Rafael Alvarez (born May 24, 1958) is an American author based in
Baltimore and Los Angeles. Alvarez went to work for the Sunpapers of
Baltimore as a teenagerâ€"first in the circulation department and then
the horse racing desk in sportsâ€"before landing on the City Desk as a
utility man and neighborhood folklorist. He was with The Sun from 1977
through 2001. After leaving the paper, Alvarez worked on ships as a
laborer before joining the staff of the HBO drama The Wire. He also
worked on the NBC crime dramas Life and The Black Donnellys.Among his
many books are two short story collectionsâ€"The Fountain of
Highlandtown and Orlo & Leini; a history of the Archdiocese of
Baltimore; two anthologies of journalismâ€"Hometown Boy and
Storyteller; and The Tuerk House, a history of Baltimore's pioneering
drug and alcohol treatment center for the poor. In 2010, he was
nominated for an Edgar Award for The Wire: Truth Be Told, an
encyclopedic companion to the television series.The first of three
sons of Manuel Rafael Alvarez and the former Gloria Jones, the author
was born at St. Agnes Hospital in southwest Baltimore across from a
former Catholic orphanage and reform schoolâ€"St. Mary's Industrial
Schoolâ€"attended by Babe Ruth. He was raised in suburban Linthicum
and graduated in 1976 from Mt. St. Joseph High School. Alvarez is of
Italian, Polish, and Spanish descent and was raised in a culturally
Polish-American home. He is often assumed to be Hispanic, but he does
not identify as such.He returned to the City of Baltimore while
attending Loyola College, buying a rowhome on North Ellwood Avenue in
East Baltimore in 1980. A decade later, he moved into his paternal
grandparents' house on Macon Street in Greektown.
Baltimore and Los Angeles. Alvarez went to work for the Sunpapers of
Baltimore as a teenagerâ€"first in the circulation department and then
the horse racing desk in sportsâ€"before landing on the City Desk as a
utility man and neighborhood folklorist. He was with The Sun from 1977
through 2001. After leaving the paper, Alvarez worked on ships as a
laborer before joining the staff of the HBO drama The Wire. He also
worked on the NBC crime dramas Life and The Black Donnellys.Among his
many books are two short story collectionsâ€"The Fountain of
Highlandtown and Orlo & Leini; a history of the Archdiocese of
Baltimore; two anthologies of journalismâ€"Hometown Boy and
Storyteller; and The Tuerk House, a history of Baltimore's pioneering
drug and alcohol treatment center for the poor. In 2010, he was
nominated for an Edgar Award for The Wire: Truth Be Told, an
encyclopedic companion to the television series.The first of three
sons of Manuel Rafael Alvarez and the former Gloria Jones, the author
was born at St. Agnes Hospital in southwest Baltimore across from a
former Catholic orphanage and reform schoolâ€"St. Mary's Industrial
Schoolâ€"attended by Babe Ruth. He was raised in suburban Linthicum
and graduated in 1976 from Mt. St. Joseph High School. Alvarez is of
Italian, Polish, and Spanish descent and was raised in a culturally
Polish-American home. He is often assumed to be Hispanic, but he does
not identify as such.He returned to the City of Baltimore while
attending Loyola College, buying a rowhome on North Ellwood Avenue in
East Baltimore in 1980. A decade later, he moved into his paternal
grandparents' house on Macon Street in Greektown.
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