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Vicky Hernandez (27 November 1937- 28 July 2020) was a Puerto Rican actress and television producer. Among the productions that she collaborated with, there were some that were internationally co-produced with Puerto Rico by such countries as France, Italy, the United States and Mexico.^[1]

Hernandez was a radio and television actress, producer and screenwriter.^[2]

Early life

Hernandez grew up in the western Puerto Rico city of Mayaguez. She began her studies at the Roosevelt elementary school there, later on joining the Jose de Diego school. Hernandez decided since she was a young girl that she wanted to become an actress and she became obsessed with the profession; her acting teacher was a well known news reporter, broadcaster and acting teacher, don Pedro Ojeda Castillo.^[3]

Career

Hernandez started acting in Puerto Rican cinema as an actress at a very young age. She acted in movies that included other well-known actors such as Kitty de Hoyos, Spain's Jorge Mistral, Marta Romero and Mexicans Rogelio Guerra and Iran Eory.

But her real passion lay in writing and producing. She was signed by Columbia Pictures, a company for which she produced many Spanish language films. She also performed as casting director for the Hollywood productions named "Che!", which was a 1969 movie about Che Guevara starring Omar Shariff, "Bananas", which was a Woody Allen film, "The Delta Factor" with Yvette Mimieux and "Stop!", a 1970 movie starring Linda Marsh.^[4]

She soon branched out to producing, and she started to write and produce various Puerto Rican television shows, including telenovelas, films, mini-series and sitcoms, such as the film about Isabel la Negra, "Life of Sin", telenovelas such as "Los dedos de la mano" ('Fingers on the Hands", based on a book by Enrique Laguerre), "El Regreso" ("The Return"), "Al Son del Amor" ("To the Beat of Love"), "La Jibarita" ("Hillbilly Woman"), and "El Amor Nuestro de Cada Dia" ("Our Everyday Love").^[5]

Hernandez was also a prolific mini-series producer; she began that facet of her career by producing "Las Divorciadas 1" ("The Divorced Women, Part 1"), which was written by the also well-known Argentine writer, Celia Alcantara and by Puerto Rican Mirelsa Modesti. This series was televised on WAPA-TV, channel 4 in Puerto Rico.^[6]

By far one of the best remembered of her productions is "Color de Piel" ("Skin Color"), which was shown on Puerto Rican television station Super Siete and dealt with racism in Puerto Rican society. This series had Rafael Jose and Nydia Caro starring as a mixed-race couple (Jose is Afro-Puerto Rican and Caro Caucasian-Puerto Rican), as well as Ruth Fernandez, Carlos Augusto Cestero and Mexicans Maria Rubio and Rogelio Guerra.^[7] That success was followed by another Super Siete production, "Los Robles", ("The Robles Family") in which Osvaldo Rios and Carmen Dominicci (who would later marry in real life) starred and in which Carlos Augusto Cestero also participated, along with Braulio Castillo, hijo and Miguel Angel Suarez.

During the 1990s, Hernandez branched into the production of sitcoms, producing, for the Super Siete television channel, the highly successful comedy "El Cuartel de la Risa" ("The Police Laughs Station"), which was a parody of the also very successful, American crime story show, "Miami Vice". Actors and actresses at "Cuartel de la Risa" included Rafael Jose, Antonio Sanchez, Pucho Fernandez, Carmen Dominicci and American-Puerto Rican Kate Garrity.^[8]

Retirement and death

Hernandez retired to a home in the San Juan area of Hato Rey.

She died on 28 July, 2020, at the age of 82, following an accidental fall at home. Her body was found inside a bathroom in her house by 911 emergency personnel who had gone to do a welfare check on her after neighbors called the emergency telephone system.^[9]

Reactions to her death

Among those who expressed their sadness at her passing were Antonio Sanchez, Álida Arizmendi, Pedro Zervigon, Edgardo Huertas, Georgina Borri, Amneris Morales, Carlos Esteban Fonseca, Rene Monclova, Carlos Augusto Cestero and Marisol Calero. Arizmendi was considered one of Hernandez's best friends among show business figures.^[10]