Time Warner Cable Deportes is approaching its one-year anniversary on the air, and network VP PABLO F. URQUIZA has been busy with the rest of the El Segundo, Calif.-based staff preparing a year-in-review special to air on the Spanish-language RSN Oct. 1. Between the network's production and coverage of Lakers and MLS Galaxy games, there is not a lot of downtime for Urquiza, who has been with TWC Deportes since its creation in '11. But no matter what the season, Urquiza always finds time to enjoy his favorite passions on the weekend -- soccer, wine and Sunday night TV.
VERY SUPERSTITIOUS: The team that I follow in the Premier League, which is Manchester City, whenever my team plays during the weekend, I wake up early that day just to watch them. This Saturday, Manchester City plays at 7:00am (PT) and I will wake up at 6:45 on Saturday just to watch the game. My wife hates that because I will wake her up because I scream, “Goal, goal!” every time the team scores. But that’s one thing I always do. I always sit in the same spot in the sofa and I always have -- my second-screen experience is my iPad for Twitter -- I always put my iPad in the same position on the armrest. I always have my iPad there in one way. And I’m so crazy about soccer, if the game is exciting sometimes I watch the game standing up the whole time.
GETTING HIS KICKS: I am very involved with youth soccer and I work with AYSO, the American Youth Soccer Organization. I’m in charge of the whole (Southern California) region, which is from Playa del Rey all the way to Inglewood. We have almost 1,500 kids playing soccer every weekend during the fall. On the weekend, since I’m in charge of the region, I have to be available for issues or coach my kids’ team or be there at the field with parents who have concerns or whatever. We have games from U5, which is 4-year-old kids, all the way to U19 which is 18 year olds. We have games on Saturday from 9:00am all the way to 6:00pm and then Sundays from 9:00am all the way to 5:00pm. I coach my boy, PABLO’s team. He’s 8 years old. My girl, LOURDES, is 13 and old enough to have another coach. But that’s a big deal to me. I’m so grateful to this country for everything it has given me and I just find it to be a very small way of giving back for the kids and the community.
TASTE TEST: On Saturday afternoons, I’m big time into wine, so I like to do wine hunting. I go to different stores, I take two hours or so just for me, and I go to different stores in L.A. I like to find different wines, see what they have and try them all and talk to people who know more about them than me. So I go wine hunting every weekend. I like red wine. My favorite is Malbec from Argentina, of course. But I also like Pinot Noirs from Santa Barbara, too.
FLAVOR OF THE WEEK: On Sundays, we have our things that we do as a family. Sunday morning we go to church and then at noon we like to visit an Argentinean restaurant. ... We like beef empanadas or chicken empanadas or spinach empanadas. Those are big with my kids, it’s their favorite food. Also, Argentina food is big on red meat, and I’m past 40 now so I don’t need that much red meat anymore, but at least once a week we try to eat some skirt steak, which in Argentina we call entrana. But my kids love empanadas and that’s basically the reason we go to all these restaurants, to eat empanadas. For dessert, dulce de leche is an Argentinean invention. Anything that has dulce de leche, my kids and I, we love that. We usually have dulce de leche crepes or flan with dulce de leche.
SCREEN TIME: Usually Sunday afternoon and evenings I like to take three or four hours to watch TV with my wife or movies with my kids. That’s a very cool way to end a weekend. I always look for foreign movies. I like Italian or Spanish or French movies. That’s usually the first choice. But I am absolutely in love with Showtime and AMC and what they’re doing. Sometimes I’m asking myself if there’s a reason we go to the movies anymore because the quality of “MAD MEN” and “BREAKING BAD” and “RAY DONOVAN” or “NURSE JACKIE” and “DEXTER.” It’s just unbelievable. Those shows are just incredible to watch with the storytelling. The cool thing in my household is we have the ability of jumping from English to Spanish and vice versa. We always make a point, my wife and I, with our kids whenever we can we try to watch a Spanish-language TV series for the kids to get into a habit of not losing the language.
