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Dr. John F. Carmichael was a native of Pennsylvania and became a surgeon at Fort Adams, on the Mississippi River south of Natchez, around 1798. He was also the first collector of duties at the port of Natchez when the Mississippi District was formed around 1800. He was appointed to the staff of territorial governor Williams as a major in 1805. Carmichael made his home at Pinckneyville, a small settlement just north of the Louisiana border, where he maintained a plantation. It grew in size and value as cotton farming became profitable in the 1800s. He also became one of the leading men of wealth and largest slave owner in the Natchez area from 1807 to 1812, primarily through his cotton business, which later became his occupation more so that of surgeon.

Reputedly, Dr. Carmichael was involved with the Aaron Burr conspiracy and was arrested by Cato West in 1806. He was also connected to the court-martial of General Wilkinson. Carmichael was a prominent Federalist supporter. He never married, and it seems he was on good terms with only a few people in his later life. As his health decline, his nephew John Carmichael Jenkins (see below) came to Pinckneyville in 1835 to help him manage the plantation. It was not long, however, before Carmichael had the nephew running the operation. In late 1837 Dr. Carmichael died and left a vast, entangled estate, which his nephew had to sort through as administrator.

In 1910, Carlos Badías was born in Havana, Cuba. In the early 1930s he began his career with stage performance and was well received by audiences and critics alike. He performed in his first film La serpiente roja, the first Cuban movie with sound in 1937. Between 1937 and 1950, Badías also experienced a spike in popularity for acting in radio programs. He voiced a wide range of radio serials, including the widely listened radio soap opera El Derecho de Nacer (1948). He met Cuban actress Eva Vázquez when working at the Havana radio station Radio Ideas Pasos in 1938. They married in 1939, in what was called the wedding of the year. They were together for 45 years and had a daughter named Maria and a son named Carlos Alberto, who went on to become an actor.
One of the highlights of Badias career was playing Don Juan in the play Don Juan Tenorio, a role her performed for years by popular demand. With the advent of television in 1950 he began acting in some of the most popular soap operas of the time, such as Tensión and Senda prohibida, and hosting popular variety shows. Despite the roles he was taking on in this new format, he continued to work on radio and in movies in both Cuba and Mexico. He was chosen three times as president of the Cuban Association of Actors. During his terms as president of this association he negotiated to improve the salaries and benefits of workers in the performing arts with media and adverting companies. In the 50s he became involved in politics. He recieneved the nomination for Councilor of Havana by the Partido Auténtico (PRC). A few years later he was elected by a majority of votes to the Chamber of Commerce for the province of Havana
In 1959, when Castro’s revolution took over Cuba, Badías publicly opposed the communist regime and was imprisoned as a result. There he received injuries that made him unable to walk properly for the rest of his life. His family was also banned from working. Badías’ son, Carlos Alberto, fled the country, followed by his wife, Eva, and daughter, Maria. Badias however was not allowed to leave Cuba. In 1970, Mario Moreno “Cantiflas” intervened with help from the Mexican ambassador to Cuba and Badias was able to settle in Mexico. Later, he joined his family in Miami, FL. He died of cardiac arrest in Miami in 2011.

University of Miami Professor Emeritus Michael L. Carlebach’s (1945-2023) photojournalism career began in New York and Washington, D.C. Upon coming to Florida, he worked briefly as a staff photographer for the Miami Herald. In 1973, he began teaching at the University of Miami, which launched a thirty-year career in higher education. While working at University of Miami, Dr. Carlebach had taught photojournalism at the School of Communication, reestablished the program in American Studies, and chaired the Department of Art & Art History.

Throughout his life, he remained a sought-after photojournalist with a discerning eye for the subtleties of the human condition and the comic aspects of everyday life. His photographs have been published in Time, People, The Miami Herald, The Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and The New York Times. Most of his published books include thorough scholarly histories of photography, such as The Origins of Photojournalism in America and American Photojournalism Comes of Age, both published by Smithsonian Institution Press, while Sunny Land showcases his startling, humorous black and white images of the lesser documented “margins” of South Florida society. He remained active as a photographer, scholar, and writer for most of his life and was especially interested in illuminating the lives of people outside the glare of contemporary media and finding and memorializing extraordinary moments that would otherwise be lost.

Joe Cardona was born of Cuban parents in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on November 1, 1967. He has directed 11 feature length documentaries, mostly dealing with issues of cultural identity and Cuban history: Adios Patria, Café con Leche, The Flight of Pedro Pan, José Martí: Legacy of Freedom, Havana: Portrait of Yesteryear, Honey Girl, White Elephant, and Celia the Queen. Cardona has also directed, produced and written two feature films, Water, Mud and Factoriesand Bro.

Joe holds a degree in Mass Communications from Florida International University.

Enrique Caravia Montenegro (1905-1992) was a Cuban artist active in the mid-1900s. Born in Havana, Caravia studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" in Havana and the Academia Española de Bellas Artes in Rome in the 1920s.

He worked in various mediums, including oil painting, drawing and watercolor, and had various solo and group exhibitions from the 1920s to the 1990s. His work was featured in "Primer Salón de Humoristas" at the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba (1921); an exhibition at the Lyceum of Havana (1933); the Bienal Hispanoamericana de Madrid (1951); "Grabados de Enrique Caravia Montenegro" at the Museo Histórico Plaza in Havana (1987); and "Estampas cubanas de tres siglos" at the Museo Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá (posthumous, 1996).

Caravia won the first prize at the Exposición Interamericana in Seville (1929); the silver at the XVIII Salón de Bellas Artes hosted by Havana's Círculo de Bellas Artes (1936); and the gold at both the XXVI and XXXVII Salones de Bellas Artes (1944 and 1955, respectively).

Caravia died in Havana in 1992 at the age of 87.