Showing 7539 results

Adria Catalá Casey was a Cuban dancer, known as the "Cuban Shirley Temple." She performed as a dancer in Grupo Folklórico. Grupo Folklórico was established by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Cuba in 1951 with the mandate to represent Cuba in official international events, including festivals. In April of 1954, the group represented Cuba in the National Folk Festival founded by the National Association of the Folkloric Festivals of the United States and the newspaper St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Laura Zarrabeitia is a Cuban actress (b. 1937) who formed part of Cuba's Teatro Estudio from 1960 to 1970, with which she acted in over 50 plays. Zarrabeitia became a part of Teatro Estudio when it was still an academy just at the beginning of the Revolution, when the people were still enthusiastic about it, although she admits she was hesitant about the future of the dramatic arts in Cuba. Before beginning her acting career, she worked as a secretary for a radio station, and spent a lot of time listening to dialogues and was exposed to acting in that capacity. Her supervisor left the country through Brazil, and Zarrabeitia was left without a job and so she entered Teatro Estudio Academia, directed by Vicente Revuelta and his sister Raquel, which within months became the still famous company Teatro Estudio. In that era, she performed in all of the works put on by the company. She stayed in Cuba for only 11 years after the Revolution of 1959. Her decision to leave was impacted by a change implemented by the Castro government around 1961 where all of the theater companies were dissolved and directors would choose which actors to contract on an individual basis instead of directing groups with a fixed cast of actors that worked together on all their productions. Eventually, she resigned from the theater and worked 23 months of voluntary labor in order to be able to leave Cuba. She left for Spain in 1972 and stayed there for only 1 year. She left mostly because of the cold climate, but during her time there she worked on zarzuelas, and acted in a film. She left on a ship for Venezuela with a zarzuela company and found the climate there much more agreeable. She was in Venezuela for 36 years, a longer period of time than she had lived in Cuba.

In Venezuela, she began to work with a small zarzuela company, then an operetta company with Maria Francisca Caballer, a soprano. While working on the operettas, she met a Cuban gentleman who knew of her from her acting in Cuba and he published an announcement about her. Televisión Canal 8 del Estado hired her to work on improvised programs such as “Sea Usted El Juez.” She became one of the regulars in the cast. She also did a lot of voice-overs. She acted in 10 episode continuous contracts for supporting roles in telenovelas on Radio Caracas Television for 12 years and then after that at Venevisión. She recalls having to memorize as well as improvise a great deal on television. Since she was trained as an actor with the Teatro Estudio, she would take the lines given to her and interpret them, but many of those who she had to work with simply parroted back the lines and this was a downside of the work. This was remedied, however, by also acting onstage with the company El Nuevo Grupo of the famous playwrights Isaac Chocrón and José Ignacio Cabrujas, which she said was like a Venezuelan Teatro Estudio because they would stage their own works. Then the Venezuelan government began to implement similar principles as Cuba had with Consejo Nacional de Cultura de Venezuela. Feeling her freedom restricted, she distanced herself from that.

Around 1987 during the government of Rafael Caldera things began to go downhill. The Radio Vision 11 and Venevision was purchased by a Mexican conglomerate and her contracts ended because she preferred short-term contracts. She began to lose work and left television. She joined another group to do “teatro leido” to make a salary, they would do the readings for free in the libraries. It occurred to her to do sessions of Cuban theater as a theme. Her group read works by playwrights like Virgilio Piñera, Montejo Idobro, Julio Matas, Antón Arrufat, and Ida Granco. These sessions garnered the most audience. Then, Zarrabeitia decided to do her own production of Santa Cecilia de La Habana Vieja by Emilio Estevez and invested all of her money into it, including in renting out a small theater. However, the location of the theater discouraged attendees and the press did not cover the premier. She then did La Soga de Panico about two Cubans who wished to leave the country, but the scenery was stolen. After these distressing experiences, Zarrabeitia left Venezuela in 1998 and joined her brother and many friends in Miami, Florida. At this point she retired from acting due to health issues. She notes that for her, there is nothing more delicious in life than passing a few hours at the theater. She also recalls that the first play she saw was William Inge’s Picnic with actress Antonia Rey, an incredible experience that she would never forget.

Although best known for his set and costume designs, Randy Barceló was also a dancer, photographer, interior designer, and all around artist. Born in Havana on September 19, 1946, Barceló left Cuba through Operation Pedro Pan at the age of 14. He studied art at University of Puerto Rico and in 1965 moved to New York where he enrolled in the Lester Pollard Theatre Forum School of Design.

Barceló began his career as a dancer and choreographer. At the age of 24 he worked as a designer for the Broadway musical, Lenny. In 1972 he designed the costumes for Jesus Christ Superstar and was nominated for a Tony Award, the first Hispanic nominee for costume design. He went on to design costumes for several on and off Broadway plays and musicals, ballet and dance productions, and operas.

Randy Barceló’s art work, primarily abstract and figurative sketches and paintings, have been shown in several galleries and museums including the Cooper Hewitt Museum, Hudson River Museum and Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.

In 1994, Barceló designed costumes for ¡Si Señor! ¡Es Mi Son!, choreographed for Ballet Hispanico by Alberto Alonso and Sonia Calero with music by Gloria Estefan. These were his final designs as he died of cancer on December 6th of that same year.

Randy Barceló’s Production Credits

Broadway

Ain’t Misbehavin’, 1978, 1988

A Broadway Musical, 1978

Dude, 1972

Jesus Christ Superstar, 1971

Lenny, 1971

The Leaf People, 1975 (costumes and make-up)

The Magic Show, 1974

Mayor, 1985 (sets and costumes)

The Night That Made America Famous, 1975

Senator Joe (never officially opened), 1989

Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Off-Broadway

Blood Wedding, INTAR Theatre (sets and costumes)

Caligula, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club

Cracks, Theatre De Lys, 1976

Lady Day, Chelsea Theatre Center

Mayor, Village Gate Theatre (sets and costumes)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New York Shakespeare Festival, Delacorte Theatre, 1982

The Moondreamers, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club

“Phillip Morris Superband Series,” Beacon Theatre (set)

Rice and Beans, INTAR Theatre (sets and costumes)

Spookhouse, Playhouse 91, 1984

The Tempest, LaMama Experimental Theatre Club

Opera

L’Histoire du Soldat, Carnegie Hall (sets and costumes)

Les Troyen, Vienna State Opera

Lily, New York City Opera

Mass, Leonard Bernstein, Kennedy Center

Salome, New York City Opera

Ballet and Dance

Black, Brown & Beige, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1976

The Blues Ain’t, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1974

Crosswords, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre

La Dea delle Acque, Alvin Ailey for La Scala Opera Ballet, 1988

For “Bird” – With Love, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1984

Fuenteovejuna, Ballet Hispanico

Lovers, Jennifer Muller (sets and costumes)

Mondrian, Jennifer Muller (sets and costumes)

The Mooche, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1974

Opus McShann, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1988

Predicaments for Five, Jennifer Muller (sets and costumes)

¡Si Señor! ¡Es Mi Son!, Ballet Hispanico, 1994

Spell, Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, 1981

The Street Dancer, Ballet Hispanico

Television

Ailey Celebrates Ellington, Alvin Ailey for CBS, 1975

Ain’t Misbehavin’, NBC, 1982

Duke Ellington: The Music Lives On, PBS, 1983

Film

Body Passion, 1987 (production designer)

The Cop and the Anthem

Cubanos (art direction and costumes)

Fat Chance (set and costumes for theater sequence)

Fatal Encounter, 1981

Secret Life of Plants (costumes for dance sequence)

Tainted, 1988 (art direction and costumes)

Los Dos Mundos de Angelita, 1984 (art direction and costumes)

Welcome to Miami (art direction and costumes)

When the Mountains Tremble, 1983 (production designer)

Walter B. Etling, Jr., an alumnus of the University of Miami, was a prominent figure in Miami commercial real estate and active community leader in the second half of the twentieth century.

Originally from Nutley, New Jersey, Etling served as an officer in the United State Navy during World War II. He then attended the University of Miami, where he graduated with a degree in economics in 1948. As a student, Etling was president of his sophomore class, an Ibis feature writer, drum major of the University of Miami band, and a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Following graduation, Etling became involved in commercial real estate sales, working for the Allen Morris Company, and later the Keyes Company. In 1958, Etling founded the Walter Etling Company to provide highly specialized commercial real estate services, including sales, property management and leasing, investment consultation, condominium sales and management, site and property acquisitions, and syndicate formation. The company was originally located in the Alfred I. DuPont building in downtown Miami, but in 1974 moved to the Security Trust Company building at 700 Brickell Avenue.

In addition to his real estate activities, Etling served as president of PAEK, S.A., the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in Spain; founding director and secretary-treasurer of the Key Biscayne Savings and Loan Association; and director of the Key Biscayne Bank and Trust Company.

Etling has been an active leader in the community, serving as chairman of the Board of Governors and honorary curator for the Miami Science Museum; vice president of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of the Americas; vice president of the Economic Society of South Florida; a trustee of Third Century U.S.A.; chairman of the City of Miami Mayor’s Parks Committee; foreman of the Dade County Grand Jury; and a member of the Orange Bowl Committee; Kiwanis International; and the Metropolitan Dade County Community Relations Board. Etling was also nominated for the Dade County Outstanding Citizen’s Award in 1973.

In addition to community service, Etling has been active in service to the University of Miami, serving on the Board of Trustees from 1971 – 1974. He also served as President of the Alumni Association from 1969-1970, and Chairman of the University of Miami Parents Association. He was honored as the Alumnus of the Year in 1971.

Walter Etling married Ann Hull and has two children, Christina and Russell.

Rosario Rexach (1912-2003) was a Cuban exile teacher and author of essays and books on Spanish and Latin American literature and art, particularly that of Cuba. Being of the second generation of Cuban intellectuals of the Republic (1902-1959), Rexach’s research and scholarship focused on foundational literature, that is, her work probed into questions of national identity, often specifically addressing the role of women in the arts and professions. Rexach enjoyed a lengthy publishing career, with her first essay, “Orientación Vocacional de la Mujer en Cuba,” published in the newspaper El Mundo in 1938, and her last monograph, Nuevos estudios sobre Martí, published in 2002 just a year before her death. Other notable works include: El Pensamiento de Varela y la formación de la conciencia cubana (1950); El Carácter de Martí y otros ensayos (1954); Estudios sobre Martí (1985); Dos figuras cubanas y actitud: Estudios sobre Félix Varela y Jorge Mañach (1991); and Estudios sobre Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (1996). Rexach also penned a novel, Rumbo al punto cierto, in 1979.

As her friend Eduardo Lolo describes, “despite her modest beginning and her status as a woman in a world where women were still second-class citizens,” Rexach acquired a strong academic training at the Normal School for Teachers in Havana and became professionally active in the early 1930s. The graduate assistant and then colleague to national icon and professor at the University of Havana, Jorge Mañach, Rexach was a trailblazer of her time and promoted the professional advancement of women and was involved in innovative pedagogical teaching exercises. As Patricia Pardiñas-Barnes relates in an article that was written using source material contained in this very archive of Rexach’s housed in the Cuban Heritage Collection, Rexach also “belonged to a youthful group who deposed the dictatorship of Machado (1925-30)” (159); this bold commitment to voicing her beliefs would eventually result in her permanent exile from Cuba in 1960. “Taking the school beyond the traditional classrooms would be a constant in Rosario Rexach's efforts in promoting culture,” Lolo writes, her teaching praxis extensively developing at the University of Havana where she was one of the first Cuban women to make use of modern technology in education. Pardiñas-Barnes narrates: “Her voice was heard via CMQ radio waves from 1949 to 1953, where she participated in ‘long-distance learning’ (in today’s pedagogical jargon) at La Universidad del Aire, opening the virtual classroom to as many Cubans as possible to present and discuss national identity concerns and cultural issues. The Universidad del Aire was a cutting-edge educational program created by Jorge Mañach, her mentor and university colleague” (160).

Additionally, Rexach was twice elected President of the prestigious Lyceum de la Habana, “a private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the culture” (Lolo), and a member of the Comisión Cubana de la UNESCO. By 1960, Rexach left Cuba and relocated permanently to New York City because it was believed she was a counterrevolutionary as Patrick Iber relays: “Another member, the professor of sociology Rosario Rexach, left after a Communist student minder – there was one in every university class – denounced her as a counterrevolutionary because her lectures on the French Revolution credited it with having done much to develop systems of modern education … Rexach said that she could have stayed if she had kept her mouth shut, with a good income of $6,000 a year, an air-conditioned house, and three servants.”

Even when in her seventies and eighties, Rexach was “still publishing with the brió of a much younger generation” (Pardiñas-Barnes 163). But in excess of her scholarly and teacherly vigor and the volume of her published works, Rexach will be remembered for her distinct style and flair of writing, best summarized in the words of a friend who knew her voice in life as well as through the many pages she left behind: “Her essayistic prose is literature, even though literature itself is its content. She talks about the art of others through her own art, as if the waves commented on the sea or the cold the snowfall. Form and content go hand in hand to the bottom of the idea and the soul of the text studied, shaping their own soul and idea as a new literary text … it is the case that Rosario Rexach wrote ‘a la Rexach,’ in a formula that is completed when the receiver enjoys both what he receives and the way he receives it” (Lolo).

Augustus Seymour Houghton was born in Palisades, N.Y. on January 3, 1866. He received his preparatory education at Phillips Academy in Massachusetts, was graduated B.A. at Amherst College in 1888, studied law in New Bern, N.C. and was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1890. He studied law under Elihu Root in New York City and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1891.

Houghton established his own law firm and practiced in New York City until his retirement in 1948. He was a partner in the firm of Holtzman, Wise, Shepard, Houghton, and Kelly, director of the New Jersey Zinc Co.; Pohatcong Hosiery Mills, Inc.; and the Putnam Trust Co., Greenwich, Conn.

Houghton became actively involved in conservation in 1909 when he was elected to serve as a member of the Conservation Committee of the Camp Fire Club of America, a post he held until 1948. From 1915 to 1918, he served as secretary of the New York State Conservation Commission and from 1928 to 1932 he was a member of the Legislative Reforestation Commission. In 1935, New York Governor Herbert Lehman appointed him chairman of the State Conservation Committee that was to decide whether or not to build truck trails in forest preserves. In 1936, he was elected president of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. He served as director and secretary of the American Game Association. He also served as director of the American Forestry Association, trustee of the American Wildlife Institute, Inc., and was a member of the Society of American Foresters.

Houghton assisted in obtaining a treaty with Great Britain, Russia, Japan, and Canada for the protection of Alaskan fur seals and a treaty with Great Britain and Canada for the protection of migratory birds. He also wrote extensive articles of the preservation of wildlife and conservation.

Augustus S. Houghton resided in Coconut Grove, Florida during the winter months and as a result became actively involved in the restoration of wildlife in the state. In 1942, the Florida State Chamber of Commerce awarded him a gold medal for his efforts. He died on September 25, 1948 while visiting his son in HyŠres, France.

José Antonio Font was a real estate developer who dedicated many years to public service and Cuban exile interests.

Font was born in Havana, Cuba, on December 17, 1947. Between 1969 and 1971, he was personal assistant to José Elias de la Torriente during the organization of the “Plan para la Liberación de Cuba,” also known as the Plan Torriente. From 1971 to 1974, Font served as the national secretary for foreign relations for the student group Agrupación Abdala, helping to establish the Miami and Washington, DC, chapters. He was a founder of what is today known as the Greater Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and was the founding vice president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In 1989 he helped establish the Alianza Democrática Cubana in Washington, DC, and later was a founding director of the Institute for Democracy in Cuba, funded by USAID. He died in Miami in 2015.