| Victor "Vic" Palmero | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Basic/General Character Information | |
| Born: | August 26, 1947 |
| Gender: | Male |
| Family/Personal Facts | |
| Family: | Octavio Palmero (brother) Emelina Palmero (ex-wife) Angie Lopez (daughter) George Lopez (son-in-law) Carmen Lopez (granddaughter) Max Lopez (grandson) Gloria Palmero (daughter) Ray Palmero (son) Claudia Palmero (ex-daughter-in-law) Veronica Palmero (granddaughter) |
| Career/Job/Education | |
| Series Appearances | |
| First Episode | "Meet the Cuban Parents" (Season 2) |
| Last Episode | "George Decides to Sta-Local Where It's Familia" (Season 7, series finale) |
| Played by: | Emiliano Diez |
| Episodes appeared in: | 47 in Seasons 2-6 |
Dr. Victor "Vic" Garcia Lantigua Palmero (Born August 26,1947) is a recurring character who becomes a main character on the ABC-TV series George Lopez in Season Six. The part of Vic is played by Emiliano Diez. Vic makes his series debut in the Season Two episode "Meet the Cuban Parents", where he appears along with wife Emelina Palmero, his wife, who's played in the episode by model/actress Sonia Braga.
Originally at odds with George, over the years, the two develop a deep respect as Vic takes up a healthy role in the life of the Lopez household as an endearing grandpa and concerned father.
About Vic
Vic is Angie's protective, critical, but loving father, Emelina's ex-husband, George's father-in-law and Carmen's, Max's, and Veronica's grandfather.
Early Life in Cuba
Victor Garcia Lantigua Palmero was born on August 26th, 1947 in Cuba. Victor was 6 when "he learned the rhythm of the island" and started to play the conga drum, a skill he would later master. An old fisherman who lived down the road in a shack, Pepe de Congero, saw his hands and knew he had the gift. Victor knew Pepe until his death. Victor grew up in poverty on the island, so much so that he had to carry food in his pants, as his father used the only paper bags in the house as briefcases. He and his father also had to castrate pigs with a pocket knife. As a boy, he suffered from anxiety, so his father taught him how to box. He forgot about his problems and got stronger, eventually improving to the point where he "could face any opponent on the island without fear." He was Welter-weight champion of Senora De La Madrid School for Boys 1956, 1957, and 1959. Victor tells a story of having sex "in a field of tobacco under a Cuban moon with the gunfire of revolution in the background" when discussing Carmen's virgin virtue later in life. If his 1947 birth year is accurate, this means he most likely lost his virginity at age 11-12 in 1958-59 respectively, considering the end of the Cuban revolution was in 1959. Victor made love to a woman he later found out his father had paid for with a pig. He later married Emelina Palmero despite his parents forbidding it. It is unclear whether or not he met her before or after he moved to the USA.
Immigration and life in the US
Victor flew to Miami some time after Fidel Castro took power, most likely some time in the mid '60s although it's never directly stated. His brother Octavio stayed in Cuba. He brought with him one white tuxedo which he would later consider to be his "lucky tux" because it was the only one that made the journey into the states with him. In the US, Victor became a successful doctor and made his fortune as a cardiologist in Miami where he had three children: Raymond, Gloria, and Angie.
Victor took different parenting approaches with each of his children, each tailored for the individual child, as evidenced by him giving birth control pills to Gloria but not Angie because Angie believed him when he told her sex was a sacred bond and Gloria didn't. Later in life, he developed the opinion that he had spoiled his son rotten, a valid opinion considering Ray became a criminal con-man later in life.
When Angie became engaged to George Lopez, Victor vehemently opposed it, even going so far as to leave $20,000 dollars in a bank account for Angie to use if she ever decided she wanted to leave George. He did not help pay for their wedding. The $20,000 was eventually withdrawn by Victor and put into a Cuban fast food restaurant called Plantain Express that eventually went out of business. He lost all of the money. Over the years, Vic lost his utter disdain for George and began to show him well-earned respect.
Life through the series
Season 2
In the Spring of 2003, Vic flew to LA to loan George $17,000 to help George out of his financial jam. George convinced him to accept interest on the loan.
Season 3
By 2003, Victor was having marital problems despite staying fit, being successful, and keeping the romance alive. In the Fall of 2003 he walked in on his wife "checking a man for moles where sun damage is not a possibility" at her dermatology clinic. He left Miami to give her time to think about their marriage and went to visit his daughter Angie and her family in LA. While there, Emelina called and told him she wanted a divorce. Not wanting to return to his home in Miami, Vic agreed to stay with Angie and George at their house. After a few weeks, he moved into a condominium in Thousand Oaks and officially entered the online dating pool by creating a profile on CubanCompanions.com. In the Fall of 2003, Vic learned that his brother Octavio would not be released from Cuba as previously thought. He successfully convinced George and Ernie to accompany him to Miami in an attempt to rescue him from international waters in his fishing boat. The rendezvous did not go as planned but Victor's boat eventually made contact with the raft carrying Octavio, and he and his brother both successfully made it back to Los Angeles. In the Spring of 2004, a stressful and messy divorce finalization led to dispute over a card game and Vic ended up temporarily foreclosing on George's unpaid garage. The foreclosure was suspended and George went back onto the previous payment plan once the fight had been resolved.
Season 4
In the Summer of 2004, Vic assisted George in his search for a runaway Carmen and met, at the time, rap superstar Chingy in the process. In the Fall of that year, Vic agreed to give George his ex-wife's old ring so that George could give it to Angie partly because he felt it could make up for not helping pay for their wedding. The plan went well until Victor called Emelina in a drunken stupor and told her he gave her ring to another woman. Legally, the ring was hers from the divorce and she demanded it back. He retrieved the ring from George and returned it rather than having to pay the $30,000 she would have been owed otherwise. Several months later, Vic had several romantic instances with George's mother, Benny, a fact that would come back to haunt him later on in early 2005 when he attempted to date Benny's estranged daughter, Linda Lorenzo. Other than a few charged moments, no serious romance ever materialized between Benny and Vic. Vic's attempted romance with Linda, however, was on track to be serious, until George brought to light the fact that Vic had had a romantic past with Linda's mother, a disturbing piece of information that Linda could not get over, in addition to finding out that Vic paid George $2,000 for the date. Linda ended the relationship after making the discovery.
Season 5
In early 2006, Vic was snubbed by Claudia, the ex-wife of his son, to be the trustee for his granddaughter, Veronica's, inherited millions. However, he would reunite with his estranged son, Ray, when he came to try to scam the millions from his daughter. Although at first, Vic maintained a hostile relation towards him--which was justified due to Ray's previous scams and criminal activity--but by the time Ray departed, they were on good enough terms for Vic to wire him deposits for both a lakefront cabin and a buffalo ranch, both of which were phony. It's unclear whether or not he ever recovered the funds. In mid-2006, Vic began dating the "stunning 27-year-old" Lindsay Cafferty, a woman Vic considered to be the love of his life.
Season 6
Shortly after he started dating Lindsay Cafferty, he proposed and she accepted. He spent lavishly on gifts for his young fiance. In late 2006, an investigation spearheaded by George into the faithfulness of Lindsay uncovered her cheating on Vic, but not before his ex-wife Emelina admitted to him that she made a mistake by divorcing him. Vic was struggling with the decision to choose Lindsay or Emelina when he found out the news about Lindsay's adultery, making the decision a very easy one. Shortly before Victor was about to get back together with his ex-wife, Emelina, she died of a sudden heart attack. The event took a deep toll on him and he struggled to cope in the immediate wake.
Fun Facts/Miscellaneous
- Vic is terrible at golf
- Vic's cooking is often inspired by salsa music as he actively cooks while dancing to it
- George is often annoyed by his stories about Cuba and his expressions.
- Vic is a very active individual, known for boxing, cycling, and weightlifting
- He is a master of the conga drum
- Vic hates Fidel Castro so much that in "Carmen's Dating", when George tells him that Castro died, he was excited and was waving his arms around.
- In s5e5 Vic has a telephone call with George while high on painkillers, telling George the hot tea he's drinking helps them kick in!
- He was Welter-weight champion of Senora De La Madrid School for Boys 1956, 1957, and 1959
- He speaks with a Cuban accent, which George pokes fun at many times.
Gallery
