Rafael Pineda, longtime Univision 41 anchor in New York, dies at 88

Rafael Pineda, a pioneering Spanish-language television journalist who became a daily fixture for generations of New York-area viewers, has died at age 88. Univision 41 said he died Sunday in Florida, where he had been living in retirement.

Pineda’s passing marks the end of an era for local Spanish-language news in the region, where his steady presence helped define how community stories were covered and who they were covered for. Details about the cause of death were not immediately made public.

A career built in the rhythm of local news

Pineda spent decades at Univision 41, anchoring the station’s newscasts across a period that reshaped the city and the immigrant communities that call it home. He was widely recognized as one of the longest-serving news anchors in the New York market, and his run became synonymous with continuity in a business that rarely offers it.

While many viewers first knew him as the calm voice delivering the day’s headlines, colleagues described him as a newsroom standard-setter: someone who treated the work as public service, not performance. Over time, he became a familiar point of reference for audiences looking for information that reflected their language and daily realities.

The long run at Univision 41

Pineda’s association with the station stretched back to the late 1960s, and he later became the face of its news coverage for more than four decades. By the time he retired in 2013, he had become a symbol of stability for Spanish-speaking households across the tri-state area.

A few milestones help explain the scale of his tenure:

• Late 1960s: Joined the station’s Spanish-language operation in New York

• 1972: Began anchoring newscasts that would make him a nightly constant for viewers

• 2013: Retired after more than 40 years on air in New York

• 2026: Died in Florida at age 88

Even after stepping away from the anchor desk, he remained a name viewers continued to ask about, an unusual legacy in local television where faces change quickly and memory can be short.

What is known, and what has not been confirmed

Univision 41 confirmed Pineda’s death and emphasized his role as a trailblazing voice in Hispanic media in the United States. Beyond the basic announcement, several personal details have not been fully clarified publicly, including the specific medical circumstances of his passing.

Public biographical summaries consistently describe Pineda as Cuban-born and as having arrived in the United States when he was still young. Some background details vary in different accounts, but the central arc of his life and work is clear: he built a career around the idea that local news should be accessible, culturally fluent, and rooted in the community it serves.

Why his legacy resonates beyond the newsroom

For many New Yorkers, Pineda represented more than a familiar anchor. He signaled that Spanish-language audiences were not an afterthought in local coverage, but a primary public with urgent needs: safety updates, school closings, immigration changes, elections, and the everyday stories that shape neighborhoods.

His influence can be felt in the expectation that Spanish-language local news should deliver the same urgency, depth, and civic accountability as any other newsroom. In the days ahead, attention will likely turn to how Univision 41 and the broader local media community commemorate his life, and whether additional details about memorial plans will be shared publicly.

Pineda’s career spanned a time when New York’s Latino communities grew in size and political visibility, and he became one of the voices that accompanied that change. For viewers who counted on him night after night, his absence will feel personal, even as his impact remains woven into the city’s media history.