Jacobo Morales burst onto the entertainment industry at the age of fourteen and soon after, developed his writing skills in television and with La criada malcriada (1965). The first film he directed, Dios los cría (1979), is recognized as the marking point where Puerto Rico's film industry evolved. His third film, What Happened to Santiago (1989), reached an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990, being the only Academy Award recognition a Puerto Rican film has yet to reach. Morales is considered by many to be the most influential filmmaker in Puerto Rico.