Manuel Méndez Ballester was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico in 1909, was a well known writer and known for his works fields of journalism, radio broadcasting, television and teaching.
Manuel Méndez Ballester attended primary school in Aguadilla. He obtained his secondary school education in New York. After his return to Puerto Rico he worked as an office clerk in Aguadilla and San Juan. Afterward he worked in the District Court of de Aguadilla and later in the offices of the "Central Coloso" sugar refinery, where he is exposed to the culture and life of the sugar cane worker of the time.
Manuel Méndez Ballester enters the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, with the hope of becoming a lawyer. He is forced to abandon his studies before his first year due to personal economic reasons.
He remains working in San Juan in acting and directing radio programs in the Radio School of the Department of Education ("Escuela del Aire del Departamento de Instrucción Pública"). He returns to the University of Puerto Rico in 1935 where he studies education.
Ballester later works as an actor with Francisco Manrique Cabrera and Fernando Sierra Berdecía who at the time where organizing a traveling thearter production which traveled around Puerto Rico.
He was fascinated and studies the early history of the conquest and colonization of Puerto Rico, which led to "Islas Cerreras", his first novel which was published in 1937.
Literary Works
"Atalaya y Letras" - his early works which where first published in 1931
"Islas Cerreras" - his first novel which takes place in the first days of the colonization of Puerto Rico.
"El Clamor de Los Surcos" - won an award by the Ateneo Puertorriqueño.
"Tiempos Muertos" - tragic play which dealt with the Puerto Rican farmer, debuted in 1940.
ManuelMendezBallester, a well known playwright, who worked as a writer for the radio station, would frequently visit the supermarket.
One day, in 1947, Ballester told the elder Saurez that he was in need of an 8 year old for the protagonist role in a play that he wrote because the person he had in mind didn't pass the audition.
When the elder Suarez realized that the "part" paid more than what he was making working in the supermarket, he took Miguel to the audition the next day and that was the beginning of Miguel's acting career.
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