Villa Alegre

Hola, Amigos...de Villa Alegre...la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la la-la-la...Villa Alegre! Born in Puerto Rico 37 years ago. In the 1970's, I'd come running home from school to watch "Villa Alegre" on PBS. An only child raised by my grandparents, there weren't other kids around to talk to. I spoke English at school and Spanish at home. "Villa Alegre" helped me make sense of that duality. I adopted Villa Alegre as MY community, MY bilingual neighborhood. I moved to the US at 17. "Villa Alegre" prepared me to understand in my own skin and heart what it means to be a Latina in a multicultural society. Whereas "Sesame Street" gave me the NYC perspective of my own immigrant family, "Villa Alegre" blessed me with something completely new and beyond my litte world. Hussssshh...I still sing the uplifting theme song in the shower and in my car. Thank you, Villa Alegre, gracias! You will always be a part of me. Does anyone know where I can find that beautiful song?

My uncle was the guitar player of the show. Most of the songs he played them, and he was the guy that came out with a guitar to teach the kids a song. I watched the show all the time. Living in Brooklyn, NY it helped me learn about my culture. I remember my uncle came one day to visit us and he gave us the LP of Villa Alegre with all the songs. I remember it had the songs written in the back and all my cousins had the same LP too.

My mother still has it, with the songs written in the back. I remember "Mi hogar es en la Tierra..." as one of my favorite songs. My uncle Cheo Montalvo, died in 1995 and is now buried in Sabana Grande, PR. I have difficulties finding the original shows though. Would like to buy the collection. If anyone knows, it would be great to see the show again to see my uncle.

My sister and I used to watch this show on our PBS station. It followed "The Electric Company" and had "ZOOM" (our favorite) right after it...so we kinda had to watch it. Odd how we actually sat through it, learning Spanish and all. I remember the beginning vividly. It had sort of a paper maché rotating carnival with a spinning ferris wheel, and then fireworks came shooting out of it. If I recall correctly, the first half of the show was in English, then it repeated the whole show in Spanish. I remember there being a village, where people interacted with each other, and little vignettes where the would explore different things. I remember one of them being where popcorn came from. This is an early memory, so it would have to be in the early 70's when we watched it. Would love to see a compilation on DVD.

It was a pleasant surprise to find residual interest in a children's program show that was aired in the 70's. I was involved in the production of the Villa Alegre television programs until the end of production. My father was the executive producer of the shows, and I was the last Line Producer of the Villa Alegre program. I noticed one cast member registered remarks on this web sight, that was nice. It was great to hear the feedback. In reviewing some of the comments, it appears the thematic curriculum, and the music caught the interest of the viewers, most importantly the bilingual programming and also some folks addressed the characters in the shows. It's important to note that some of the characters in the shows were caricatures of real people who lived in real barrios. The creator of the program introduced these folks through vision and characterizations. Many themes were introduced in the shows, i.e. natural environment, nutrition, self and others, etc.

I believe the shows had merit and brought forth issues ever present in multicultural societies and given the current growth of the Latino population such children's programming should be revisited.

The shows still have a viable heartbeat and breath and it will be interesting to evaluate these again if there is an interest in airing them again. Anyone is invited to send comments if they wish. I will make an attempt to reply if possible.

I thought the television series was wonderful; but then again, I was a production team member and may be biased in my opinion.

I too, like David am amazed to see the affection for our little show Villa Alegre. I am Joaquin, and played Francisco on the show for 4 years.

After reading all of your posts, I now realize what a big influence our show had at the time. I cannot express to you how great that makes me feel.

I have read so many questions on your posts, and welcome the opportunity to answer them the best that I can (we are talking almost 30 years here!) I too think there is plenty of opportunity for shows like this, especially on newer networks like SiTV and such who really promote our ethnic cultures. I really believe that our show (among others) paved the way for popular "bilingual" shows such as Dora the Explorer, Diego, and Maya & Miguel. (I have a toddler, can you tell?) I actually wish that a show such as Villa Alegre was airing today, because my daughter is growing up bilingual, and this would be a great asset in her learning.

One post mentioned that there was no "actors of prominence" on the show. I can tell you that this statement is simply not true. We were kids then, and all grew up. If you look up all of the actors (including me), you will find many, many credits to their names. Most went on to do many other things, including blockbuster movies, and huge television hits.

Thank you all for remembering this show! Joaquin Garay III "Francisco"