AÑO XIV, NÚM. 53-54
WHEN THE STAR SHONE
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typewriter, deadlines always loomed. For the perfectionist, deadlines are pure hell. Dorvillier was no stranger to Puerto Rico. Before founding The Star, he was a correspondent for El Mundo whose publisher Ángel Ramos also published the Puerto Rico World Journal. Dorvillier became editor of the Journal, which provided English language news for U.S. troops, federal agency heads and the compact American community on the island from 1940-1945, World War II years. An offspring of the World Journal, The Star was published at first in the El Mundo building in Old San Juan before finding a permanent home in a dreary industrial complex off Kennedy Avenue. The city room was located on the second floor of an industrial building. Excepting the women’s department with some flowered curtains hanging against a windowless wall, the place was drab and cluttered. Despite my youth I carved out a cultural beat while working on the copy desk, volunteering to do theater reviews and coming back to the paper with great admiration for its actors. This was the golden age starring Madeline Willemsen, Lucy Boscana, Iris Martínez, Esther Sandoval, Myrna Vázquez, Félix Monclova and Rafael Enrique Saldaña, to name but a few. Myrna Casas and Luis Rafael Sánchez were at the dawn of celebrated careers as playwrights. The stirring drama of modern Puerto Rico was in its first dramatic act with protagonists like Muñoz, Moscoso, independence advocate Gilberto Concepción de Gracia, statehooder Miguel Ángel García Méndez, musician and politician Ernesto Ramos Antonini who drafted the laws creating the Conservatory of Music, Symphony Orchestra and Free School of Music; New Progressive Party founder Luis A. Ferré, culture czar Ricardo Alegría and San Juan Mayor Felisa Rincón de Gautier, known as doña Fela, striding across the stage. Operation Bootstrap was in full flower, transforming the island from farming to industry. This transformation and the migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland in search of jobs were reflected in “La Carreta,” the iconic play by René Marqués. The Star played an important supporting role in that drama. The anarchic 1960s opened with existential lessons in justice, fairness, freedom and responsibility, in guidance from Sartre, Camus, Beckett and Marcel. The force of feminism of Simone de Beauvoir