Eddie López (journalist)

Manuel Eduardo López Rolón a.k.a. Eddie López (1940–1971) was a Puerto Rican journalist.Sources for this article include newspaper columns by Pedro Zervigon, ''Bohemia'' magazine articles from September, November and December 1971 by Ada Nivia Guerra, Pedro Zervigon and Elia G.Ramos respectively, ''Avance'' magazine article by Ada Nivia Guerra and column by Benny Frankie Cerezo - December 1972, and ''TeVe Guia'' magazine's 1999 special edition - "100 Estrellas Que Iluminaron El Siglo", (100 Stars That Illuminated the Century)

Early life and career

Eddie López was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico in 1940, the son of Manuel López Canals (former employee of the Department of Agriculture/Forest Service) and Teresa Rolón Perez (home maker). Brother to María Esperanza Teresa López Rolón, who was then born in 1953. He lived in Fajardo, Mayagüez, Toa Alta, Bayamón and Guaynabo where he finally settled with his wife Margarita Alicea and three sons; Jorge Luis, Carlos, and Victor Antonio until his death. He attended Santa Rosa High School in Bayamón, and did two years at Notre Dame University in Indiana.

His first job after leaving college was at '' El Mundo'' newspaper in 1959, where he worked for two years prior to joining ''The San Juan Star'' in July 1961. He worked as a reporter until 1963 when he was named assistant city editor.

In 1966 he advanced to city editor until one year later, when by his own choice he became a special writer and full-time columnist.

Career in media

López was the kind of rare writer who was equally successful as both a comedy and news writer. He was a script writer for Tommy Muñiz productions as well as a frequent guest on Muñiz's ''Esto no tiene nombre'', a Puerto Rican comedy television program almost directly based on the American television program, ''Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In''. López's first script was inspired by Orson Welles 'radio broadcast adaptation of H.G. Wells' ''The War of the Worlds'', and described the fictional uprising of Puerto Rico's outlying islands, Culebra, Monito and Mona (whose names in Spanish are also animal names), under the leadership of a mock veterinarian, played by López himself. The script was reportedly so well written that the station's general manager, Norman Louveau, was awakened later that night by law enforcement officials who had received many telephone calls from concerned citizens asking whether the uprising was real. Tommy Muñiz was forced to clear things up the following morning on another television program of his.

López was also a panelist of the political debate TV show ''Ante la prensa'', as well as the moderator for ''Cara a cara ante el pais'', whose format is still mimicked by political debate shows in Puerto Rico, almost four decades after the show's first airing.

Fluent in English and Spanish, extraordinarily well and diversely read, he frequently did translation work.

As a newspaper columnist, he was perhaps better known for his "Candid Flowers" (a plausible literal translation of his main character's name "Candido Flores"). These were a series of Spanish stories that relied heavily on local slang, that he then would translate literally and word for word into English. The end result would be a hilarious short story that would only be decipherable by someone who was fluent in both languages.

Eddie's love for the arts and his vast knowledge of classical music made him a well known critic of the genre.

After finding out he was severely sick with cancer, and having started radiotherapy, he had an idea for a political parody, in which he could lampoon current political wrongdoings and blame it all on his gamma ray treatments. López recruited the equally talented Jacobo Morales

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