Tomás Muñiz

Tomás Muñiz

Tomás Muñiz Souffront (August 4, 1900 - September 9, 1963) was a well known Puerto Rican radio and television producer. He is sometimes respectfully called by the general public in Puerto Rico as Don Tomás Muñiz, to differentiate him from his namesake and son, Tommy Muñiz

As a young man, Tomás Muñiz worked as a real estate agent, and later as an advertising copy writer -and later executive- of the West Indies Advertising Company (WIAC). He later produced radio shows and administered the agency's radio station, WIAC-AM in San Juan. He was one of the first persons to give José Miguel Agrelot work. He also worked with a large number of other entertainers, notably Luis Vigoreaux.

Tomás Muñiz met Juan Bautista García, an immigrant from Corsica, when they became neighbors during the 1940s. The two men and their families forged a friendship, and, when Tomás Muñiz was working across the island on show business related events, Mr. García often helped by doing various things, not including any participation in the events themselves.

Lucas Tomás Muñiz later on became owner of Teleluz, a major competitor of WAPA-TV and Canal 2.

Tomás Muñiz was the patriarch of a show business family: one of his seven children, Tommy, is a media legend in Puerto Rico, as is his grandson Rafo Muñiz, also a television producer. Yet another grandson, Pedro Muñiz, starred as Alfonsina Molinari's father in the short lived 1989 television show Maripili and is also a television producer and film director.