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Don Francisco Gives Back
by Bryna Brennan
A familiar chord
Offstage and out of the limelight, Don Francisco is Mario Kreutzberger, a 62-year-old Chilean, the son of German-Jewish immigrants. In his small office at Univision headquarters in Miami, the entertainer is affable yet also shy, studied, even pensive—almost the opposite of his television personality. Kreutzberger shows a much more serious side, explaining his efforts to promote health as a way of giving something back to the people who over the years have been so good to him.
Part of his motivation is that you can’t take it with you. "It’s logical that those who have more should have the social consciousness to share with those who have less, considering that no matter how much money you have you can’t avoid death," he says. He also believes that celebrity should be put to good use. "We communicators should act as a bridge between those who have and those we can help to have a better life."
As a communicator, Don Francisco believes it is his responsibility to promote positive messages: love and tolerance, the value of family, perseverance and hard work, a sense of community and cultural pride. |
With viewers in at least 30 countries, Kreutzberger reaches millions during his three-hour Spanish-language show, which is long by U.S. standards but a good deal shorter than its previous seven-hour incarnation in Chile. His broadcasts from Miami have helped create a sense of Hispanic community that links U.S. immigrants with people in their home countries of Latin America and even Spain.
Kreutzberger’s popularity and broad reach have led to interviews on his show with both presidential candidates in the last U.S. election, along with an engraved star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, a special issue in People magazine’s Spanish edition and an audience with Pope John Paul II.
Virtually all of today’s most noted Hispanic celebrities have appeared on the show, including Marc Anthony, Jon Secada, Ricky Martin, Cristina Saralegui and Gloria Estefan. Indeed, Sábado Gigante has helped launch a significant number of Hispanic entertainers’ careers.
In his Univision studio, Kreutzberger moves quickly, with a level of energy one might not expect from a middle-aged grandfather with diabetes, high blood pressure, a thyroid condition and arthritis. "Health has no price," he says. But an acknowledged $18,000 facelift and chin reduction have helped to keep him looking as good as he seems to feel.
Tirelessly Kreutzberger tapes commercial messages between show takes. He strides to a different studio to tape the public service announcements for PAHO’s initiative on safe blood donations. He reads the scripts quickly. He does a single practice run. And he rattles off each of seven 30-second messages flawlessly. Each delivery is utterly convincing, as if in each one, Don Francisco is making a very personal plea.
That, he concedes, is his greatest talent and appeal. "I know I strike a familiar chord with people that allows them to feel like my very close personal friends, so much so that they are willing to wait two or three hours to meet me," he writes in his recently published autobiography, Don Francisco: Life, Camera, Action!
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