Guillermo Álvarez Guedes

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Comedian, actor, writer, singer, producer and music entrepreneur.

Heir to Cuban Teatro Bufo, Guillermo Álvarez Guedes is a blend of the humor that emanated from the characters of the negrito and the gallego, who made the stage of the Alhambra famous, and the creativity and originality that the actors displayed in the Teatro Shangai.

He was born in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas province. He was the second-to-last of seven children of Conrado Simeón Álvarez Hernández and Rosa Guedes Fernández (Eloísa, Félix Ramón, Roberto, Conrado, Hilda, Guillermo and Rafael); from an early age he knew that his world was that of entertainment.

His first public performance was at age six in a contest held at the cinema in Unión de Reyes. Álvarez Guedes won 5 pesos telling jokes and, although he could not enjoy the trip to the capital that was also part of the prize, this small performance not only gave him the certainty that he could draw smiles, but also marked his profession forever. Although the family did not disapprove of his career as a comedian, only his sister Eloísa Álvarez Guedes encouraged him in his endeavor.

From that moment on, he did not leave the stage: whenever an orchestra appeared in town or there was a festival, Guillermo would perform either singing or dancing. At age 13 he left home to work in the Arango circus-theater. His brother Roberto convinced him to return home, although first he traveled around the Island with him as a lamp seller.

At age 19 he went to New York, a project he had since he was 14 years old. In the American city he did all kinds of work: he washed dishes, cut grass in a cemetery and even worked as a bellboy in a hotel.

In 1949 he was deported to Cuba and began working at Unión Radio. His first audition in the medium was conducted by Violeta Casals who, after examining him, suggested that he abandon his interest in acting.

The opportunity was given to him by Francisco Muñiz when he introduced him to Marcos Behmaras who wrote a crime chronicle program for which he was chosen as the protagonist. That same year he joined the cast of El abogado de los pobres, a Radio Progreso program also written by Behmaras.

From that moment on he was characterized by the versatility of his work. Cubans saw him act in adventures, comedies, musicals, comedic sketches; he did not limit himself to radio and theater, but also captivated audiences for television.

At age 22, CMQ's producer and programming director Gaspar Pumarejo hired him to work on Carnaval Trinidad y Hermanos, which aired Monday through Saturday and where Leopoldo Fernández, Germán Pinelli and Aníbal de Mar also worked. Here he played a rural farmer and poet whose charm lay in his enormous naturalness for speaking and the everyday situations in which he found himself.

In 1951 he acted in the popular CMQ-TV program Cabaret Regalías, directed by Carlos Suárez and with a script by Francisco Vergara; due to problems with sponsors the program was renamed Casino de la alegría. Álvarez Guedes played a drunk. The character was a joint creation with the program's writer, who was inspired by Alicia Rico for its design. The actor's challenge was great, as it was the first drunk to appear on Cuban Television Ballet and it became a success with the public for the cubanía that characterized it. This success allowed him to be the partner of the stellar and legendary Rita Montaner in the program Rita y Willy. The program remained on the air for a short time due to frequent disagreements between "La Única" and CMQ-TV producers.

Then, Álvarez Guedes went on to co-star in the CMQ-TV program Viernes a las 8, with Minín Bujones. As an anecdote he used to tell that in this program they asked him to get into a cage with three lions and, of course, he did. With this he not only increased the ratings of the space, but also managed to increase his salary and maintain his contract on Casino de la alegría.

The "Drunk" appeared again, now on radio, in A reírse rápido, on the Crusellas & Co. network, written by Enrique Núñez Rodríguez and where Aurora Pita and Idalberto Delgado worked. This space aired Monday through Friday in the afternoons and helped consolidate the dream of "being famous" for the boy from Unión de Reyes.

In 1953, El Solar premiered, a musical show created by Alberto Alonso for the Montmartre nightclub. The cast included comedian Carlos Pous, Luis Carbonell and singers Benny Moré, Rita Montaner and Olga Guillot. The script was written by Juan Herbello.

Also in 1953 he began his career in cinema. He has filmed more than fourteen movies and has been the producer and director of three of them. Among his films we can find Thief in Silk (1953), directed by Sol Planells and starring Phillip Reed, Jean Bradley and Eduardo Casado; The big boodle (1957), an American film shot in Havana, directed by Richard Wilson and starring Errol Flynn, Enrique Cruz Álvarez, Rogelio Hernández, Rossana Rory and Aurora Pita, among others; Dios te salve, psiquiatra (1966), directed and produced by Álvarez Guedes himself; A mí qué me importa que explote Miami (1976), with songs by Willy Chirino and a cast made up of Blanca Guerra, Adolfo Blum, Armando Roblan, Trini Alonso, Cesar Campa and María Eugenia Dávila; Bla, bla, bla (1978), also directed and produced by him, in which he attempts, through comedy, to unite Spanish-speaking minorities in the United States of America for the defense of their rights; La chica del alacrán de oro (1990), directed by Víctor Manuel Castro; and Que todo quede entre cubanos (1993). All of his films demonstrate the mastery he achieved in the comedy genre.

In 1957 he founded, along with Ernesto Duarte and his brother Rafael, the record label Gemas, which from 1960 onwards became Gema Records. This record company is responsible for the international launch of artists of the caliber of Elena Burke, Celeste Mendoza, Fernando Álvarez, Rolando Laserie, Chico O'Farril, Bebo Valdés, the Puerto Rican salsa group led by Rafael Ithier El Gran Combo, Willy Chirino, Pío Leyva and the Rumbavana orchestra, among others.

The last program he made in Cuba was written by Armando Couto and co-starred Rosita Fornés. On October 23, 1960 he emigrated to the United States with his wife and two daughters. He was accompanied on the plane by popular singer Celia Cruz. From that time on he lived in the United States, Puerto Rico and Spain, until 1980 when he settled permanently in Miami, where he currently resides.

In 1973 he presented his first comedy album in Madrid. The idea came about at a tribute gala for Pastora Imperio where he performed his jokes, laced with profanities, in public for the first time. The recording established him as the comedian who invented the "Ñó". Since that year his character "Álvarez Guedes" has recorded and produced more than thirty-two long-playing records of jokes. As a curious fact, his album How To Defend Yourself From the Cubans, number fourteen and the only one in English, has sold more copies than the remaining thirty-one combined.

From the seventies onwards he dedicated himself to writing humorous books and stories that enjoy great acceptance in the Spanish-speaking world and are generally marked by a political undertone. Among his texts, which total more than twenty, we can find Malas palabras, Buenas palabras and Otras palabras; and stories such as Leleo and La muerte espectacular de un maracucho artrítico.

He has been sought after on the most varied stages throughout Latin America, Spain and the United States. In 1983 he filled Carnegie Hall in New York.

Currently he dedicates himself to one-man shows, writing two books and working in radio. His radio program Aquí está Álvarez Guedes was a varied program that included music, jokes, sports commentary and news that ran for nine years with high ratings. It was broadcast through WCMQ FM Clásica 92 and he performed alongside Adrian Mesa. It ended in December 2009.

The "innovator of modern comedy," as some of his critics have called him, is one of the main exponents of Cuban popular humor and one of the most respected and popular comedians of Spanish-speaking America and Europe.