Florida Catholic | Obituary

OBITUARY

Manolo Reyes, 83

Cuban exile is remembered for his pioneer work as a Spanish language broadcaster and for volunteer efforts on behalf of the poor and exiled.

Published: 01.11.08

MIAMI | Family and countless friends gathered at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Miami Jan. 4 to celebrate the life of Manolo Reyes, a Cuban exile who hosted the first Spanish-language news program on local television and dedicated the better part of his life to serving the community.

Reyes was a Mercy Hospital executive and south Florida community icon who died Jan. 3 at age 83. Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, he was known for his decades of volunteering to countless community initiatives as well as his staunch advocacy of the Mercy Hospital mission to providing assistance to the poor and underserved.

Reyes was one of the moving forces behind the establishment of the St. John Bosco Clinic in Little Havana, which for decades has served the poor and immigrants who lack access to health insurance.

Reyes also was well-known for his years of work as a news director and as newscaster on the first Spanish news program to appear on American television in the southeastern United States. The 15-minute News En Español debuted Aug. 28, 1960, at the very beginning of the Cuban influx to Miami.

For the next 19 years, Reyes had his own newscast at the station, eventually becoming Latin news editor. He became a regular contributor not only to the local CBS affiliate’s news program, but also to Walter Cronkite’s CBS “Evening News.”

“Manolo was Cuban by birth, but all-American by choice,” said Jim Brosemer, a former Miami television news anchor who later served as director of communications for the Palm Beach Diocese.

“Ralph Renick, Mitchell Wolfson and other television news pioneers were among his closest friends,” Brosemer wrote in an online “guestbook” posting on The Miami Herald’s Web site. “So few understood Spanish in the early ’70s that Manolo had to use an audible ‘clicker’ to tell the director when to change slides during his newscast.”

“As a young boy, you charted the course for me,” wrote Rick Sanchez, now a CNN anchor in New York. “Ralph Renick would toss to you and all of us Cubans ‘fresh off the boat’ were left inspired and filled with pride. You were us. You were that promise fulfilled, that in America maybe us poor kids from Hialeah could make it.”

“He brought my mom and brothers to the United States, making great sacrifices so we could grow up in a land of freedom while leaving behind a home, a career and his beloved Cuba,” wrote his daughter, Grace Reyes of Miami.

Her father was a graduate of the University of Havana Law School who at the age of 52 earned another law degree from the University of Miami.

After leaving the news business, Reyes joined Mercy Hospital as vice president of community and government relations. The position enabled him to act as liaison to government offices both at the local and at the state level for nearly 20 years, until his retirement in 2005.

Reyes also recorded a weekly radio show on Radio Peace introducing Mercy Hospital services and physicians to the community. “He will be greatly missed,” said John E. Matuska, president and chief executive officer of Mercy Hospital. “I cannot express enough what he meant not only to Mercy Hospital, but to the south Florida community as well.”

A participant in countless community and civic organizations, Reyes received numerous prestigious awards including the Emmy Award for broadcast journalism, the Pentagon Award for Human Goals, the Archbishop Hurley Award, and many others.

He is survived by his wife, Graciela; three children: Manolo Jr., Charlie and Grace; 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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OBITUARY

Manolo Reyes, 83

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