Pedro Rosa Nales (born December 3, 1956 in

Fajardo, Puerto Rico Fajardo (, ) is a town and municipality -Fajardo Combined Statistical Area. Fajardo is the hub of much of the recreational boating in Puerto Rico and a popular launching port to Culebra, Vieques, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. It is ...

) is a Puerto Rican

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, news anchor and a recognized martial artist. As a journalist he has received over 20 awards.

Journalism

He started working at radio station WMDD in Fajardo. As a television journalist, he was recruited by the

WAPA-TV WAPA-TV (channel 4) is a Spanish-language independent television station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is owned by Hemisphere Media Group, which is 84% owned by InterMedia Partners. WAPA-TV's studios are located on Avenida Luis Vigoreaux in G ...

channel 4 of

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...

in 1981, becoming the first black Puerto Rican to work as a TV reporter. During his 32 years as a TV journalist, he had won more than 100 awards from several organizations in Puerto Rico and 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 ...

, including awards for the coverage of

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s and investigative reports like Red Alert 1 and 2, in which he uncovered the military use of the

Vieques island Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Ric ...

and the effects of army maneuvers on the population. In the past years, he has worked as a host (Anchor) on various editions of ''Noticentro 4'' on WAPA TV and in 2014 on "Noticentro America" for viewers in the United States. In 2017, he anchored the 5 p.m. news hour for Noticentro. In 2018, (Noticentro In the Morning) celebrated eighteen years on air. Rosa Nales sued WAPA-TV during December 2020 for the amount of $2.5 million dollars, alleging he was ignored in favor of White colleagues when the network decided to install Rafael Lenin Lopez as main afternoon news reporter instead of him due to Rosa Nales' being Black and also an older person than Lenin Lopez.

Martial arts

When memes of Rosa Nales, in martial arts poses, were discovered on the net, he gladly shared with the public that he has practiced martial arts all his life, for over 47 years.

Personal life

He served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

as a parachutist from the 82nd Airborne Division, in the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). He was later Press officer, Executive officer, Radio and Tv officer and Unit commander in the

Puerto Rico National Guard The Puerto Rico National Guard (PRNG) – es, Guardia Nacional de Puerto Rico– is the national guard of the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The Constitution of the United States specifically charges the National Guard with dual federal and s ...

with the rank of captain. Rosa Nales married young, and his wife had a daughter when he was just seventeen years old. They divorced while he was in the army. He has two children but in 2012, Rosa Nales 32-year-old daughter, who had fought addiction with the help of , died of a possible overdose. On June 29, 2021, Pedro Rosa Nales' sixteen year-old grandson was accused of murder, along with another teenager.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosa Nales,Pedro 1956 births Living people People from Fajardo, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican journalists Puerto Rican news anchors Puerto Rico National Guard personnel United States Army officers