Hector Vazquez Muñiz is a Puerto Rican television sportscaster and journalist and radio programs producer. Muñiz is the sports anchorman at
Telemundo Puerto Rico's "Telenoticias Fin de Semana" ("Television News Weekend Edition"), which is transmitted on weekend days at 5 PM and 10 PM.
A controversial host, he has been accused, among other things, of being racist.
He also has a radio talk show named "A Swing Completo con Vazquez Muñiz".
Muñiz covers
association football
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
and
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
games on Puerto Rican television,
but he is best known for his coverage of
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
, and some of his best-known phrases are "Y se va, y se va, y se fue!" ("It's going! it's going! it's gone!", which he pronounces similar to
Chris Berman
Christopher James Berman (born May 10, 1955), nicknamed "Boomer", is an American sportscaster. He has been an anchor for ''SportsCenter'' on ESPN since 1979, joining a month after its initial launch, and hosted the network's '' Sunday NFL Count ...
's phrase of "Back, back, back, gone!") whenever someone hits a home-run, and "Y se les esta haciendo tarde!" ("It's getting too late for them") which he says when a baseball team is down by many runs on the scoreboard late in the game.
Early life
Hector Vazquez Muñiz was born in
Caguas, Puerto Rico
Caguas (, ) is a Caguas barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in central eastern Puerto Rico. Located in the eponymous Caguas Valley between the Sierra de Cayey and Sierra de Luquillo of the Cordillera Central (Puer ...
. He is the son of
Héctor Rafael Vázquez, who was also a sportscaster.
His father and his uncle Johnny Vazquez were the owners of the
Criollos de Caguas baseball team,
a team that is the most successful baseball team, championships-wise, in Puerto Rico's baseball history, and which Vazquez Muñiz himself later joined as their official radio sportscaster. He earned a Bachelor degree in communications from
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (English: University of the Sacred Heart), abbreviated "USC" and often called simply Sagrado, is a private Catholic Church, Catholic university in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is one of the oldest and larg ...
.
Career
Vazquez Muñiz has had a long career in Puerto Rican media. From 1993 to 2012, he worked as a sports news editor for
WKAQ AM 580 radio.
By 1997, he had joined the staff of "Mira Que TVO", a
Telemundo Internacional
Telemundo Internacional is a Latin American pay television television network, network owned by NBCUniversal. Telemundo Internacional carries a variety of programs, consisting mainly of select programs from the Telemundo national schedule.
Histo ...
candid camera type of show, as a show host.
Vazquez Muñiz has a column in the
Primera Hora newspaper in Puerto Rico, named "Se Prendió el Fogón" ("The Heat is On!"), where he discusses many sports, mainly baseball.
He has also been a long-time Telemundo Puerto Rico sportscaster.
Controversies
In 2004, Vazquez Muñiz was fired from Telemundo Puerto Rico for expressing his opinion about a car company on the air. He was rehired by the channel in 2014.
During the
2018 Central American and Caribbean Games
The 23rd Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Barranquilla, Colombia. Asamblea ODECABE, Islas Caimán' (translation: "CASCO Assembly, Cayman Islands"). Published by CACSO on 2012-10-27; retrieved 2012-11-13.
Bidding process
Quet ...
in
Barranquilla, Colombia, Vazquez Muñiz was assigned to cover the games for Telemundo Puerto Rico. During the
judo
is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...
gold medal competition between Cuban athlete,
2012 London Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
champion
Idalys Ortiz
Idalys Ortiz Bocourt (born 27 September 1989) is a Cuban retired judoka. She competed in the over 78 kg division at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Olympics and won a medal on each occasion. She won the silver medal in the women's +78 kg event at ...
and Puerto Rican competitor
Melissa Mojica, Vazquez Muñiz made a commentary saying that "Yo no sabia que en
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
hay osos! Eso es un oso!" ("I had no idea that Cuba has bears! That is a bear!) referring to Ortiz, who is black. He had many defenders, including Mojica, who went on twitter and declared that she felt that he did not use the bear term to offend her or her rival. "That wasn't his intention", she declared publicly.
Among other defenders, there was also
Annabel Guillen, the then president of a group that advocates for Puerto Rico's statehood named "Igualdad", who stated that "(We've had) enough with the persecution of newspaper reporters and public figures because of their favoring of statehood (for Puerto Rico) on a personal level, like the majority of the (Puerto Rican) citizenship! We reclaim the reestablishment of Vazquez Muñiz as a laborer, it is what is fair and correct, otherwise, we are calling upon Igualdad members and all statehood supporters to boycott the channel (Telemundo Puerto Rico) and all of their programming!" she said in a public statement. According to Guillen, Vazquez Muñiz is a backer of the ideal of statehood for Puerto Rico.
Eventually, Vazquez Muñiz was reinstated by Telemundo Puerto Rico.
Secretary of Sports and Recreation of Puerto Rico
On february 7 2025, Hector Vazquez Muñiz was appointed Secretary of the
Puerto Rico Department of Sports and Recreation by governor
Jenniffer González.
[https://metropr.net/2025/01/07/gobernadora-designa-a-hector-vazquez-muniz-como-secretario-del-drd/]
See also
*
List of Puerto Ricans
This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...
*
Rafael Bracero
Rafael Bracero Torres (born 1940 in Santurce, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican sportscaster. Bracero graduated from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez then known as ''Colegio de Artes Mecánicas'' (College of Arts and Mechanical Arts - '' ...
*
Junior Abrams
Juan Ramón Abrams Jr, better known as Junior Abrams (born April 25, 1955 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican television and radio sportscaster, actor and show host.
Biography
After years of radio broadcasting experience on WRAI AM with H ...
*
Fufi Santori
José Santori Coll (May 7, 1932 – April 2, 2018) was a Puerto Rican basketball player and coach. Santori was also, for a short period late in his life, a bachata singer; he recorded an album, named ''El Sentimiento de Fufi'' (''Fufi's Feelin ...
*
Rickin Sanchez
*
Norman H. Davila
*
Ed Trucco -who broadcast BMX races during his youth in Puerto Rico
*
Manolo Rivera Morales
*
Ernesto Diaz Gonzalez
*
Ramiro Martinez
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vazquez Muñiz, Hector
Year of birth missing (living people)
People from Caguas, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican journalists
Puerto Rican television journalists
Secretaries of sports and recreation of Puerto Rico
Association football commentators
Volleyball commentators
Universidad del Sagrado Corazón alumni
Baseball announcers
Living people