Alex Soto

{{short description|Puerto Rican comedian, actor, and drag queen}}

Alex Soto Hernández (July 29, 1965 – April 9, 2015){{cite news|title=Obituary: Alex Soto|url=http://www.northendfuneralhome.com/book-of-memories/2141784/Soto-Alex/obituary.php|accessdate=April 5, 2017|publisher=Heaven Door Funeral Home|date=April 9, 2015|language=en}} was a Puerto Rican actor, comedian and drag queen, who was well known for his transvestite characterizations.{{cite web|url=http://puertorico.univision.com/shows-de-tv/ruben-y-co/video/2015-04-10/recordando-a-alex-soto|title=Recordando a Alex Soto|work=Univision.com}} Soto was a native of San Juan, where he worked on several theatrical productions.{{cite web|url=http://queermagnet.com/qmw/?p=6408 |title=Alex Soto |work=QueerMagnet.com |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150414094511/http://queermagnet.com/qmw/?p=6408 |archivedate=2015-04-14 }}

Biography

Soto was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the son of Julio Soto Cosme and Carmen Hernández Coriano. He had two sisters, Magali and Ivette, and a brother, Denis. Since a very young age, he found work as an actor in Puerto Rican theatre, and during the 2000s, he gained popular exposure on the famed television show, Minga y Petraca, playing "Tomasa", a neighborhood lady.{{cite web|url=http://www.primerahora.com/entretenimiento/tv/nota/actoresdeteatroresaltanvaliadealexsoto-1076389/|title=Actores de teatro resaltan valía de Álex Soto|work=Primera Hora|date=11 April 2015}}

In 2002, Soto portrayed a drag queen in a theater play named Vidas de Herejes,{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWi3fICTI68|title=Alex Soto "Herejes"|date=8 July 2014|work=YouTube}} which was a hit play. He reprised the role when the play returned to the theaters during 2004 and 2010.

Health problems

Soto suffered from diabetes and obesity. In 2012, he had his right leg amputated. He flew from Puerto Rico to Boston, Massachusetts in late 2014, both to be near his sister and to be hospitalized there for diabetes and for an infection on his amputated leg.

Soto suffered a fatal heart attack at the hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts on the evening of April 9, 2015.