José Miguel Agrelot
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe Michael Agrelot (April 21, 1927 – January 28, 2004), better known as José Miguel Agrelot, was a comedian
, radio and television host and media icon in Puerto Rico
. Agrelot was better known as Don Cholito, one of the more than 200 different characterizations he developed -and his best known one- during his lifetime.
descent. He started working on radio station
s when he was 14. At that time, he was employed by radio impresario Tomás Muñiz
, owner of WIAC-AM and the father of later producer and actor Tommy Muñiz
. During this period Agrelot developed his first comedic character, Torito Fuertes, the mischievous eight year-old of a family comedy show sponsored by Borden, Inc. and its evaporated milk
(the name Torito Fuertes was a pun
on "strong calf", a desirable consequence of drinking good milk). The character later took a life of his own on a radio show first named El Profesor Colgate (sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive
's flagship toothpaste) and later called El Colegio de la Alegría (The School of Joy). This program featured Tommy Muñiz as the schoolteacher of a rather dysfunctional classroom.
Soon after, he moved himself and his Torito character to rival radio station WKAQ-AM, where he starred alongside then-radio producer and announcer (and future best friend) Luis Vigoreaux
in a show named Torito & Company. In 1949, he received a Bachelors Degree in Arts and Political Science and Economy from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, where he joined Phi Sigma Alpha
fraternity. To support himself during college, he served as station master control technician, foley artist
, spot announcer and comedy and dramatic voice talent. At the time he starred in a few dramatizations of Tarzan
, and his Tarzan yell was remarkable enough that sound effect technicians from Metro Goldwyn Mayer visited Puerto Rico and recorded Agrelot doing the yell. It is unclear whether MGM ever used Agrelot's recording on any Tarzan movie.
At this time he started developing multiple comedic and dramatic characters; he disliked serious roles and expanded his by-then evident talent as a radio comedian by starring in live comedy shows with Vigoreaux, where he became renowned for his talents performing physical comedy
and parody
. At a later time in his life Agrelot would be called "The Puerto Rican Bob Hope
" by journalists (or they could say Bob Hope
was the British José Miguel Agrelot), perhaps because of his stand-up comedic style and media longevity, but his aptitude for physical comedy, straight face for risqué material and physical girth
at the time predated -and would be quite comparable with- that of John Belushi
's, rather toned-down for the conservative Puerto Rican audiences of the time.
Agrelot's show with Vigoreaux was considerably successful, and they toured cities with large Latin American
population in the United States. Torito later returned to El Colegio de la Alegría when that show made its transition to television. The show's time span, in its various inceptions, covered almost four decades (not accounting for breaks).
Soon before finishing college Agrelot started what would eventually became the longest running program in Puerto Rican radio history, the morning show "Su (later Tu) Alegre Despertar" (Your Joyful Awakening). Agrelot was the constant voice behind the program for over 54 years. Most of the program's run had two constant players, actor (and one-time voice talent) Orlando Rodríguez
and journalist Aurora Previdi. Rodríguez would have been another constant behind the program had he not died from cancer
in 1991; Previdi joined the program nine years after its start and is still a part of the program's alloted time slot (the program dropped its name after Agrelot's passing).
Agrelot married his wife Yolanda Peña (whom he occasionally nicknamed "Doña Chola") in 1949; their 55-year marriage was one of the longest among Puerto Rico media personalities.
Agrelot also performed in shows in Spain, Mexico and Argentina
. He had extended tours of the Dominican Republic
and Venezuela
. In 1969, he recorded a comedy album with Latin American record label Velvet Records. The album's title was El Sabor de la Vida (The Flavor of Life).
Agrelot was the spokesperson for the "Liga Puertorriqueña Contra el Cáncer", the Puerto Rican Cancer League (his mother was a cancer patient). As such, he was tempted to invite Cantinflas
for a local cancer telethon, and eventually visited him in Mexico City
. Unbeknownst to Agrelot, Cantinflas' wife had died of cancer and had never overcome his grief; he later claimed that Agrelot's invitation was cathartic
to him, and he enthusiastically visited Puerto Rico (his first appearance was highly emotional to both, and had the rare public spectacle of Cantinflas, one of the most renowned comedians in the world, dropping tears
on a stage) and participated in two league telethons. They made their mutual admiration well known during Cantinflas' visits to the island, and made plans to start in a film together, but Cantinflas died soon after, ironically, from lung cancer
. Not being able to make a movie along Cantinflas was one of Agrelot's lifetime regrets.
Another personal regret was that of the murder of his dearest friend, Luis Vigoreaux
, in 1983. They had been friends since they were both teenagers, and even had children born to their respective wives within hours of each other. As fate would have it, when Agrelot died in 2004 he was buried in Carolina, Puerto Rico
, just a few meters near Vigoreaux's tomb. Roberto Vigoreaux
would joke about this: "Giuseppe and Papi were so close together they were buried almost next to each other. They'll probably be trading jokes for eternity."
Apart from appearances in numerous commercials, Agrelot's credits in Puerto Rican television included:
Most of these programs were produced by long-time producer and friend Tommy Muñiz
.
Agrelot would also parody famous characters from film and cinema in his comedy program, "Ja Ja, Ji Ji, Jo Jo Con Agrelot". His most famous parody was that of Marlon Brando
as Vito Corleone
in The Godfather
movie trilogy.
public theme park in Bayamón
named after his Torito character. La Ciudad de Torito, or Torito's City was inaugurated in 1988. It features memorabilia from Agrelot's extensive media career; each of the "city's" various buildings are dedicated to a specific Agrelot characterization. When Agrelot suddenly died in 2004, his remains were taken to the park for a public wake
.
In 2003 his radio show Su Alegre Despertar was awarded the world record for the longest running still active radio show, after running non-stop for 53 years (Rambling With Gambling ran on New York City's WOR
Radio for 75 years but ceased in 2000). This made Agrelot the second Puerto Rican-born person, after Wilfred Benítez
, to earn a world record certified by the Guinness Book of World Records (The late local children television host Joaquin Montserrat would be the third were he not a native of Barcelona
).
This avid collector and autograph
signer had also written comedy books and performed comedy bits in a ring with Muhammad Ali
for TV and both posed for the cover of one of his publications. He was also an avid sports fan, particularly of the Criollos de Caguas baseball
team. Although people named José are commonly nicknamed Cheo, it was after he began calling baseball player José Cruz
Cheo Cruz on television, that the general public began to know Cruz as Cheo Cruz. Agrelot and Cruz sustained a friendship until Agrelot died.
The Coliseum of Puerto Rico was renamed the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum
) in his honor, shortly after he died. Puerto Ricans have popularized a nickname for the facility that integrates the Spanish word "coliseo" with the name of Don Cholito; the arena is now commonly called "El Choliseo" by most locals, and the nickname is sometimes used in formal advertisements of events staged there.
There is a civic movement in Puerto Rico that has requested the Puerto Rico Legislature to declare Agrelot's birthday, April 21, as the country's Comedic Actor's Day.
baseball team of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League
(LBPPR). A tradition of any Criollos game was to play the Panama
nian tamborito
song "¿Qué te parece, cholito?" (a social commentary song that attained hit status in Puerto Rico when one of its authors, Panamanian organ player Avelino Muñoz, moved to the island) through the stadium's public announcements system between innings or at the seventh inning stretch during Caguas games. By the 1960 season the Caguas team was in poor economic shape, and asked Agrelot to attend some games, stand up and dance (a la Cantinflas) whenever the song was played (since Agrelot had spontaneously done it once), as a crowd booster. The year Agrelot did this Caguas won the LBPPR championship series.
Soon after (1962) Agrelot was offered a small section within WAPA-TV
's variety show, "El Show del Mediodía", in which he could comment on daily news and events giving them a comic spin. Agrelot adopted the moniker "Don Cholito", based on the song he was being associated with. This name did not make sense as a cultural reference, since "cholito", the diminutive of "cholo" (a rather common and sometimes derogatory term to refer to the indigenous peoples of Latin America), could not be associated to Agrelot, in this case. To differentiate himself from what eventually became a character of its own, Agrelot used a pava (peasant straw hat) whenever he was on the air, to represent Don Cholito as an "urban jíbaro", a Puerto Rican peasant that had moved to the city and was sightly more sophisticated than the average country dweller.
For almost three decades the Don Cholito section was a consistent favorite of the Puerto Rican television audience. Don Cholito became Agrelot's alter ego, despite his mock protests that Agrelot and Don Cholito were not the same person (a tactic later used by Sunshine Logroño
when referring to his own comedic characters). Agrelot claimed that Don Cholito was more opinionated, more daring, and more vocal in his social commentary than he was; to quote Agrelot, "somehow wearing that pava hat gave me the courage to do things that I would normally not dare to do."
) had a rather simple format. Agrelot would make a fast dash around the studio, shouting "¡Ajaaa!" (Aha!) and pumping up the audience. He would exaggerate the studio crowd's count for comic effect, describing how the studio had an audience of, say, "54,534, plus a bald
guy at the front door". He would then read a memorable quote from a celebrity or an inspiring thought, and then comment on the daily news, using physical comedy
to exaggerate or punctuate on a news item's absurd or unusual characteristics. Sometimes he would scat sing
famous music to set up ambience for a joke: particular favorites were the gladiator's entrance theme from Ben Hur
, the "And the Monkey Wrapped His Tail Around the Flagpole" section of the National Emblem
march, and "Llegaron los Reyes", a Puerto Rican Christmas
song (his version was titled "Friqui-tiqui-tiqui, Ay-ya-ya-ya-yayyy", and performed to illustrate the bittersweet feeling of being broke
after giving away too many gifts for Christmas).
If a joke fell flat, he'd gesture accordingly (and sometimes a cow's moo would be played in the background as to not let him continue); if a studio crewmember (the stage crew were unofficial participants of the show) would make a flat joke, he would expel them from the studio in mock anger. At times he would comment on a serious news item giving a mock political speech; in quite a few of these his own political views would flare up (Agrelot was a proud member of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico
, and would occasionally host some of its public functions).
Don Cholito would later bring in audience members who would announce civic functions (meetings, fundraisers, sports events and the like), sometimes intervening in the announcement for comic effect A famous episode had Don Cholito wear cossack
garb and dance when a Russian folk dance group visited Puerto Rico; in yet another he staged a shouting match with Muhammad Ali
. People would bring him fruits and vegetables with unusual shapes, and Don Cholito would comment on them, particularly those with anthropomorphic
or phallic shapes. Whenever the LBPPR season came about, had his beloved Caguas team win a championship, he'd bring in the team members for a recognition; at one, however, when Caguas was eliminated from the tournament, he did a mock funeral for the "Yeguita", the team's mascot, complete with Chopin's
Funeral March playing in the background.
onstage during his entire career (when a stagehand accidentally dropped a prop on his head during a stage show in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
), and his comedy style tried not to incorporate vulgarity
, but Don Cholito constantly used code words and euphemisms as to not use double entendres in his Encabulla broadcasts. The most common used reference was that of "el dribbleo", which likened foreplay
and sexual intercourse
to a fastbreak
and slam dunk
in basketball
. He dramatized this so often that, when news of his sudden death were covered by Puerto Rican daily newspaper El Nuevo Dia
, a photo of Don Cholito doing "el dribbleo" was used in the front page.
Puerto Rico was somehow fortunate between 1956 and 1988 for never having been hit directly by a hurricane during that period. The island's location in the Central Caribbean does not allow many of the storms to develop to catastrophic size before nearing it, and those that do strike are relatively infrequent. The country had a close call with powerful Hurricane David
in 1979, which devastated the nearby island of Hispaniola
. At the time, Don Cholito joked that he had invented a contraption, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
(which in reality does not do meteorological work), what reportedly took the wind out of major hurricanes and either deflated them or veered them off course as to not hit Puerto Rico. That contraption, "El Tubo Que Chupa", he claimed, had allowed the storm to go past Puerto Rico without striking the island directly. The fact that Hurricane Frederic
entered the island disorganized and did relatively little damage soon after to later reform and become a Category 4 storm, gave some credibility to the "Tubo Que Chupa"'s effectiveness.
Don Cholito would describe the inner workings of the Tubo Que Chupa in his television program whenever a hurricane approached the Caribbean Sea. Essentially he would describe a piston-like artifact that, he claimed, he stored near Fort San Felipe del Morro
in San Juan
and whose tip he would dip in the water when the storm neared. The piston would then suck air away from the storm and neutralize it. Most of the tube's parts were made-up words (cococlaino, bompó, mecipersi), but two of them deserve mention. The "simiñoco", a term that he later extended to represent any gadget
, became popular enough to deserve dictionary treatment in the Spanish language elsewhere. The "popeta" was actually a thinly-veiled Puerto Rican slang reference to the glans penis
. Most often he did not elaborate on this last reference, but at times he risked the ire of WAPA-TV's standards and practices people for claiming that he would not allow anyone to maintain the Tubo, since he was the only person knowledgeable enough on how to lubricate
it.
Puerto Rico had a few close calls with tropical storms during the 1980s, and coincidentally, Don Cholito claimed that the Tubo had been responsible for steering the storms away. Since Encabulla was a popular community board of sorts, and since NASA did some community work in Puerto Rico, the occasional NASA astronaut or community liaison person would visit Don Cholito and follow the joke (sometimes with puzzled looks in their faces). A viewer contest for designing a working model of the Tubo had over 60 Rube Goldberg machine
-like contributions.
Agrelot was an avid world traveller, and in 1989 decided to take a cruise
around the Alaska
n coast. Don Cholito, as a consequence, left Sunshine Logroño
as a substitute, and reluctantly "gave him custody" of the Tubo while he took a two-week break. Unbeknownst to Don Cholito, his vacation coincided with Hurricane Hugo
. Damage to Puerto Rico was such that the metropolitan area of San Juan (including Guaynabo where the WAPA-TV studios sit) lost power for at least two weeks and the station's antenna was knocked off its foundations. Working at low power, the station aired a mock trial where Don Cholito accused Logroño of partying too hard before the hurricane and, by being intoxicated, neglecting his duty to lubricate the Tubo. Logroño was consequently convicted of his "crime" during the trial.
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
, radio and television host and media icon in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. Agrelot was better known as Don Cholito, one of the more than 200 different characterizations he developed -and his best known one- during his lifetime.
Biography
Agrelot was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico of ItalianItalian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
descent. He started working on radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
s when he was 14. At that time, he was employed by radio impresario Tomás Muñiz
Tomas Muñiz
Tomás Muñiz Souffront was a well known Puerto Rican radio and television producer. He is sometimes respectfully called by the general public in Puerto Rico as Don Tomás Muñiz, to differentiate him from his namesake and son, Tommy MuñizAs a young man, Tomás Muñiz worked as a real estate agent, and...
, owner of WIAC-AM and the father of later producer and actor Tommy Muñiz
Tommy Muñiz
Lucas Tomás Muñiz Ramírez , better known as Tommy Muñiz, was a Puerto Rican comedy and drama actor, media producer, businessman and network owner...
. During this period Agrelot developed his first comedic character, Torito Fuertes, the mischievous eight year-old of a family comedy show sponsored by Borden, Inc. and its evaporated milk
Evaporated milk
Evaporated milk, also known as dehydrated milk, is a shelf-stable canned milk product with about 60% of the water removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk, which contains added sugar. Sweetened condensed milk requires less processing since the added sugar inhibits ...
(the name Torito Fuertes was a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
on "strong calf", a desirable consequence of drinking good milk). The character later took a life of his own on a radio show first named El Profesor Colgate (sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive
Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American diversified multinational corporation focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products . Under its "Hill's" brand, it is also a manufacturer of...
's flagship toothpaste) and later called El Colegio de la Alegría (The School of Joy). This program featured Tommy Muñiz as the schoolteacher of a rather dysfunctional classroom.
Soon after, he moved himself and his Torito character to rival radio station WKAQ-AM, where he starred alongside then-radio producer and announcer (and future best friend) Luis Vigoreaux
Luis Vigoreaux
Luis Vigoreaux Rivera was a Puerto Rican radio and television show host, announcer, comedian and producer. The son of a sugar worker, Vigoreaux became one of the most popular television entertainers in Puerto Rico's history....
in a show named Torito & Company. In 1949, he received a Bachelors Degree in Arts and Political Science and Economy from the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, where he joined Phi Sigma Alpha
Phi Sigma Alpha
Phi Sigma Alpha Fraternity commonly known as La Sigma, is a Puerto Rican fraternity established originally as the Sigma Delta Alpha Fraternity on October 22, 1928 at the University of Puerto Rico by 12 students and a professor...
fraternity. To support himself during college, he served as station master control technician, foley artist
Foley artist
Foley is the reproduction of everyday sounds for use in filmmaking. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. The best foley art is so well integrated into a film that it goes unnoticed by the audience. It helps to...
, spot announcer and comedy and dramatic voice talent. At the time he starred in a few dramatizations of Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
, and his Tarzan yell was remarkable enough that sound effect technicians from Metro Goldwyn Mayer visited Puerto Rico and recorded Agrelot doing the yell. It is unclear whether MGM ever used Agrelot's recording on any Tarzan movie.
At this time he started developing multiple comedic and dramatic characters; he disliked serious roles and expanded his by-then evident talent as a radio comedian by starring in live comedy shows with Vigoreaux, where he became renowned for his talents performing physical comedy
Physical comedy
Physical comedy, also known as slapstick, is a comedic performance relying mostly on the use of the body to convey humour.Physical comedy, whether conveyed by a pratfall , a silly face, or the action of walking into walls, is a common and rarely subtle form of comedy...
and parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
. At a later time in his life Agrelot would be called "The Puerto Rican Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
" by journalists (or they could say Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
was the British José Miguel Agrelot), perhaps because of his stand-up comedic style and media longevity, but his aptitude for physical comedy, straight face for risqué material and physical girth
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...
at the time predated -and would be quite comparable with- that of John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
's, rather toned-down for the conservative Puerto Rican audiences of the time.
Agrelot's show with Vigoreaux was considerably successful, and they toured cities with large Latin American
Latin Americans
Latin Americans are the citizens of the Latin American countries and dependencies. Latin American countries are multi-ethnic, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Latin Americans don't take their nationality as an ethnicity, but identify themselves with...
population in the United States. Torito later returned to El Colegio de la Alegría when that show made its transition to television. The show's time span, in its various inceptions, covered almost four decades (not accounting for breaks).
Soon before finishing college Agrelot started what would eventually became the longest running program in Puerto Rican radio history, the morning show "Su (later Tu) Alegre Despertar" (Your Joyful Awakening). Agrelot was the constant voice behind the program for over 54 years. Most of the program's run had two constant players, actor (and one-time voice talent) Orlando Rodríguez
Orlando Rodríguez
Orlando Rodríguez is a Panamanian footballer. He currently plays for León de Huánuco.-International career:Rodríguez has made 16 appearances for the senior Panama national football team, and was part of the squad that took part in the UNCAF Nations Cup 2005.-National Titles:*Liga Panameña de...
and journalist Aurora Previdi. Rodríguez would have been another constant behind the program had he not died from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in 1991; Previdi joined the program nine years after its start and is still a part of the program's alloted time slot (the program dropped its name after Agrelot's passing).
Agrelot married his wife Yolanda Peña (whom he occasionally nicknamed "Doña Chola") in 1949; their 55-year marriage was one of the longest among Puerto Rico media personalities.
Agrelot also performed in shows in Spain, Mexico and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. He had extended tours of the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
. In 1969, he recorded a comedy album with Latin American record label Velvet Records. The album's title was El Sabor de la Vida (The Flavor of Life).
Agrelot was the spokesperson for the "Liga Puertorriqueña Contra el Cáncer", the Puerto Rican Cancer League (his mother was a cancer patient). As such, he was tempted to invite Cantinflas
Cantinflas
Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes , was a Mexican comic film actor, producer, and screenwriter known professionally as Cantinflas. He often portrayed impoverished campesinos or a peasant of pelado origin...
for a local cancer telethon, and eventually visited him in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Unbeknownst to Agrelot, Cantinflas' wife had died of cancer and had never overcome his grief; he later claimed that Agrelot's invitation was cathartic
Catharsis
Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". It is derived from the verb καθαίρειν, kathairein, "to purify, purge," and it is related to the adjective καθαρός, katharos, "pure or clean."-Dramatic uses:...
to him, and he enthusiastically visited Puerto Rico (his first appearance was highly emotional to both, and had the rare public spectacle of Cantinflas, one of the most renowned comedians in the world, dropping tears
Tears
Tears are secretions that clean and lubricate the eyes. Lacrimation or lachrymation is the production or shedding of tears....
on a stage) and participated in two league telethons. They made their mutual admiration well known during Cantinflas' visits to the island, and made plans to start in a film together, but Cantinflas died soon after, ironically, from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. Not being able to make a movie along Cantinflas was one of Agrelot's lifetime regrets.
Another personal regret was that of the murder of his dearest friend, Luis Vigoreaux
Luis Vigoreaux
Luis Vigoreaux Rivera was a Puerto Rican radio and television show host, announcer, comedian and producer. The son of a sugar worker, Vigoreaux became one of the most popular television entertainers in Puerto Rico's history....
, in 1983. They had been friends since they were both teenagers, and even had children born to their respective wives within hours of each other. As fate would have it, when Agrelot died in 2004 he was buried in Carolina, Puerto Rico
Carolina, Puerto Rico
Carolina is a city located in the northern part of Puerto Rico, bordering the Atlantic Ocean; it lies north of Gurabo and Juncos; east of Trujillo Alto and San Juan; and west of Canóvanas and Loíza. Carolina is spread over 12 wards plus Carolina Pueblo...
, just a few meters near Vigoreaux's tomb. Roberto Vigoreaux
Roberto Vigoreaux
Roberto Vigoreaux Lorenzana is a Puerto Rican media personality. He is a former senator, television producer, actor, singer, marketing executive, telecommunications technician and ice cream entrepreneur...
would joke about this: "Giuseppe and Papi were so close together they were buried almost next to each other. They'll probably be trading jokes for eternity."
Apart from appearances in numerous commercials, Agrelot's credits in Puerto Rican television included:
- La Criada Malcriada (The Rude Maid)
- El Especial de Corona (The Corona Special)
- Desafiando a los Genios (Challenging The Geniuses), a personal favorite of Pablo CasalsPablo CasalsPau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...
- Haciendo Historia (Making History)
- El Show del Mediodia (The Midday show, as Don Cholito, another legendary character of his)
- Parece Increible (It Seems Incredible)
- Ja ja, Ji ji, Jo jo con Agrelot
Most of these programs were produced by long-time producer and friend Tommy Muñiz
Tommy Muñiz
Lucas Tomás Muñiz Ramírez , better known as Tommy Muñiz, was a Puerto Rican comedy and drama actor, media producer, businessman and network owner...
.
Comedic characters
Agrelot claimed to have invented more than 200 characters during his lifetime. Over a dozen of these endured the test of time, and became famous. Besides "Torito Fuertes", an 8 year-old who is also the class clown at his school, and his alter ego, "Don Cholito", an everyday man native to Puerto Rico, he created the following:- "Don Pulula", a mild mannered evangelical pastor with a proclivity for mild double entendreDouble entendreA double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
s (he modeled his voice after that of Rafael Quiñones VidalRafael Quiñones VidalRafael Quiñones Vidal was a journalist and a radio and television Master of Ceremonies....
, a Puerto Rican television host), - "Mario Trauma", a crazed mental patient who constantly screamed in falsettoFalsettoFalsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
and was in reality saner than the people around him (he modeled his voice after a floor coordinator at WAPA-TV), - "Pasión", an old maidOld MaidOld maid is a Victorian card game for two to eight players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. It is known in Germany as Schwarzer Peter, in Sweden as Svarte Petter and in Finland as Musta Pekka and in France as le pouilleux or vieux garçon...
desperately looking for male company, - "Serafín Sin Fin y Sin Meta", an effeminate man with a heart-shaped birthmarkBirthmarkA birthmark is a benign irregularity on the skin which is present at birth or appears shortly after birth, usually in the first month. They can occur anywhere on the skin. Birthmarks are caused by overgrowth of blood vessels, melanocytes, smooth muscle, fat, fibroblasts, or...
in his cheek (while claiming that Serafín was not a homosexualHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
and never made a pass to anyone during the character's run, Agrelot faced protests from the local chapter of GLAAD and discontinued the character) - "Soldado Manteca", an inept Beetle BaileyBeetle BaileyBeetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...
-like character who was part of the United States ArmyUnited States ArmyThe United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
(Agrelot described him once as Torito Fuertes, all grown up) - "Cerebrito Ligón", a man who claimed to be a peeping TomVoyeurismIn clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
but wouldn't dare to peep. A famous episode had a young Alida Arizmendi, later a Puerto Rican legislator, confronting him while he tried to sneak into an all-female gymGymThe word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
; - "Speedy González", an extremely fast gibberish-talking handymanHandymanA handyman is a person skilled at a wide range of repairs, typically around the home. These tasks include trade skills, repair work, maintenance work, both interior and exterior, and are sometimes described as "odd jobs", "fix-up tasks", and include light plumbing jobs such as fixing a leaky toilet...
, who would always charge USD$10.00 for his services (later increased to USD$20.00 because of inflation). This character was a favorite of Benicio del ToroBenicio del ToroBenicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez is a Puerto Rican and Spanish actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic . He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual...
's. - "Don Remigio Rodríguez y Rodriguez", an almost catatonic, extremely frank businessman (and the owner of Rodríguez y Rodriguez Sociedad en Comandita) who had a proclivity for face gestures and sticking out his tongue. He had a standing feud with Joaquín, the SpanishSpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
-born store owner across the street (played by Spanish actor Ricardo Fabregues), to whom he constantly insulted ("¡Joaquín, pillo!") Don Rodríguez later starred in Sunshine LogroñoSunshine LogroñoEmmanuel Logroño , better known as Sunshine Logroño is a Puerto Rican actor, radio announcer, television show host, singer, comedy writer, entrepreneur and comedian...
's film, "Chona, La Puerca Asesina" - El Juez, a character modeled after Pigmeat MarkhamPigmeat MarkhamDewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African-American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor...
and Sammy Davis, Jr.Sammy Davis, Jr.Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
's "Here Come Da Judge" character (more Davis' than Markham's) who had a huge mallet and would use it against a defendant's head if necessary during trials - Don Segismundo, the mayor of Trujillo Bajo, a fictional municipality in Puerto Rico (Agrelot said once that Segismundo was actually Don Rodríguez y Rodríguez turned public servant)
- "Pancho MatanzasMatanzasMatanzas is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. It is famed for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore.It is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas , east of the capital Havana and west of the resort town of Varadero.Matanzas is called the...
", a Cuban immigrant that, as many did at the time, would sell anything to support himself and his family. - "Juan Macana", a not-very-bright policePoliceThe police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
officer, PRPD badge number 13,378 who popularized in Puerto Rico a phrase Agrelot constantly heard in Mexico during one of his tours: "Sí, ¿cómo no?" ("Yeah, why not?")
Agrelot would also parody famous characters from film and cinema in his comedy program, "Ja Ja, Ji Ji, Jo Jo Con Agrelot". His most famous parody was that of Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
as Vito Corleone
Vito Corleone
Vito Andolini Corleone is a fictional character and the main character in Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather trilogy, where he was portrayed by Marlon Brando in The Godfather and by Robert De Niro in The Godfather Part II. Premiere Magazine listed Vito...
in The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
movie trilogy.
Achievements
Agrelot has an area of the Parque De Las CienciasParque de las Ciencias
Parque de las Ciencias Luis A. Ferré Bayamón, Puerto Rico is an educational and recreational park located in Bayamón, Puerto Rico focused on science-related exhibitions. It is one of multiple touristic attractions inaugurated under the leadership of longtime mayor Ramon Luis Rivera and is named in...
public theme park in Bayamón
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Bayamón is a municipality of Puerto Rico located on the northern coastal valley, north of Aguas Buenas and Comerío; south of Toa Baja and Cataño; west of Guaynabo; and east of Toa Alta and Naranjito. Bayamón is spread over 11 wards and Bayamón Pueblo...
named after his Torito character. La Ciudad de Torito, or Torito's City was inaugurated in 1988. It features memorabilia from Agrelot's extensive media career; each of the "city's" various buildings are dedicated to a specific Agrelot characterization. When Agrelot suddenly died in 2004, his remains were taken to the park for a public wake
Wake (ceremony)
A wake is a ceremony associated with death. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased, with the body present; however, modern wakes are often performed at a funeral home. In the United States and Canada it is synonymous with a viewing...
.
In 2003 his radio show Su Alegre Despertar was awarded the world record for the longest running still active radio show, after running non-stop for 53 years (Rambling With Gambling ran on New York City's WOR
WOR (AM)
WOR is a class A , AM radio station located in New York, New York, U.S., operating on 710 kHz. The station has a talk format and has been owned by Buckley Broadcasting since 1987, after the station was sold by RKO. The station has conservative, or right-of-center hosts.Its call letters have no...
Radio for 75 years but ceased in 2000). This made Agrelot the second Puerto Rican-born person, after Wilfred Benítez
Wilfred Benitez
Wilfred Benítez , is a Puerto Rican boxer. He is remembered best as a skilled and aggressive fighter with exceptional defensive abilities who won world championships in three separate weight divisions, and was the youngest world champion in boxing history at the age of 17...
, to earn a world record certified by the Guinness Book of World Records (The late local children television host Joaquin Montserrat would be the third were he not a native of Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
).
This avid collector and autograph
Autograph
An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
signer had also written comedy books and performed comedy bits in a ring with Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
for TV and both posed for the cover of one of his publications. He was also an avid sports fan, particularly of the Criollos de Caguas baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team. Although people named José are commonly nicknamed Cheo, it was after he began calling baseball player José Cruz
José Cruz
José Cruz Dilan is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He is also the former first base coach for the Houston Astros. During his 19-year baseball career, he played from 1970-1988 for three different teams, playing primarily for the Astros...
Cheo Cruz on television, that the general public began to know Cruz as Cheo Cruz. Agrelot and Cruz sustained a friendship until Agrelot died.
The Coliseum of Puerto Rico was renamed the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum
José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum
The José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, officially named "Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot" , is the biggest indoor arena in Puerto Rico dedicated to entertainment...
) in his honor, shortly after he died. Puerto Ricans have popularized a nickname for the facility that integrates the Spanish word "coliseo" with the name of Don Cholito; the arena is now commonly called "El Choliseo" by most locals, and the nickname is sometimes used in formal advertisements of events staged there.
There is a civic movement in Puerto Rico that has requested the Puerto Rico Legislature to declare Agrelot's birthday, April 21, as the country's Comedic Actor's Day.
Origins
One of Agrelot's characterizations, "Don Cholito", deserves particular mention. As mentioned above, Agrelot was an adamant fan of the Criollos de CaguasCriollos de Caguas
The Criollos de Caguas are a baseball team in the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. Based in the city of Caguas, they have won 15 domestic titles and three Caribbean World Series....
baseball team of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League
Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League
The Puerto Rico Baseball League formerly known as Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico or LBPPR, is the main professional baseball league in Puerto Rico. In 2007, the LBPPR recessed for the first time since its creation...
(LBPPR). A tradition of any Criollos game was to play the Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
nian tamborito
Tamborito
El Tamborito, literally translated to “the Little Drum”, is a genre of Panamanian folkloric music and dance dating back as early as the 17th century. The Tamborito is the national song and dance of Panama. The dance is a romantic, couple’s dance, often involving a small percussion ensemble, and in...
song "¿Qué te parece, cholito?" (a social commentary song that attained hit status in Puerto Rico when one of its authors, Panamanian organ player Avelino Muñoz, moved to the island) through the stadium's public announcements system between innings or at the seventh inning stretch during Caguas games. By the 1960 season the Caguas team was in poor economic shape, and asked Agrelot to attend some games, stand up and dance (a la Cantinflas) whenever the song was played (since Agrelot had spontaneously done it once), as a crowd booster. The year Agrelot did this Caguas won the LBPPR championship series.
Soon after (1962) Agrelot was offered a small section within WAPA-TV
WAPA-TV
WAPA-TV is an independent television station located in San Juan, Puerto Rico transmitting over digital channel 27, virtual channel 4. The station is owned by InterMedia Partners and is branded as WAPA Television....
's variety show, "El Show del Mediodía", in which he could comment on daily news and events giving them a comic spin. Agrelot adopted the moniker "Don Cholito", based on the song he was being associated with. This name did not make sense as a cultural reference, since "cholito", the diminutive of "cholo" (a rather common and sometimes derogatory term to refer to the indigenous peoples of Latin America), could not be associated to Agrelot, in this case. To differentiate himself from what eventually became a character of its own, Agrelot used a pava (peasant straw hat) whenever he was on the air, to represent Don Cholito as an "urban jíbaro", a Puerto Rican peasant that had moved to the city and was sightly more sophisticated than the average country dweller.
For almost three decades the Don Cholito section was a consistent favorite of the Puerto Rican television audience. Don Cholito became Agrelot's alter ego, despite his mock protests that Agrelot and Don Cholito were not the same person (a tactic later used by Sunshine Logroño
Sunshine Logroño
Emmanuel Logroño , better known as Sunshine Logroño is a Puerto Rican actor, radio announcer, television show host, singer, comedy writer, entrepreneur and comedian...
when referring to his own comedic characters). Agrelot claimed that Don Cholito was more opinionated, more daring, and more vocal in his social commentary than he was; to quote Agrelot, "somehow wearing that pava hat gave me the courage to do things that I would normally not dare to do."
Encabuya y Vuelve y Tira
Agrelot's section, "Encabuya y Vuelve y Tira" (the way to throw a spinning topTrompo
A Trompo or Whipping Top is a toy popular in Latin America much like a top. Its name can vary between countries. In Spain it is known as "peonza" or "trompo"...
) had a rather simple format. Agrelot would make a fast dash around the studio, shouting "¡Ajaaa!" (Aha!) and pumping up the audience. He would exaggerate the studio crowd's count for comic effect, describing how the studio had an audience of, say, "54,534, plus a bald
Baldness
Baldness implies partial or complete lack of hair and can be understood as part of the wider topic of "hair thinning". The degree and pattern of baldness can vary greatly, but its most common cause is male and female pattern baldness, also known as androgenic alopecia, alopecia androgenetica or...
guy at the front door". He would then read a memorable quote from a celebrity or an inspiring thought, and then comment on the daily news, using physical comedy
Physical comedy
Physical comedy, also known as slapstick, is a comedic performance relying mostly on the use of the body to convey humour.Physical comedy, whether conveyed by a pratfall , a silly face, or the action of walking into walls, is a common and rarely subtle form of comedy...
to exaggerate or punctuate on a news item's absurd or unusual characteristics. Sometimes he would scat sing
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
famous music to set up ambience for a joke: particular favorites were the gladiator's entrance theme from Ben Hur
Ben-Hur (1959 film)
Ben-Hur is a 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston in the title role, the third film adaptation of Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay was written by Karl Tunberg, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The score was composed by...
, the "And the Monkey Wrapped His Tail Around the Flagpole" section of the National Emblem
National Emblem
National Emblem is a march composed in 1902 and published in 1906 by Edwin Eugene Bagley. It is a standard of the American march repertoire, appearing in eleven published editions....
march, and "Llegaron los Reyes", a Puerto Rican Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
song (his version was titled "Friqui-tiqui-tiqui, Ay-ya-ya-ya-yayyy", and performed to illustrate the bittersweet feeling of being broke
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
after giving away too many gifts for Christmas).
If a joke fell flat, he'd gesture accordingly (and sometimes a cow's moo would be played in the background as to not let him continue); if a studio crewmember (the stage crew were unofficial participants of the show) would make a flat joke, he would expel them from the studio in mock anger. At times he would comment on a serious news item giving a mock political speech; in quite a few of these his own political views would flare up (Agrelot was a proud member of the Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico
Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico
The Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico is a political party that supports Puerto Rico's right to self-determination and sovereignty, through the enhancement of Puerto Rico's current status as a commonwealth....
, and would occasionally host some of its public functions).
Don Cholito would later bring in audience members who would announce civic functions (meetings, fundraisers, sports events and the like), sometimes intervening in the announcement for comic effect A famous episode had Don Cholito wear cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
garb and dance when a Russian folk dance group visited Puerto Rico; in yet another he staged a shouting match with Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
. People would bring him fruits and vegetables with unusual shapes, and Don Cholito would comment on them, particularly those with anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
or phallic shapes. Whenever the LBPPR season came about, had his beloved Caguas team win a championship, he'd bring in the team members for a recognition; at one, however, when Caguas was eliminated from the tournament, he did a mock funeral for the "Yeguita", the team's mascot, complete with Chopin's
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
Funeral March playing in the background.
"El dribbleo"
Agrelot claimed to have only uttered a single expletiveProfanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
onstage during his entire career (when a stagehand accidentally dropped a prop on his head during a stage show in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez, Puerto Rico
Mayagüez is the eighth-largest municipality of Puerto Rico. Originally founded as "Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria" it is also known as "La Sultana del Oeste" , "Ciudad de las Aguas Puras" , or "Ciudad del Mangó"...
), and his comedy style tried not to incorporate vulgarity
Vulgarity
Vulgarity is the quality of being common, coarse or unrefined. This judgement may refer to language, visual art, social classes or social climbers...
, but Don Cholito constantly used code words and euphemisms as to not use double entendres in his Encabulla broadcasts. The most common used reference was that of "el dribbleo", which likened foreplay
Foreplay
In human sexual behavior, foreplay is a set of intimate psychological and physically intimate acts between two or more people meant to create desire for sexual activity and sexual arousal. Either or any of the sexual partners may initiate the foreplay, and they may not be the active partner during...
and sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
to a fastbreak
Fastbreak
Fast break is an offensive strategy in basketball. In a fast break, a team attempts to move the ball up court and into scoring position as quickly as possible, so that the defense is outnumbered and does not have time to set up. There are various styles of the fast break and the fast break attack...
and slam dunk
Slam dunk
A slam dunk is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket with one or both hands over the rim. This is considered a normal field goal attempt; if successful it is worth two points. The term "slam dunk" was...
in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
. He dramatized this so often that, when news of his sudden death were covered by Puerto Rican daily newspaper El Nuevo Dia
El Nuevo Día
El Nuevo Día is a Puerto Rican newspaper based in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico and distributed daily throughout Puerto Rico and some parts of the United States.- History :...
, a photo of Don Cholito doing "el dribbleo" was used in the front page.
El Tubo Que Chupa
However, Don Cholito's best remembered cultural reference was that for "El Tubo Que Chupa" ("The Tube That Sucks").Puerto Rico was somehow fortunate between 1956 and 1988 for never having been hit directly by a hurricane during that period. The island's location in the Central Caribbean does not allow many of the storms to develop to catastrophic size before nearing it, and those that do strike are relatively infrequent. The country had a close call with powerful Hurricane David
Hurricane David
Hurricane David was the fourth named tropical cyclone, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. A Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, David was among the deadliest hurricanes in the latter half of the 20th century, killing...
in 1979, which devastated the nearby island of Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
. At the time, Don Cholito joked that he had invented a contraption, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
(which in reality does not do meteorological work), what reportedly took the wind out of major hurricanes and either deflated them or veered them off course as to not hit Puerto Rico. That contraption, "El Tubo Que Chupa", he claimed, had allowed the storm to go past Puerto Rico without striking the island directly. The fact that Hurricane Frederic
Hurricane Frederic
Hurricane Frederic was the sixth tropical cyclone, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. Frederic was the costliest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. Gulf Coast at that particular time...
entered the island disorganized and did relatively little damage soon after to later reform and become a Category 4 storm, gave some credibility to the "Tubo Que Chupa"'s effectiveness.
Don Cholito would describe the inner workings of the Tubo Que Chupa in his television program whenever a hurricane approached the Caribbean Sea. Essentially he would describe a piston-like artifact that, he claimed, he stored near Fort San Felipe del Morro
Fort San Felipe del Morro
Also known as Fort San Felipe del Morro or Morro Castle, is a 16th-century citadel located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.- Rundown :Lies on the northwestern-most point of the islet of San Juan, Puerto Rico...
in San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
and whose tip he would dip in the water when the storm neared. The piston would then suck air away from the storm and neutralize it. Most of the tube's parts were made-up words (cococlaino, bompó, mecipersi), but two of them deserve mention. The "simiñoco", a term that he later extended to represent any gadget
Gadget
A gadget is a small technological object that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a novelty. Gadgets are invariably considered to be more unusually or cleverly designed than normal technological objects at the time of their invention...
, became popular enough to deserve dictionary treatment in the Spanish language elsewhere. The "popeta" was actually a thinly-veiled Puerto Rican slang reference to the glans penis
Glans penis
The glans penis is the sensitive bulbous structure at the distal end of the penis. The glans penis is anatomically homologous to the clitoral glans of the female...
. Most often he did not elaborate on this last reference, but at times he risked the ire of WAPA-TV's standards and practices people for claiming that he would not allow anyone to maintain the Tubo, since he was the only person knowledgeable enough on how to lubricate
Lubricant
A lubricant is a substance introduced to reduce friction between moving surfaces. It may also have the function of transporting foreign particles and of distributing heat...
it.
Puerto Rico had a few close calls with tropical storms during the 1980s, and coincidentally, Don Cholito claimed that the Tubo had been responsible for steering the storms away. Since Encabulla was a popular community board of sorts, and since NASA did some community work in Puerto Rico, the occasional NASA astronaut or community liaison person would visit Don Cholito and follow the joke (sometimes with puzzled looks in their faces). A viewer contest for designing a working model of the Tubo had over 60 Rube Goldberg machine
Rube Goldberg machine
A Rube Goldberg machine, contraption, device, or apparatus is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction...
-like contributions.
Agrelot was an avid world traveller, and in 1989 decided to take a cruise
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
around the Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n coast. Don Cholito, as a consequence, left Sunshine Logroño
Sunshine Logroño
Emmanuel Logroño , better known as Sunshine Logroño is a Puerto Rican actor, radio announcer, television show host, singer, comedy writer, entrepreneur and comedian...
as a substitute, and reluctantly "gave him custody" of the Tubo while he took a two-week break. Unbeknownst to Don Cholito, his vacation coincided with Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo
Hurricane Hugo was a classical, destructive and rare Cape Verde-type hurricane which struck the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe, Montserrat, St. Croix, Puerto Rico and the USA mainland in South Carolina as a Category 4 hurricane during September of the 1989 Atlantic hurricane season...
. Damage to Puerto Rico was such that the metropolitan area of San Juan (including Guaynabo where the WAPA-TV studios sit) lost power for at least two weeks and the station's antenna was knocked off its foundations. Working at low power, the station aired a mock trial where Don Cholito accused Logroño of partying too hard before the hurricane and, by being intoxicated, neglecting his duty to lubricate the Tubo. Logroño was consequently convicted of his "crime" during the trial.
See also
- List of famous Puerto Ricans