MIGUEL ÁNGEL ÁLVAREZ, a.k.a Johnny “El Men,” (August 25, 1936 – January 16, 2011) was a Puerto Rican journalist, radio show host, actor, comedian, author, and poet.
He was born in San Juan Puerto Rico and raised in the municipality of Bayamon, where he received his primary and secondary education.
Álvarez started as a radio show host for WENA. On October 3, 1950, he was among a group of reporters who covered the historic gunfight at Salon Boricua between the Nationalist and barber Vidal Santiago Diaz and forty police and National Guardsman. For three hours Diaz held off the National Guardsmen and Insular Policemen, who surrounded the barbershop and attacked with revolvers, rifles, carbines, and a machine gun. The event made history because it was the first event of its kind to be transmitted over the airwaves in real-time. In the end, Díaz perished but he became the second-most famous Nationalist in Puerto Rican history, after Pedro Albizu Campos.
Álvarez also participated in the radio show “El Tremendo Hotel” (The Tremendous Hotel), starring Ramón Rivero “Diplo,” and was contracted to do radionovelas (soap operas).
The Puerto Rican playwright, Francisco Arriví invited Álvarez to appear in three plays, where he made his theatrical debut: “Club de Solteros” (Bachelor Club), “El Caso del Muerto en Vida” (The Case of the Living Dead), and “Maria Soledad” (Lonely Maria).
Álvarez stood in for the actor, Jacobo Morales in the theater production of “El Cielo Se Rinde al Amanecer” (The Sky Surrenders at Dawn). Also, he appeared in the play” “Widows Walk”, which was presented at the University of Puerto Rico Theater.
As his popularity grew, Álvarez appeared in productions throughout Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the U.S.
