His father was José Quesada y Perez from Casteiro Oreste Spain and his mother was Marcela Estefania Castillo y Rodriguez from Vueltas Cuba. His birthplace was Rodas in the old province of Santa Clara (Las Villas). In what is now the Province of Cienfuegos. He grew up in Cienfuegos. His father died when he was about 8 years old, his mother then remarried a man whose last name was Portabales (the director of the Hospital in Cienfuegos), thus where his "stage name" came from. Portabales was married to a woman named Araminta and had a son Named Guillermo. Portabales had a brother named Manuel Eleuterio Quesada y Castillo. His brother was married to Sylvia Ester Ramirez y Gonzalez, who had four children Manuel Antonio Quesada (born in Caracas Venezuela in 1955), José Guillermo Quesada (Born in Caracas Venezuela in 1957), Sylvia Mercedes Quesada (Born in Caracas Venezuela in 1958) and Reynaldo Quesada (Born in Miami Florida in 1960).