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Rosa M. Abella was an exiled Cuban librarian who worked at the University of Miami Otto G. Richter Library.

A native of Havana, Abella received her library technician degree in 1955 and a doctor of philosophy in 1958. She served as the head of the circulation department for the National Library of Cuba from 1960 to 1961, at which point she left the island for Miami, Florida, as a political refugee. She worked as a librarian at Assumption Academy until she was hired as an acquisitions librarian for the Otto G. Richter Library in 1962, specializing in Spanish and Hispanic materials.

Abella was instrumental in the preservation of Cuban materials and the founding of the library's Cuban Heritage Collection.

Agustín Acosta (1886-1979) was a Cuban post-modernist poet and politician active in the 20th century. Born in Matanzas, Cuba, in November 1886, he completed his preliminary studies in Matanzas and early on in his career started working as a telegraph operator for a Cuban railroad line, acting as head of the telegraph service from 1909 to 1920.

Acosta graduated with a law degree from the University of Havana in 1918, and went on to become a notary in 1921, exercising this profession in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas, until he was politically imprisoned during the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado. After the fall of the Machadato, Acosta served as provisional governor of Matanzas from 1933 to 1934. His other political offices included cabinet secretary to Carlos Mendieta, senator (1936-1944) and president of the Partido Unión Nacionalista (1936-1937).

A poet and a statesman, Acosta contributed both prose and poetry to various Cuban publications, most notably El Fígaro, El Cubano Libre, Socialand Carteles. Some of his well-known works of poetry include Ala(1915), La zafra(1926), Los camellos distantes(1936) and Caminos de hierro (1963), as well as multiple essays on José Martí.

Acosta left Cuba in 1972, living in Miami until his death in 1979.

Silvio Acosta was a Cuban architect educated at the University of Havana in the early 20th century. He dedicated his life to education, working actively as the President of El Colegio de Arquitectos de la Habana, where he was a distinguished speaker. He was a professor at Havana's La Escuela de Artes y Oficiosfor more than 30 years, and principal of the same for 11. Acosta was also professor of physics and chemistry at the Edison School and the English School, where he had future doctor José "Pepe" Lastra as a student. A man of many interests, Acosta was a member of the Junta de Amillaramiento and President of the National Commision of Archaeology. He had the pleasure of winning architectural competitions and other honors, as well as authoring important articles on architecture and industrial technical education from 1920 until his death in 1961.

Franklin Oliver Adams was an architect from Tampa, Florida. He was a member of the American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.) and the Florida Association of Architects (F.A.A). Adams served as 2nd Vice-President of the Florida Association of Architects in 1917, then as President of FAA in 1920, 1921 and 1926. He was elevated to Fellow in 1940.

Adams’ Florida designs include Los Robles (Clearwater, 1925), the Hotel San Marco (1927), the H.B. Plant High School (Hillsborough County), the Municipal Auditorium (Hillsborough County) and the Maas Bros. Department Store (Hyde Park).

The ALA (American Literary Agency) was established in New York by the Spanish politician and prominent journalist, Joaquín Maurín in 1948. It was founded for the purpose of distributing articles written by Latin American and Spanish writers to the different newspapers and magazines in Latin America and Spain.

Joaquín Maurín died in 1973 and was succeeded by his wife. In 1974, the Agency's name was changed to its Spanish name, Agencia Latinoamericana. In 1975, Arturo Villar succeeded Maurín's wife as director and editor of the Agency. In 1977, the Agencia Latinoamericana moved to Miami, and in 1982, the ALA began sending articles to U.S. newspapers published in Spanish under the name of the Latin American Feature Syndicate, as a new service.

In March 1984, Arturo Villar ceased to work as editor of the ALA and remained as president of the Agency in Miami, while the editorial offices were moved to London under the direction of Miguel Angel Diez.

The ALA papers are comprised of the historical files which contain articles written between 1948 and 1975, the topical files containing articles written from 1975 to 1980 and the informational files which include newspaper clippings, magazine articles and editorials. These papers were given to the Otto C. Richter Library on March 10, 1981 through negotiations between Dr. Joaquín Roy, Associate Professor for the Center of Advanced International Studies, Arturo Villar, President of ALA and Frank Rodgers, Director of Libraries.

Roberto Daniel Agramonte y Pichardo was a Cuban academic, philosopher, and politician. Born in Villaclara, Cuba in 1904, Agramonte studied law at the University of Havana. Agramonte began his political career in 1947, serving as Cuban ambassador to Mexico until 1948. He was the first Foreign Minister of the Cuban Revolution, but left Cuba for Puerto Rico in 1960.

Roberto Agramone married Concha María de la Concepción del Río y Madueño and the couple had two children. Agramonte passed away in Puerto Rico in 1995.

James Horace Alderman was born around 1882 near Tampa, Florida. He spent several years in the Thousand Islands area of southwest Florida as a farmer, fisherman, and field guide. With his wife Pearl and three daughters, Bessie, Ruby and Wilma, Alderman lived variously in Chokoloskee, Caxambas, Palmetto, and Tarracia Island before settling in Fort Meyers around 1911. After World War I and the passing of the National Prohibition Act, Horace Alderman began smuggling illegal immigrants and alcohol from Cuba and the Bahamas to Florida. In the 1920s, he set up a base of operations in Miami.

On the afternoon of 7 August 1927, Alderman and his associate Robert Weech were intercepted by a Coast Guard cutter in the waters between Florida and Bimini. After a series of events, Alderman killed Boatswain Sidney C. Sanderlin and Secret Service agent Robert K. Webster. The cutter's machinist, Victor A. Lamby, was seriously wounded and later died. Alderman was convicted for these three murders and sentenced to death in January 1928. Dubbed "the Gulf Stream Pirate" by the press, Horace Alderman was hung on 17 August 1929 at Coast Guard Base Six in Fort Lauderdale, the site of Bahia Mar Marina today. It was the only hanging ever carried out by the Coast Guard, the first hanging in Fort Lauderdale, and the only legal execution in Broward County.

Richard Lewis Aldrich (1897-1976) first taught at the University of Miami on October 1, 1947 as a lecturer in the Department of Art History, and was appointed Associate Professor the following year.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Aldrich attended the University of Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor's degree. He attended Harvard University from 1921-23, and received a Master's degree from the University of Arizona in 1936. Aldrich completed his doctoral work in 1942 after five years of study at the University of Michigan. He then taught for brief periods at San Jose State College and Wesleyan College.

During his fifteen years at the University of Miami, Aldrich taught classes and organized a number of student trips for the summer semesters. Aldrich "an expert on Oriental, as well as pre- Columbia and Hispanic American cultures," conducted a University of Miami archaeological survey of the southwestern United States. This survey led to the establishment of the University's annual student workshops in Oaxaca, Mexico. Summer school sessions took University of Miami students to Mexico for studies in history, Spanish, archaeology, painting, and art history.

Carmen Alea Paz (d. 2016) was a poet, columnist, professor, and author who facilitated social change through her writing, which advocated for women to pursue traditionally male-dominated professional careers in the 1940’s and 50’s. She was born in Havana, Cuba in June of 1926.

In pre-Revolutionary Cuba, she wrote extensively for popular magazines such as Lux, Romances, Vanidades, Bazar, and Colorama and major newspapers of the era including Avance, El País, El Mundo, and the famous Diario de la Marina. Many of her articles highlighted the role of women in modern Cuban society. She also published poetry. In August 1943, Alea Paz wrote an essay on María Sklodowska Curie who protested against tsarism in Poland in the magazine Lux. This is an example of the anti-totalitarian thought that Alea Paz was a proponent of in her works. Another illustration is the poem “Inconformidad” published in El Diario de La Marina’s “Esquina del Poeta” (Poet’s Corner) on Sunday July 6,1958.

She married Carlos Paz in Havana in 1955. In January of 1962, Alea Paz and her husband left Cuba. They settled in the area of Los Angeles, California. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Alea Paz earned a Master’s of Arts in English from California State University at Northridge. She later taught there as a professor of Spanish language and literature, as well as teaching classes at other colleges in the area. She continued to write, producing essays, critiques, poetry in Spanish and English and short stories in Spanish and English for newspapers and magazines such as La Opinión, Contact Magazine, La Voz Libre in Los Angeles; Diario de las Américas, Gaceta Lírica in Miami; Thought in Tampa; Círculo de Cultura, and Círculo Poético of Verona, New Jersey. She did translation work for a variety of projects including the book by Hill Chapin If you have kids, then be a parent! (¡Si usted tiene niños, entonces sea padre!), and videos for instance “Dive, dive, dive” (Directo al Fondo.)

In 1992, her career as a literary writer and poet took off, with the publication of her first book of poetry El caracol y el tiempo. In 1993 she was awarded the Enrique Labrador Ruiz International Short Story Award. In 1996, she published a novella plus short stories called El veranito de María Isabel y cuentos para insomnes rebeldes, which was published by Ponce de León press, and in 1999 she won the Dr. Alberto Gutiérrez de la Solana International Unpublished Novel Contest, sponsored by the Pan American Culture Circle of New Jersey. In 2001, she won the Alberto Gutiérrez de la Solana International Prize from the Pan American Culture Circle for her novel about the exile condition called Labios sellados. She also won a prize for a poem about the Cuban apostle José Martí called “El hombre de la rosa blanca” (The man of the white rose):

“Tu verbo claro, luminoso, armado/ con razones de honor y de justicia,/ de libertad clamaba la primicia/ para tu amado pueblo esclavizado. “En el cual se sigue proyectando el interés de la autora por la palabra como arma y expresión de la libertad humana y de su derecho a ser”.

In 2004, her novel Casino azul was published by the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur. She also produced a family story called Risas, confeti y serpentinas. Her work has also appeared in collections of Cuban exile literature such as Narrativa y libertad (Cuban stories of the diaspora) published by Ediciones Universal of Miami in 1996 and in Trayectoria de la mujer cubana by Concepción Teresa Alzola, published in 2009 by Ediciones Universal. She continued to submit and publish poems in digital format through 2012. She also donated an unpublished manuscript by José Martí called Pensamientos to the University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection, which Martí is said to have written in New York at the end of the 19th century and given to his secretary Gonzalo de Quesada. She was presented with the manuscript due to her own work on Martí at the Martiano Seminary of the University of Havana directed by Gonzalo Quesada y Miranda. The authenticity of the manuscript was certified by the Cuban essayist and Cuban historian Carlos Ripoll, considered one of the most important experts on Martí.

Armando Alejandre Jr. was a Cuban-American activist, general contractor, and volunteer pilot with Brothers to the Rescue. In 1996, on a humanitarian mission to rescue Cuban rafters in the Florida Straits, Alejandre's plane was shot down by Cuban Air Force fighter jets.