Guillermo Álvarez Guedes (8 June 1927 – 30 July 2013) was a Cuban comedian, actor, writer & businessman. He was better known across Latin America as Álvarez Guedes. Alvarez Guedes was born in Unión de Reyes, Matanzas, a town from where, according to a popular song, hails a legendary and probably fictional rumba king called Malanga. His showbiz career began in his hometown. There, since childhood, he would entertain crowds at parties and fairs by dancing and singing. It was natural that he would travel to Havana, not just the country’s capital but a known entertainment center. In Havana, he worked in theaters and radio shows. But it was in the new medium of television, of which Cuba was the Latin American pioneer, where he made his mark. In a city known for its nightclub scene, Alvarez Guedes appeared in popular television shows that were set in bars and clubs in the role of el borracho, the drunkard, where he mixed linguistic humor with a physical comic style reminiscent of American silent movie stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. He worked in this medium, as well as the booming club world of 1950s Havana, where he shared billing with such stars as Beny Moré, Olga Guillot and Rita Montaner. During that decade, the comic also began a cinematic career that would lead to roles in more than 14 movies and the production of three. However, his most disseminated medium was the recorded spoken word. In 1960, Alvarez Guedes was forced into exile, landing first in New York City then San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he eventually made his first comedy album in 1973, leading to thirty-plus albums over the years. Through the albums, he became an international star of Spanish-language comedy before settling in Miami. Alvarez Guedes and his brother Rafael, together with composer/band leader Ernesto Duarte Brito, founded Gema Records, the company that launched the international careers of "El Gran Combo", a Puerto Rican Salsa music group. A friendship united Guedes with the orchestra's director, Rafael Ithier. The company also launched the careers of Elena Burke and Rolando Laserie, among others. An icon of the Cuban exile community, Alvarez Guedes became known throughout Latin America through his recordings of stand-up comedy, where he told jokes in an unmistakable Spanish filled with Cuban idioms that seemed to flow naturally from his native country’s street humor. Thanks to his popularity,