, Henny Youngman ..."
- ↑ Music And Revolution: Cultural Change in Socialist Cuba 2006 Page 40 Robin Moore "... established in 1957 and owned by Ernesto Duarte Brito and Guillermo Álvarez Guedes"
- ↑ Paquito D'Rivera, Ilan Stavans My Sax Life: A Memoir - Page 55 2005 "A similar scene was taking place at the home of the popular actor-comedian Guillermo Álvarez-Guedes when his friend Alfredo Cataneo—the famous comical character and member of the Trío Taicuba—went out to the balcony and, after taking a ..."
- ↑ Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook Ted Henken - 2008 -"In fact, Cuban-American comic, businessman, and anti-Castro activist Guillermo Álvarez Guedes has an entire skit famously dedicated to the many nuances of ¡ñó!."
- ↑ Corsa, Lissette (7 June 2001). "Cuba's Jackie Mason". Miami New Times. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
- ↑ http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2013/07/30/1533339/fallecio-alvarez-guedes-en-miami.html