Edgardo Díaz (born 1947) is a Puerto Rican music producer. He is the creator of the "boy band" Menudo.

Early life

Díaz was born in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

to Puerto Rican parents "Nacho" Diaz and his wife "Panchi", Díaz grew up in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Career

Díaz moved to Spain after graduating from school and he worked with a group that was widely successful,

La Pandilla La Pandilla was a teen music group of the 1970s, founded in 1970 by Pepa Aguirre. The group had members of both sexes, unlike most pop groups at the time. Aguirre's son, daughter, and niece formed the band; later, 2 boys were added. Their first ...

, which had 4 boys and 1 girl, Mari Blanca, (now a Veterinarian in her home country), but after the ''La Pandilla'' members grew up, he moved back to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and created Menudo. Díaz managed Menudo from 1977 to the group's era as MDO''.'' At the time he started to manage Menudo, Diaz was also the director of a young-adult oriented band named "Aquamarina". In 2004, Díaz signed Daniela Lujan to manage the Mexican singer and actress' career.

Personal

Diaz was once romantically linked to the Puerto Rican actress and singer Millie Aviles.

Allegations

In 1991, Diaz was accused by an ex-member of Menudo of sexual abuse on a May 1991

Univisión Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

Television Program "

Cristina Show Cristina María Saralegui de Ávila (born January 29, 1948) is a Cuban-born American journalist, television personality, actress and talk show host of the Spanish-language eponymous show, '. Before her television career, she worked for ten years ...

". He denied the allegations. Diaz has been the recipient of several sexual crime allegations by former Menudo members, including Ralphy Rodriguez and

Roy Rossello Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

, who accused him of sexual abuse during a Brazilian reality show on 21 October 2014. On 20 November 2014, Rene Farrait, another former Menudo member, told the

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...

show Suelta La Sopa: "Unfortunately, there are many people in the communications world that really know what happened (at Menudo) and are playing stupid", when asked about abuse allegations by Diaz. He did not, however, mention anything about sexual abuse against him or his Menudo bandmates. "He (Diaz) knows perfectly what happened there", Farrait told the show. Former

Los Chamos Los Chamos were a famous Venezuelan boy band formed in Caracas, Venezuela in 1981 to rival Menudo's success. Los Chamos were made up of six members and released their first album "Los Chamos-El Soldadito" sponsored by channel 8 of Venezuelan Nat ...

member Gabriel Fernandez, who was allegedly accepted into Menudo once, made similar allegations in 2021.

In popular culture

Diaz is played by

Braulio Castillo, hijo Braulio Castillo Jr. (born August 30, 1958) is a Puerto Rican actor and radio host. He is the son of Braulio Castillo, an actor across Latin America, and the brother of the lesser known Jorge Castillo, also a television and theater actor. Biogra ...

and by Yamil Urena in the 2020 Amazon Prime Video series based on Menudo, " Subete A Mi Moto".

References