Mauricio Alberto Lomonte Suárez (born 10 June 1982), known professionally as Mauricio Lomonte, is a Cuban
radio announcer
An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event.
Television and other media
Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...
and
television host
A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...
.
Lomonte started his
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
career in 2000 and later branched into television as host. He currently works for various radio stations such as
Radio Reloj
Radio Reloj (Spanish for ''Radio Clock'') is an internationally broadcast Spanish-language radio station, located in Cuba. It currently carries an all-news format. The station is noted for the sound of a ticking clock in the background, and annou ...
,
Radio Taíno
Radio Taíno is a Cuban Spanish language radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadca ...
and
Radio Progreso. Although he is mainly recognized among the Cuban public for hosting and presenting the television program “''De la Gran Escena''” since 2014.
Early life
Mauricio Lomonte was born in Havana. He is of Italian descent on his father's side (that is the origin of his surname, ''Lomonte'').
Until the age of one, Lomonte lived with his parents in the Havana municipality of
Cerro, then he went to live with his grandmother, who raised and took care of him until he became an adult.
As he said in an interview, he learned to read since a very young age, even then he played at being an announcer without knowing what he was doing, and he always had a very good diction. However, he never participated on school's acts because he was and still is very shy.
It was his grandmother who told Lomonte that his mother had once taken the
announcer's tests and had passed them. On the other hand, his father, who immigrated to the United States, told him many times that he is a frustrated announcer.
He attended high school in a
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...
, in the late 1990s, during the time when the
Cuban educational system promoted the mandatory
program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
called “pre-university boarding schools in the country side” (currently not applicable) for those who wanted to obtain a high school's degree.
Career
2000–2014: Beginnings and breakthrough
Lomonte was only 17 years old when Tony Reytor, a voice over professional working for the COCO broadcasting station, told him: “Boy, you should exploit that voice of yours”. That's how he started working as an assistant of direction in that radio station, although without approaching a microphone whatsoever.
He enrolled himself in workshops and voice over courses, which he never missed. During the year 2000 he debuted in cultural and informational spaces. He also worked with Marelis Plasencia,
playing the role of Manuel Mendive in a
cultural program with the help of Nelson Moreno.
He was able to hone his talent with great voice over masters such as Antonio Pera and Ángel Hernández Calderín.
By then, he replaced the announcer of the ''Música Viva'' show in
Radio Rebelde
Radio Rebelde (English: Rebel Radio) is a Cuban Spanish-language radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours a day with a varied program of national and international music hits of the moment, news reports and live sport events. The station was set up ...
, but he recognizes that at the beginning of that experience he was not good because he talked too fast. Then, he was recommended to work in
Radio Reloj
Radio Reloj (Spanish for ''Radio Clock'') is an internationally broadcast Spanish-language radio station, located in Cuba. It currently carries an all-news format. The station is noted for the sound of a ticking clock in the background, and annou ...
, where he started on January, 2001. He agrees with some other colleagues who think of that radio station as the real school to form voice over professionals. At the age of 18, everybody was telling him he could become a great radio announcer, it was all in his effort to succeed. He remembers in such way two great teachers: Ibrahím Aput and Laureano Céspedes.
His first shift in
Radio Reloj
Radio Reloj (Spanish for ''Radio Clock'') is an internationally broadcast Spanish-language radio station, located in Cuba. It currently carries an all-news format. The station is noted for the sound of a ticking clock in the background, and annou ...
was after midnight, about that he explained: “it was hard work, all the news had to be said in a minute and you need a good sense of synthesis”. He had a lot of help during that time from Luis Alarcón Santana, which made him read out loud and listen to Radio Reloj, where he still works.
Later, during an interview made almost eighteen years after he started working in that radio station, he said about his job: “It's hard work, because other than knowing the extent of this radio station, you have to talk for an entire hour, reading the news at first sight, without some preparation first, it takes a lot from the announcers, that's why it needs a lot of experience, focus and interpretation when being on air”.
Lomonte's career was bolstered when after participating on a
TV casting, he was selected as an
news anchor
A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...
for the
third emission of the National Television Newscast (NTV), at the same time he began working on
Close Caption and signed up for the
sign languages
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
courses for the deaf and hypoacustic (hard of hearing) people.
2014–present: Success and rise to television with “''De la Gran Escena''”
In 2014, Lomonte gained further recognition and he achieved his definite promotion to television screen in the program called ''De la Gran Escena'', when the previous host, Niro de la Rúa, left the program. Mauricio was accepted as a substitute for de la Rúa in that television program by its director, José Ramón Artigas.
Lomonte also is a member to the
Radio Rebelde
Radio Rebelde (English: Rebel Radio) is a Cuban Spanish-language radio station. It broadcasts 24 hours a day with a varied program of national and international music hits of the moment, news reports and live sport events. The station was set up ...
staff, specifically the
newscast
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...
''Portada Rebelde''. On television he was seen on the newscast ''Buenos Días'' and in
specialized news broadcasting. His voice was frequently used on the program ''Cartelera'' until November, 2018; as well as audiovisual materials processed by the Dubbing Department of Cuban television.
He has been the host for some national festivals as the
Peasant Music Contest called ''Eduardo Saborit'' and he usually provides his voice to some different
television commercials
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
and other materials from Cuba and other countries.
He currently works for
Canal Habana and the ANSOC newscast, which broadcasts from Monday to Friday on
Cubavisión
Cubavision is a Cuban television channel owned by the Cuban government. It airs nationally 24 hours a day and has a cable version with a global reach called Cubavision International.
History
The origins of Cubavision go back to December 10, ...
.
On
Radio Progreso, Lomonte hosts the ''Aires de España''
program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
. It's directed by José María Rodríguez Alonso and in it, they cover the
regions of Spain
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_name =
, map =
, category = Autonomous administra ...
, its
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
,
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
and
people
A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...
.
Since 2011, he has been hosting ''SOS Planeta'', a radio program that gives alerts about damage to the ecosystem and the danger they pose to biodiversity. It also covers other subjects related to art, philosophy, economy, history trivia and
general knowledge
General knowledge is information that has been accumulated over time through various mediums and sources. It excludes specialized learning that can only be obtained with extensive training and information confined to a single medium. General kn ...
. From this radio program, Lomonte also covers news and talks frequently about the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, including the latest advances in related scientific investigations. The ''SOS Planeta'' program is broadcast by
Radio Taíno, the FM of Cuba.
Views on his profession
To Mauricio Lomonte, locution is “to show yourself as you are, know how to reach those who will listen to you and above all, you have to be humble, simple and receptive, give your best and know how to reach your audience”.
“I have always thought that the voice over, in addition to being an important specialty for the listener or viewer, also constitutes an art like
acting
Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or actress who adopts a character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the mimetic mode.
Acting involves a broad r ...
. I say this because a well-pronounced news or comment reaches the listener or viewer right away”.
Personal life
Mauricio Lomonte is openly homosexual.
In May 2019, Lomonte's half-brother, named Luis Ernesto, was shot and killed at the age of 39 by a police officer during an altercation in which
SWAT
In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...
security forces raided his home in
Davie
Davie is a surname and a form of the masculine given name David.
It can refer to:
Surname
* Alan Davie (1920-2014), Scottish painter and musician
* Alexander Edmund Batson Davie (1847-1889), Canadian politician and eighth Premier of British Co ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. During the standoff, Luis Ernesto had posted a video on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
showing him sitting in front of a screen with multiple surveillance cameras, saying they showed officers outside his home; while his girlfriend, who was in the house with him, also posted a video on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, saying she and her boyfriend had been bothered by neighbors before police arrived, and also claiming that police were trying to shoot them.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomonte, Mauricio
1982 births
Living people
People from Havana
20th-century Cuban male artists
21st-century Cuban male artists
Cuban LGBT broadcasters
Gay men
Cuban contemporary artists
Cuban LGBT artists
Cuban radio actors
Male radio actors
Radio and television announcers
Television news anchors
Cuban radio presenters
Cuban television presenters