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nacionalista and later an independentista (pro-independence advocate) during a transitional
political period when, as I will further explain, U.S. and local law enforcement officials
prosecuted any mobilization against the U.S. colonial power, Ramón Rivero was beloved by
audiences, respected by intellectuals, and admired by the media professionals of his time.
One important element of Rivero’s public persona was his use of star status and
economic power to help people in need. He raised money for cancer research, financially
assisted his unemployed theatre colleagues, and reportedly drove around poor barrios in Puerto
Rico giving away food to impoverished children and the elderly. In addition, Rivero was one of
the first actors to perform in New York City for the Puerto Rican community and during WWII
he was invited by the U.S. State Department to present his act for the Puerto Rican soldiers. In
terms of political activism, Rivero was a key figure in the 1951 labor strike against Angel
Ramos, the owner of WKAQ Radio (the radio station where Rivero did most of his professional
work) and El Mundo newspaper. Moreover, despite the threat of possible censorship or the
potential of becoming an outcast, Rivero was open about his political ideology, declaring, “I
believe in the independence of Puerto Rico as I believe in God.”
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When analyzing the celebrity status of Ramón Rivero one needs to consider not only his
public/private persona but also the discourses which have constructed Puerto Rico’s cultural
nationalism. In the descriptions of Rivero, particularly after his death in 1956, his blackface and
‘black’ voice negrito characters are submerged in discourses of Puerto Ricanness. The nation
becomes the center of these narrations, creating a nostalgic feeling not only about the untimely
death of Rivero, but more importantly, about Puerto Rico’s past. Regardless of the stereotypical
representations of ‘blackness’ which are never problematized, the narrations focus on a time
when comedy did not rely on sexual innuendos. What is more, they also center on the fact that
Convention