The Cuban American Bar Association, commonly known as CABA, was founded in 1974 in Miami, Florida. The association’s members include a wide variety of individuals such as judges, lawyers, and law students of Cuban, Cuban-American and non-Cuban descent who are interested in the legal issues that affect the Cuban community and other countries of Latin America.
The CABA Pro Bono Project is charged with assisting the poor and indigent community in Florida’s Miami-Dade county by serving as a nexus and providing a referral source between needy clients and pro bono attorneys who can provide direct legal services to them.
Established in 1980, the Cuban American Certified Public Accountants Association is a nonprofit organization of certified public accountants united in common heritage and interest, sharing a commitment to the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct.
The Cuban Museum of the Americas, more commonly known by its former name, The Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, began in the 1974 with a mission to collect art and historical documents from Cuba. The museum collected and displayed works of art by Cuban artists, including those living in Cuba, Cuban artists living abroad, and Cuban-Americans. Operating for several years without a permanent location, the museum found a home in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami from 1982 to 1991. With its closure in 1999, the museum donated its collections and records to the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami. The administrative records and historical documents were subsequently transferred to the Cuban Heritage Collection.
The Cuban Women's Club is a women's social club founded in Miami in 1969. Catering to a middle-class demographic, the club was modeled after Havana's Liceo Cubano and sponsored "luncheons, conferences, art exhibitions, and literary contests" as well as actively supporting charities and fundraising for the community.
By the mid-1970s, the organization's goals eventually expanded to address "issues pertinent [to members'] careers and their new roles in society," including conferences on "bilingual education, voting and political representation, salaries and the workplace." The club would grow to eventually accept members from all nationalities and professional and educational backgrounds.
From the earliest moments of its colonial history, builders and engineers have been part of the Cuban landscape. [1]However, it was not until 1803 that a royal decree gave more weight to the presence of the engineering corps. The engineering corps attached to the island was very small and without sufficient support, thus forced to carry out its projects using regular enlisted men and civilians. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, personnel attached to the Spanish Royal Corps of Engineers would continue to increase in order to sustain the number of projects taking place, mainly in the capital city of Havana.
The arrival of the twentieth century saw a surge in the engineering field. With a new school formally attached to the University of Havana, which later became a department of the University, future Cuban engineers were able to obtain their education at home. These new educational opportunities were reflected in the surge in public works and feats of engineering that took place in the first half of the twentieth century.
Cuban engineers had long been affiliated with the Sociedad de Ingenieros Cubanos, an organization that dated to the end of the 19th century. However, relatively large changes in the educational process leading to a degree in Engineering led to the creation of societies or organizations that focused on individual engineering disciplines. Thus, the creation of the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de Cuba in 1945, whose membership was open to civil engineers throughout the island.
The official publication of the Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de Cuba was titled Ingeniería Civil. It was published quarterly and highlighted not only the past work of notable engineers, but current projects involving the society’s members. The journal served as a chronicle of the work carried out by the island’s civil engineers.
The 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power led to the immediate exile of many of the association’s members. Many of them arrived to the United States in reduced circumstances, forced to begin their studies anew and to make their way in an unfamiliar environment. As early as 1961, the association began to establish its exilic identity, with meetings and bulletins that kept its members informed. In exile, the organization changed its name to the Cuban-American Association of Cuban Engineers (C-AACE), but kept its ethos of professional development.
One of the ways in which the new association provided support for its members was through the ratification of their Cuban engineering degrees. State and local governments from all over the United States wrote to the association to solicit their help in establishing the credentials of these newly arrived engineers.
Manuel Lamar Cuervo (b. 1929) was born in Bogotá, Colombia to a Cuban diplomatic family. His stay in Colombia was brief as he left at six years of age for Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1951 he moved from Montevideo, Uruguay to Havana, Cuba, where he would live for many years and where he would create his well-known comic strip and animated cartoon Matojo on February 17, 1964.
Before he dedicated his life to the arts, Cuervo studied diplomatic law and journalism at the University of Havana. He was offered a position as consul in Puerto Cortés, Honduras but the post never materialized. After spending some time working in bureaucratic positions, he became a filmmaker and a caricaturist. Cuervo was working for the magazine Mellawriting sports related humor when he was asked to do a comic strip, which then became Matojo. Cuervo moved to Miami in 1992 where he has continued his artistic career.