Julio Rafael Pineda (born December 20, 1937) is a retired Cuban-American television news reporter who spent four decades as anchor for the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
station
WXTV
WXTV-DT (channel 41) is a television station licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, United States, serving as the Univision outlet for the New York City area. It is one of two flagship stations of the Spanish-language network (the other being WL ...
, the
Univision
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 ...
affiliate in New York City.
Born in
Baracoa
Baracoa, whose full original name is: ''Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa'' (“Our Lady of the Assumption of Baracoa”), is a municipality and city in Guantánamo Province near the eastern tip of Cuba. It was visited by Admiral Christop ...
, Cuba, he immigrated to the United States before his 20th birthday. He began his career at the Spanish-language station WXTV in 1968.
Pineda was the lead news anchor on WXTV until 1988, when he became host of the first Spanish-language local interview program in the tri-state area, ''Punto y Aparte'' until it ended a year later, in 1989. He led WXTV to first place among New York's Spanish language newscasts and was the first Spanish-speaking news anchor to interview both political figures and celebrities, such as
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
and
Desi Arnaz
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American actor, bandleader, and film and television producer. He played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, Ricky Ricardo on the American television sitcom ''I Lov ...
The Hudson Reporter
''The Hudson Reporter'' is a newspaper chain based in Hudson County, New Jersey. ''The Hudson Reporter'' publications mainly focus on local politics and community news. The oldest newspaper in the chain is the '' Hoboken Reporter'', founded in 1983 ...
''; May 26, 2006
Retirement
On October 24, 2013, Pineda announced during the 6 P.M. newscast his plans to retire on Friday, December 20, 2013. He served 41 years total at WXTV, longer than any New York City anchor before
Chuck Scarborough
Charles Bishop Scarborough III (born November 4, 1943) is an American television journalist and author. Since 1974, he has been the lead news anchor at WNBC, the New York City flagship station of the NBC Television Network, and has also appeared ...
reached 42 years with
WNBC
WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...