Luis Antonio Rivera

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
name = Luis Antonio Rivera
birthname = Luis Antonio Rivera
nickname = Yoyo Boing
does = Whatever he wants
birthdate = birth date and age|1930|04|09
location = Humacao, Puerto Rico
yearsactive = 1940-present

Luis Antonio Rivera a.k.a. "Yoyo Boing" (born April 9, 1930) is a television personality, actor, comedian, and host, who was also one of the pioneers of Puerto Rican television.

Early years

Rivera was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico and his parents moved to Santurce, a section of San Juan, from Humacao when he was only three years old. After receiving his primary education, Yoyo attended the "Escuela Superior Central de Santurce" (Central High School of Santurce). He found a part-time job at a local radio station which opened the doors to a new world for him.

Rivera became a member of the Drama Department of the University of Puerto Rico. As a drama student, he participated in two of Rene Marques' plays. Having a deep baritone voice he also became a radio presenter. His radio station dramatized comedy sketches, and one of the producers suggested dramatizing Archie comics over the radio. Due to the lack of audiovisual references for the characters at the time, there were no clear cut ways of representing the characters in Spanish, nor there were exact translations for their names. Rivera came up with the name of "Yoyo Boing" for representing Jughead; the name "Yoyo" sounded close to "Jughead," and the "Boing" part was a gimmick Rivera developed for the character: a vocalized "boing" that he constantly repeated to fill in silence gaps during each episode. Ever since his Archie stint on Puerto Rican radio, Puerto Ricans rarely refer to Rivera using his real name, and usually refer to him by his by-now "nickname".

Pioneer in Puerto Rican television

1954 was the year that television was born in Puerto Rico. Yoyo Boing, together with Tommy Muñiz, Jose Miguel Agrelot and Paquito Cordero was one of the first comedians in Puerto Rican television. In 1960, he participated in the TV program called "La Críada Malcríada" (The Nasty Maid).

In the 1970's, Yoyo starred in own sit-com called "Mi Hippie Me Encanta" (I'm Crazy about My Hippie) broadcasted by Telemundo. In the 1980's, Yoyo starred in the situation comedies, "Generaciones", (Generations), with Chayanne, "Los Suegros" (The In-Laws) and later in a spin-off of that show called "Los Suegros y Los Nietos" (The In-Laws and the Grandchildren), broadcasted by WAPA-TV. Yoyo was also the General Manager of radio stations WKBM-AM ("AM 81") and WORO-FM {"Radio Oro", or Golden Radio), the radio branches of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan.

Later years

In the 1990's, Yoyo wrote a book titled "A Reír Con Yoyo" (Let's Laugh with Yoyo) and donated all of the proceeds to an AIDS organization. He was also active in a television show called "Desde Mi Pueblo" ("From My Town") for WIPR-TV (San Juan's channel 6), where he would visit every town and city and show all of the interesting aspects of the featured place. His co-hosts on the program were Deborah Carthy-Deu and Tony Croatto.

After José Miguel Agrelot's sudden death in 2004, the remaining co-hosts on Agrelot's long-running radio show "Tu Alegre Despertar", (Your Cheerful Wake-Up), Aurora Previdi and María Falcón, asked the radio audience to select a permanent replacement for Agrelot from a round of temporary co-hosts. Rivera won the assignment; given the wishes of Agrelot's family to achieve some closure, the program changed its name to "Contigo en el tapón" ("Along With You In The Traffic Jam") and changed its format slightly. Rivera remains as a popular co-host, filling Agrelot's considerably large shoes. He also hosts a daily program of Puerto Rican music classics at "Allegro" WIPR-FM.

Puerto Rican writer Giannina Braschi wrote a performance novel using the Yoyo Boing nickname as a title with some punctuation added: "Yo-Yo Boing!". Featuring a tinted photo of Rivera with overimposed X-ray specs for the book's jacket, the comic bilingual novel has very little to do with Rivera himself, but does feature a dream sequence inspired by childhood memories of the roles he played.

Currently

Yoyo is currently retired from television but, at times makes special appearances. He was the protagonist of the locally produced movie for television "Santa Clos es Boricua" (Santa Claus is Puerto Rican), a Puerto Rican version of the Charles Dickens novel Christmas Carol, which was telecast in Puerto Rico and the United States through Televicentro on December 20, 2004.

ee also

*List of famous Puerto Ricans

External links

* [http://www.prpop.org/biografias/PR Rivera's bio entry on the Puerto Rican National Foundation for Popular Culture's website]