Things haven't been going well for the only Puerto Rican member of Llanview's police force, Officer Antonio Vega. This year alone - he shot and critically wounded a respected member of the community and had a one-night stand with a woman who he later discovers is his fiancé's mother. To make matters worse, the mother-in-law got pregnant and somehow has convinced her naïve daughter to carry the baby to term as the surrogate mother. Antonio's impeding wedding is beginning to resemble an impending train wreck. While this scenario might sound far-fetched, it's actually just another day in the scheming, manipulative town of Llanview on ABC's Emmy award winning daytime soap opera, “One Life to Live.”
“He's got himself in a little bit of a jam now when you go off and have a one night stand and it turns out to be your mother-in-law,” said Robert S. Woods, who plays Llanview's Police Commissioner Bo Buchanan. “That is what happens in these little towns.”
Fortunately for Kamar de los Reyes, who plays Antonio, his personal life is nowhere near as confusing. Instead of having affairs and mental breakdowns, de los Reyes at 35 leads a relatively uncomplicated life in New York City.
Nonetheless de los Reyes enjoys every minute of playing the role of the passionate Puerto Rican police officer Antonio Vega, partly because he actually is Puerto Rican. Sometimes, he can't believe his luck-he finally has the opportunity to play a Boricua who, in spite all his problems, is an upstanding member of his soap community.
When de los Reyes first started on “OLTL,” Antonio Vega was a gang member who Llanview's police commissioner, played by Woods, was trying to rehabilitate as part of a “Scared Straight” storyline. Woods, a fixture on the show for the past 23 years, fondly remembers the first day de los Reyes showed up on the set.
“At the time, I remember I went to Susan [Bedsow] Horgan [the show's former executive producer] and I said 'Is this guy under contract? Because he is going to be really big,” Woods said.
A few episodes later, Antonio was doing undercover work for the police and then ultimately became a police officer himself. De los Reyes said he appreciates that Antonio turned his life around, got his record expunged and went to school. The fact that Antonio overcame his tough guy background, de los Reyes believes, might encourage others to do the same.
Antonio's constant close calls in dangerous situations kept viewers addicted to the daytime drama and kept de los Reyes in show business.
“They said we need him for five episodes, which turned into 10, and shortly after that they offered me a contract,” de los Reyes said.
While de los Reyes and his “Vega” family only moved from Puerto Rico to the show's fictional town of Llanview seven years ago, they have already made an indelible mark. The “One Life to Live” show, which has been on the air for over 30 years, was, at its onset, originally inhabited by the rich Lords and the powerful Buchanans. As the country itself turned into more of a melting pot, so did the show.
“The original intent of this show was to have a multi-ethnic, multi-religion cast,” said James DePaivia, who has been playing the role of cunning Texas cowboy Max Holden for the past 16 years. “The show got away from that, for a while, and now it's starting to come back around. To me having a Hispanic family is the norm and it brings a whole different flavor, a more interesting and more accurate reality. We don't live in a homogeneous nation.”
Now, it is standard fare for the backstabbing and conniving plots to be hatched over arroz con pollo and flan at Carlotta's Diner, which is run by Antonio's “mother,” Carlotta Vega. And when things heat up in the bedroom scenes, it is almost expected for de los Reyes to start whispering his lines in sexy Spanish.
“Without the Vegas, who would add the spice in Llanview?” said David Fumero, an actor of Cuban decent, who plays Antonio's younger brother Cristian Vega on the show.
As the only full blooded Puerto Rican in the show's Vega family, de los Reyes said he sometimes feels he has the added responsibility of assuring scenes are Borinquen authentic. He admits, when he started on the show, to having a “real chip on his shoulder” about making sure everything was accurate.
“I had to do a scene where I had to offer flan to a customer and they handed me something and it wasn't flan. It was in liquid form,” he said, running his hand over his short dark hair. “I said my grandmother made flan and I am not going to serve this. Bottom line is that two hours later, they came back with real flan and we did the scene. And now six years later they still talk about it. Since then, I have learned to pick my battles a little wiser.”
In his desire to add true island flavor, de los Reyes would eventually like the Vegas to travel to Puerto Rico and film scenes on the island. In the meantime, de los Reyes is content to portray the “Robin Hood” police officer. Years of being type cast as the “bad Hispanic” taught him to cherish the positive, good guy roles. He hopes that through his daily portrayal of Antonio Vega, he might not only open doors for other Latino actors, but also break down viewer stereotypes of Latinos.
