Pedro Antonio Núñez del Risco, known as Yaqui Núñez del Risco, was a Dominican broadcaster, television producer and lyricist. He wrote songs recorded by a large part of the country’s merengue and ballad establishment, and as a presenter he was one of the platforms through which that music reached a national audience.

Santiago and San Francisco

He was born in Santiago de los Caballeros in 1939 and grew up in San Francisco de Macorís. At fifteen he was already working in the press there, as a sports writer for La Nación and entertainment editor for El Sol, and standing in as an announcer at local radio stations. He later studied law at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, took courses in public relations and journalism in Caracas and in Germany, and taught advertising at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra.

Letra y Música

His television career began with Letra y Música, made with the composer Rafael Solano for the state broadcaster. He then worked with Freddy Beras-Goico on Nosotros a las Ocho, and the two joined El Show del Mediodía, the midday programme where he became a fixture of Dominican television.

He went on to produce and present a long list of his own programmes, among them Otra Vez con Yaqui, De Noche, La Alegría del País and Comida y Comidilla, and returned in 2004 with En Resumidas Cuentas. He also wrote columns for Hoy, El Nacional and Listín Diario, and produced radio, including Aquí Yaqui.

The lyricist

His work as an author runs across the Dominican songbook of the seventies and eighties. Fernando Villalona recorded Compañera, Paloma and La Reina; Anthony Ríos recorded Fuera de Tiempo; Sonia Silvestre recorded Hoy Me Siento Así; and Cecilia García recorded Hola Nuevo Día.

Others followed. Johnny Ventura recorded Mamá Tingó, named for the peasant leader; Toño Rosario recorded Yo Soy Toño; Milly Quezada recorded Cuando No Estás and La Mujer de Hoy; and Félix D’Oleo recorded Hoy Somos Una Canción. His songs were also taken up by Dioni Fernández y El Equipo, Aníbal Bravo and Wilfrido Vargas.

The airport as a gallery

In December 1990 he was appointed to run Las Américas International Airport. He reorganised it and turned the building into an exhibition space, working with the Museo de Arte Moderno and the folklore institute to bring visual art and folk culture into the terminal.

Recognition

He received a Casandra award for merit in 2004 and was recognised in New Jersey the following year. The Dominican government declared him a national figure of broadcasting in 2011, and the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo made him an honorary professor in 2013. He left broadcasting at the end of 2008 and died in Santo Domingo six years later.