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René Ariza was a Cuban actor, director and writer born in Havana in 1940. Ariza graduated from the Academia Municipal de Artes Dramáticas in 1959, eventually receiving the Premio de la Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) in 1967 for his play "La vuelta a la manzana."

An opponent of the Castro regime, he was jailed in 1974 for his political views until Amnesty International intervened and he was released to the United States in 1979.

Some of his most well-known plays include "Los tres cerditos y el lobo carnicero," the aforementioned "La vuelta a la manzana" and "El banquete." His unpublished work was destroyed during his time in prison, but he continued his creative pursuits until his death in California in 1994.

Arenstein, the Host and the Executive Producer of "Focus: America," was a junior when he started producing the radio talk show. He majored in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Miami and graduated in 1976.

He is a native of Richmond, VA and he still resides there. He is married and has two daughters. He is the president of Arenstein and Associates, a real estate development and investment company.

Yolanda Arenas is a Cuban actress who trained in dance and theater in Havana, Cuba. Among her various credits in Cuba, she formed part of the theater group Prometeo under the direction of Francisco Morín for two years in the late 1950s and acted in the story "Los Novios" in the 1960 film "Cuba '58."

In 1968, she went into exile in New York, where she acted with Repertorio Español. Arenas also performed in commercials and did voice over work. She currently resides in Miami, Florida.

Reinaldo Arenas was a Cuban poet, novelist, and playwright born in Holguín in 1943. As a teenager he joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement. He moved to Havana in 1961 and was a researcher at the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí from 1963 to 1968. He later worked as an editor for the Instituto Cubano del Libro (1967-1968) and as a journalist and editor for La Gaceta de Cuba (1968-1974).

Arenas' first novel, Celestino antes del alba (1967) was the only one of his works to be published in Cuba. His second novel, El mundo alucinante (1969), was clandestinely taken out of Cuba and first published in French. During the 1970s, Arenas was imprisoned for his writings and homosexuality.

He eventually became a vocal critic of Castro's government, and in 1980, he fled Cuba during the Mariel Boatlift. Once living in the United States, he published the following works: Otra vez el mar (1982); La vieja rosa (1980); Necesidad de libertad (1986); La loma del ángel (1987); and El portero (1988).

Affected by AIDS, Arenas died by suicide in 1990. His posthumous works include Viaje a La Habana: novela en tres viajes (1990) and Antes que anochezca: autobiografía (1992).

Juan Arcocha (1927-2010) was a Cuban journalist and writer active in the late 20th century.

Arcocha was an initial supporter of the Cuban Revolution, working as a correspondent for the communist newspaper Revolución in Moscow in the 1960s. He broke ties with the regime over the unfair incarceration of Cuban political prisoner Heberto Padilla, exiling himself to Paris in 1971.

In addition to his prolific literary work, Arcocha served as an interpreter throughout his career, facilitating the meeting between Cuban communist officials and Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir during the philosophers’ visit to Havana in 1960. He would eventually work as an interpreter for the United Nations and its Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), as well as acting as the press attaché for the Cuban Embassy in Paris. He died in Paris in 2010.