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Just as we have talked about musicians and singers who have left to the Puerto Rican culture in the highest in the rest of the world, it is also time to highlight the role of other figures who have contributed immensely to the way in which the Island of Enchantment is perceived by others: the cradle of several of the best artistic exponents from Latin America. One of them is Ralph Rivera.

From the Spaha Salsa Harlem Museum, we have always sought to promote Latin culture by giving space to figures who do their part in making sure we are respected on an artistic level. Such is the case of writer, producer and financial executive Rafael J. Rivera-Viruet, better known as Ralph Rivera, to whom we will dedicate the next lines of this article.   

Who is Ralph Rivera?   

Ralph Rivera was born in a coffee farm in the municipality of Utuado, the third largest municipality in Puerto Rico, which is located behind Ponce and Arecibo and is part of the mountainous region known as La Cordillera Central.   

Like many other Puerto Ricans of the time, his parents were seeking a better future for themselves and their child, so they made the decision to move to New York City, United States, thus becoming part of ”The Great Migration” in the 1940s, which consisted of a massive exodus of Puerto Ricans to Uncle Sam’s country as a result of its growing dominance over the island and the devastation caused by ”The Great Depression”, with which Puerto Rico was greatly affected.   

Once in the United States, the family settled in the South Bronx, where little Ralph spent his childhood and youth being part of New York’s public school system. It was full of children who wanted to get out of poverty through education and hard work. Ralph was certainly no exception, as he wanted the same thing and would do what he could to make it happen.   

Over the years, the young man acquired all the knowledge he could in the area he was most passionate about: business. Of course it was not an easy road, but Ralph managed to reach important positions in this field. When he worked for the auditing firm Price Waterhouse, he was hired by the talent agency Ashley Famous to handle the company’s financial affairs.  

When he gained enough experience, he went for bigger challenges in his career. That was when he met his greatest mentor, fellow executive Marvin Josephson, with whom he created mergers and acquisitions in order to found International Creative Management (ICM) the Behemoth Talent Agency. 

Moving to Los Angeles 

At this point, Ralph had already fulfilled many of the dreams he had set out to achieve professionally, but he still has plenty to prove in the field. It turns out that, in the 1980s, he was given the opportunity to move to Los Angeles to work closely with Martin Starger, former president of ABC television, and Sir Lew Grade, who at the time was the head of Marble Arch Productions, a famous entertainment company in England. 

‘‘Sophie’s choice” and ”On Golden Pond” are among the projects the entrepreneur took on with the company, but his aspirations just kept growing and led him to work with Marvel Comics and Stan Lee himself on the television animation production side. Some of the Marvel titles Ralph worked on include ”Iron Man”, ”Spider Man”, ”The Fantastic Four” and many others.   

In the mid-1990s, he returned to his native island of Puerto Rico and settled in its capital, San Juan, to focus on producing documentaries about Hispanic American culture, including politics, cinema and, of course, music.   

Ralph as a writer   

The multifaceted executive is not limited to the aforementioned facets, but is also a writer and author of the acclaimed book ”HOLLYWOOD: Se Habla Español”, which has won multiple awards since its release. 

In the text, Ralph describes some of the most important achievements of Hispanics in Hollywood films over the last century, stories that should make all of us Latinos who read them proud. They are proof that all the effort we have put into being recognized worldwide has finally paid off despite the obstacles.

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