Luz Nereida Vélez

Luz Nereida Velez (born October 6, 1955) is a Puerto Rican television news reporter. Velez is known to Puerto Rican television audiences for being an anchorwoman on the WAPA-TV news show, "Noticentro 4", having worked there for more than 40 years.

Early life

Velez grew up in the western Puerto Rico town of Mayaguez. There, she used to play with a recorder and microphone at her family's house. She would practice talking about news and play music with this recorder.

Velez excelled in school, becoming a member of a group for very intelligent students. She was accepted at the young age of 15, to the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, from where she hoped to graduate with a medical degree as a surgeon. It was while there that she got her first job as an anchorwoman, when she was hired by a local radio station named WOLE, which covered the areas of Mayaguez and Aguadilla.

Velez then traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she lived for a period. Velez wanted to enroll at Syracuse University, but she decided, during a vacation trip to Puerto Rico, to telephone WAPA-TV and ask if there were any internships available. During the drive from Isla Verde Airport in San Juan, Velez told her father to detour and make a stop at the WAPA-TV building. There, she was interviewed by their news director, a man named Bill Perez. She was offered a screen test and soon she was contracted by the station.

In 1974, at the age of 19, Velez joined Noticentro 4 as a television news reporter. She soon became a celebrity in Puerto Rico. Originally, she worked the show's afternoon and nightly editions, As the show later expanded into having a morning edition too ("Noticentro al Amanecer") she also began working the morning edition of the show. As of 2022, Velez had spent 48 years as a television newscaster.

On June 13, 2022, Velez, along with Sylvia Gomez, Cyd Marie Fleming and Eddie Miro (who received a Gold Circle Award for his fifty years on Puerto Rican television) was recognized with a Silver Circle EMMY award for her 48 years as a television reporter.

Personal life

Velez grew up in a house where both Spanish and English were spoken and encouraged as languages by her parents. She is bilingual, having learned English by practicing it one hour every day as a young girl.

Velez met Ovi Ramos, a singer 23 years her junior, during 2016. Ramos is a singer for a rock band named La Novena. A couple of years later, the couple had separated.

Velez has a daughter who is a noted singer and internet influencer named Alhanna. Alhanna released her first album, named "De Rumba", during 2019.

See also

• List of Puerto Ricans
• Guillermo Jose Torres
• Rafael Bracero
• Pedro Rosa Nales
• Efren Arroyo
• Jennifer Wolff
• Luis Antonio Cosme
• Maria Falcon
• Anibal Gonzalez Irizarry
• Junior Abrams
• Luis Francisco Ojeda
• Avelino Munoz Stevenson