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Antonio Fernández Reboiro was born in Nuevitas, Camagüey, the son of Spanish immigrants Antonio Fernández de La Fuente and Julia Reboiro Vásquez. Between 1960 and 2003 he designed works for theater and music groups in Madrid as well as different groups all through Spain. His works are located in The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Musée de L’Affiche et la Publicité and the Centre National d’Art et de Culture George Pompidou in Paris; the National Gallery in London; the Museo del Cartel in Varsovia; the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami; and the Museo Carlos Maside in Spain, along with many other museums all around the world.

There were three sons born to Isidoro Fernández Cavada (d. 1838) of Santander, Spain and Emily Howard Gatier (d. 1903) of Philadelphia: Emilio (1830-1914), Federico (1831-1871), and Adolfo (1832-1871), all born in Cienfuegos, Cuba. After her husband’s death in 1838, Emily took her young sons to Philadelphia, where she later married Samuel Dutton (1814?-1889). Although they were raised in the United States, the Fernández Cavada brothers felt strong ties to the island of their birth, and each played different roles in its struggles for independence.

Federico Fernández Cavada (1831-1871) is perhaps the best known of the brothers, having published a book about his experiences as a prisoner of war in a Confederate prison during the US Civil War. He served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Union Army until his capture in the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Federico remained a prisoner at Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia until January 1864 and later published Libby Life, his sketches and illustrations of his prison experience.

Soon thereafter, Fernández Cavada was appointed United States consul at Trinidad, Cuba, a post he occupied until February 1869 when he resigned to take part in the Cuban insurrection that became Cuba’s Ten Years War (1868-1878). Federico was a General for the District of Trinidad, Commander in Chief of the Cinco Villas, and came to be the Commander-in-Chief of all Cuban forces. Burning and destroying Spanish property as a battle tactic, he became known as “General Candela” (General Fire). In 1871, Federico was captured by the Spanish gunboat Neptuno and was taken to Puerto Principe for trial. Although the exact date is not certain, Federico Fernández Cavada was executed in July 1871. He was survived by his wife, Carmela Merino, and their son Samuel.

The youngest Fernández Cavada, Adolfo (1832-1871), followed in his brother Federico’s footsteps. Having served in the Union Army in the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry and as an aide to General A. A. Humphreys, Adolfo joined the Cuban struggle for independence and served as Commander of the District of Cienfuegos, later succeeding his brother as Commander-in-Chief of the Cinco Villas. On 18 December 1871, he was killed in battle at the coffee estate “La Adelaida” near Santiago de Cuba.

While his brothers took up arms to support the Cuban cause, Emilio (1830-1914) rallied support for the independence efforts from Philadelphia. He was an active fundraiser and information relay from his brothers to exiled strategists. With other exiles in Philadelphia and New York, Emilio Fernández Cavada raised funds and funneled arms and munitions to the insurgent forces on the island. Emilio later resettled with his family in Cienfuegos and fathered six children: Isidoro, Inés, Angela, Emilio (1866-1947), Adolfo, and Fernando, whose son Fernando Fernández-Cavada donated this collection to the Cuban Heritage Collection.

Emilio’s son Emilio Fernández-Cavada Suárez del Villar trained as a doctor in Philadelphia and in 1896 joined Cuba’s War of Independence (1895-1898) as a Lieutenant Colonel. His death was misreported in Liberating Army records when in fact he had escaped the island. Emilio later returned to Cuba and married Hortensia Elizondo, with whom he lived in Cienfuegos until his death in 1947.

Ramiro A. Fernández began collecting photographs of Cuba in 1981. Inspired by his grandmother, Hortensia Lizaso Machado, Fernández built his collection to document aspects of Cuban life, history, art, and culture before they disappeared. His collection includes a mixture of family, tourist, and professional photos from the late 1800s through the Cuban Revolution.

A native of Cuba, Fernández moved with his family to Palm Beach County, Florida, in 1960. He graduated from Florida State University in 1974 and worked as a photo editor for Time, Inc. for 25 years. He is a Contributing Photo Editor to Americas Quarterly. In 2007, Fernández published I Was Cuba: Treasures from the Ramiro Fernández Collection (Chronicle Books).

Teresa Fernández Soneira is a writer and researcher of Cuban history, particularly of the XIX century and religion. She was born in Havana, Cuba in 1947 to Cuban parents of Galician Spanish ancestry. In Cuba, she went to school at the Colegio del Apostolado del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de Vedado. She and her family went into exile and relocated from Cuba to Miami, Florida in 1961. She then traveled to Madrid, Spain to finish her education at the Colegio del Apostolado de Madrid in 1964. She then returned to Miami and received an Associates Degree in Philosophy of Arts from Miami Dade College and later earned a degree in Humanities from Barry University.

She has made important contributions to scholarship on the history of Cuba and has seven books published, including: Mujeres de la Patria (Women of the Motherland) (2014) in which she has brought to life more than 1,300 Cuban women and their work during the struggles for independence in Cuba, Con La Estrella Y La Cruz: Historia De La Federación De Las Juventudes De Acción Católica Cubana (2002), Cuba: Historia De La Educación Católica, 1582-1961 (1997), about which a reviewer states: “The work identifies sixty religious orders, both feminine and masculine, that founded and staffed schools on the island; reproduces twenty-four historical documents; and lists Catholic schools in Cuba from 1582 to 1961, all arranged chronologically. As far as I can ascertain, no work containing this vast amount of information on the topic has been published until now.” (Miranda, Salvador. "Book Review: Cuba: Historia De La Educación Católica 1582-1961, Volumes 1 and 2." Cuban Studies. 30 (2000): 160-162.), Apuntes Desde El Destierro (1989), Niños Que Triunfan (Leading Children to Success): Centro Mater Sus Historias y Sus Colaborades) (2008.)

She has also published several scholarly articles on topics of Cuban history and historical figures. And written articles for El Nuevo Herald, Semanario ¡Éxito !, Geomundo, La Voz Católica, Buenhogar, El Pinareño, Convived, Ideal, and Heritage of Cuban Culture. She was the editor of the magazine Maria Stella for alumni of Colegio Apostolado of Cuba as well as a columnist for 7 years for the monthly publication La Voz Católica. She has participated in radio programs such as Radio República del Movimiento Democrático Cubano and Radio Martí, and given conferences to different organizations and presented at the Miami Book Fair. In 1990, she won the award given for the first literary contest of the Father Felix Varela Foundation of Miami, one of several honors she had been awarded for her work.

Tomás Fernández Robaina is a researcher and professor at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí in the Department of Cultural and Historical Research and Library Sciences.

He has published numerous works on Afro-Cuban topics including identity, race relations and religion.

José J. Fernández Partagás was born in Havana, Cuba on May 14, 1935. In 1954 he graduated from the Instituto Edison de Bachiller en Ciencias y Letras. In 1960 he received from the University of Havana a doctorate in math, and in 1964 he received his MS in Meteorology from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.

His areas of specialization were weather analysis, specialized forecasting, climatology, hurricane studies, and tropical meteorology. He held the following professional positions:

• Meteorologist, Cuban National Observatory (1960 -1961)

• Graduate Assistant, Department of Meteorology, Florida State University (1962-1964)

• Meteorological Offices, Department of Civil Aviation, Nassau, Bahamas (1965-1966)

• Research Associate, Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography, University of

Miami, 1967-1987

• Honorary Research Associate, Remote Sensing Lab, College of Engineering, University of Miami, 1987-1990

• Consulting meteorologist and private researcher in meteorology, 1990-1997

Fernández Partagás wrote a great amount of articles and papers and gave numerous lectures sponsored by scientific organizations. He was also a guest weather expert on talk shows on various Spanish radio and TV stations.

José J. Fernández Partagás died in the Otto G. Richter Library of the University of Miami on August 23, 1997.