Guillermo José Torres

Don Guillermo José Torres (born 1943) is a famous Puerto Rican television reporter and news anchorman. He was born in the city of Ponce into a working-class family. In his adolescent years, Torres and his family moved to Mercedita district of Ponce, near the Mercedita Airport.

Torres' brother, Carlitos, was a show host at a local radio station in Ponce. Guillermo José tagged along one night and he was impressed by the equipment at the station. Guillermo José was sent by his brother Carlos to throw out some papers containing old news, but Guillermo José took the papers to another room instead, reading them aloud. His brother discovered Guillermo José 's talents by opening the microphones near which Guillermo José was sitting. Guillermo José was not heard by a live audience, his performance at that moment could only be heard by those occupying the studio; however, his brother was so impressed that he encouraged Guillermo José to audition for national radio stations.

Torres then moved to San Juan, where he met Julio Torres Soto, a show host at WKAQ-Radio, who became like a brother to Guillermo José. Torres Soto, ironically, found a job for Guillermo José at WKAQ's rival station, WAPA-Radio, owned by WAPA-TV.

While his popularity across Puerto Rico began to grow, Guillermo José was called to serve the United States military, so he enlisted in the Army and went to the Vietnam War. Later on, he also served with the National Guard. When he returned to Puerto Rico in 1967, he married his girlfriend Mirna. He returned to his radio job; WAPA-TV, however, wanted to find a new television news man. Torres then went to a conference where he met WAPA-TV cameraman Agripino Segarra, who told him that he had fixed an appointment for Torres at WAPA-TV for that afternoon. He was hired as a news reporter for "Noticentro 4" immediately.

Torres then experienced a wave of personal and professional triumphs, beginning with the birth of his daughter Daynna. He worked alongside Tommy Muniz as co-host of "Borinquen Canta", and he was asked by Luis Vigoreaux to do the voice announcements for the sponsors of "Pa rriba Papi, pa rriba!" (this job did not require Torres to appear on camera, what he had to do was announce products as the products were shown to the tele-viewer). Torres also became the anchor man of "Noticentro 4"s weekend program.

Many changes during the 1970s led to the eventual naming of Torres as anchor man of the daily shows also. Soon after, Enrique Cruz, Luz Nereida Velez, Pedro Rosa Nales and Rafael Bracero, among others, would join him. Torres was also director -for a short interval- of the news department at WAPA-TV. As such, he was responsible for narrating the fall of high wire walker Karl Wallenda from a wire placed between two towers of an hotel in San Juan in 1978. The video, featuring the anguished narration of the fall by Torres, traveled the world over.

In the early 1980s, Torres was substituted by Cruz as director of the news department. Nevertheless, he still continues as an anchor man for "Noticentro".

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans