Rafael “Ralph” Sánchez was born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba in 1948. In 1961, he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Miami before they moved to Nicaragua. In 1962, at the age of 14, Sánchez made the decision to move into the Opa-Locka camp that was run by local Catholic charities where he lived until the age of 18. Sánchez was reunited with his brother, parents, and grandmother after they came to Miami via the Freedom Flights in the mid-1960s.
After earning an accounting degree from Florida Atlantic University, he worked in real estate, becoming a land developer and motorsports promoter. He founded and managed the Grand Prix of Miami, beginning in 1983. He founded Homestead-Miami Speedway in the early 1990s.
Dr. Murray Sanders was a physician and medical researcher with the University of Miami and Variety Children's Hospital. He was the former chairman of the Department of Medical Research of the University of Miami.
Gilda Santana joined the faculty of the University of Miami Libraries in 2007 as Head of Architecture Information and Resources to direct the Paul Buisson Architecture Library. She led the expansion and redesign of the library now called the Architecture Research Center (ARC) in 2018. Her research interests include facilitating the culture of design research through studio embedded-librarianship and the evolution of digital humanities in architecture and the arts. In 2013 she became the Librarian for Art & Art History. Santana has a Master of Science in Architecture from the School of Architecture, University of Miami, a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and a Bachelor of Art from Bard College where she majored in Art History. She actively serves in the Association of Architecture School Librarians (AASL) and the Art Libraries Association of North America (ARLIS).
Luis Santeiro was born in 1948 in Havana, Cuba, leaving the island with his family at the age of 12 for Miami, Florida. Santeiro obtained a degree in sociology from Villanova University and is recognized for his work as a writer, playwright, and cinematographer.
Santeiro first worked as a television writer for "Carrascolendas", a bilingual children's television show that debuted in 1970 on Austin, Texas' KLRN public television station. In 1976, he became head writer of the bilingual sitcom "¿Qué Pasa, USA?", produced by Miami's public television station WPBT. "¿Qué Pasa, USA?" was a half-hour bilingual sitcom set in Miami's Cuban exile community that traced the lives of three generations of Cubans trying to make it in their new homeland. Running for five years, the show received six regional Emmys and nine special awards from the Association of Critics and Commentators on the Arts, for its producers, directors, writers and cast.
Santeiro wrote a total of 33 scripts for the show, including the pilot episode. In 1979 he joined the writing team of the children's television program "Sesame Street". Santeiro also contributed scripts and song lyrics to other children's programs such as, "3-2-1 Contact", "Carrascolendas", "Big Bag", "Oye, Willie", and "Little Bill". For his writing for children's television programs, Santeiro has been nominated for 20 Daytime Emmy Awards and won 14, 12 of these during his 29-year career with "Sesame Street."
Luis Santeiro is also recognized for his work as a playwright. Among his most notable plays are Our Lady of the Tortilla (1987), The Lady from Havana (1990), and The Rooster and the Egg (1994). For his musical Barrio Babies, Santeiro received the Edward Kleban and Richard Rodgers Award, and in 1995 was honored with the National Hispanic Academy of Media Arts and Sciences Award for his play A Royal Affair. Santiero has also been recognized for his contributions to Latino arts and culture with honors such as the Hispanic Achievement Award in 1991 and the Hispanic Heritage Award in 1993.
Mario Santí was a Cuban sculptor born in Holguín province in 1911. He later moved to Havana and entered the San Alejandro Academy of Fine Arts where he graduated from Drawing and Painting and Drawing and Modelling in 1934. In 1935, when the Provincial Visual Arts School of Oriente was founded, he was appointed teacher of the Modelling Department of that school, where he taught for nine years. In 1943, through a process of competitive examinations, he became part of the faculty of the San Alejandro School. He exhibited his works in thirty national and foreign collective expositions and held three personal ones. His artistic triumphs include: First Prize, National Competition for executing a bust to poet José María Heredia in the city of Santiago de Cuba in 1939; First Prize in the National Competition to make a Monument to Mothers in the city of Cárdenas, 1945; First Prize for the Construction of a tomb worthy of José Martí, in the Santiago de Cuba cemetery, 1945; Second Prize in the Third National Exposition of the Ministry of Education of 1946 and First Prize in the Competition to build a Monument to Mothers in the city of Holguín.
