FROM THE DESKS OF
MARY BLACK SUÁREZ AND CISCO SUÁREZ
President, MBS Entertainment; COO/executive vp production and development, Somos Productions
Executive vp primetime non-scripted realities and specials, TelemundoBY LEILA COBO ● PHOTOGRAPHED BY JEFFERY SALTER
A
NYONE WHO HAS WATCHED A
major Latin music awards show in the
past 15 years has seen the work of either
Francisco “Cisco” Suárez or Mary Black
Suárez. They started their production careers in
the early 1990s at rival Latin networks. In recent
years, Mary has produced Telemundo’s live events,
such as the Latin American Music Awards [Latin
AMAs], and Cisco has produced Univision’s,
including the Latin Grammys. In the age of
cord-cutting, the networks face new challenges;
Mary and Cisco have had to battle harder — and
battle each other — for fewer eyeballs.
But their business rivalry also has a romantic twist:
Mary and Cisco have been married for over 30 years.
The two producers first met at a TV summit in
- “I was going up the escalator and saw this girl
at a phone booth, and we locked eyes,” says Cisco,
a tall, gregarious Cuban who came to the United
States as a child in the early 1960s.
The girl was Mary: a gray-eyed Venezuelan
beauty working as an audio assistant at a produc-
tion com pany. Cisco was smitten. “I went over
to hug my friend, but I was really going over for
The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named SBS chairman/CEO RAÚL ALARCÓN JR. businessperson of the year. AEROSMITH was named MusiCares’ 2020 person of the year.
28 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 12, 2019