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Eduardo Martín Sansaricq was born in Yaguajay, Province of Las Villas, Cuba, on July 22, 1875. He was involved in the Cuban Independence War since its beginning. Later, he joined the Mambi Army on October 7, 1895. He was wounded and imprisoned by the guerrilla of Yaguajay. Later, he escaped and rejoined the Ejercito Libertador in the same Brigada de Remedios.

Martín Sansaricq had an active role in the seizure of the heliograph of Arroyo Blanco, the last combat of importance of the Cuban armed forces under the command of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez. He had the rank of captain and was promoted to the rank of commander in chief of Yaguajay by Máximo Gómez, who entrusted Martín Sansaricq the task of forming police force to maintain order in the region.

At the end of the Cuban Independence War, Martín Sansaricq enlisted in the Guardia Rural in the towns of Trinidad, Cruces and Yaguajay. In 1931, he was appointed captain of the Leoncio Vidal Regiment in Santa Clara, Las Villas, and later in Yaguajay. Martín Sansaricq retired from the army in February 1934.

After his retirement he was very active in the Asociación de Veteranos de la Independencia and the Asociación de Caballeros Católicos de Cuba. He died in Yaguajay on October 24, 1959.

Manuel Martin, Jr. was born December 16, 1934, in Artemisa, Province of Pinar del Río, Cuba. He attended La Inmaculada Concepción Grammar School and the Escuela Pública No. 1 in Artemisa and later finished three years in the Escuela Profesional de Comercio. He left Cuba for the United States on October 27, 1956 and graduated from Hunter College in New York with a B.A. in theater and film.

With Magaly Alabau, Manuel Martín founded Teatro Duo in New York in 1969. This theater was dedicated to producing works in both English and Spanish, and Martín directed many plays for this theater. In addition to his theatrical direction, Martín is best known for his plays Rita and Bessie, Swallows and Union City Thanksgiving, the latter of which was published in an anthology of Cuban theater by the Department of Cultural Affairs, Madrid, Spain (1992). He received a Cintas fellowship for literature in 1985, the New York Foundation Award for playwriting in 1986, 1987, and 1991, and a Fulbright Fellowship for playwriting in 1987. His plays have been produced at the Latino Festival, New York Shakespeare Festival, INTAR and La Mama Experimental Theater. His play with music for children, The Legend of the Golden Coffee Bean, was included in ¡Aplauso!, an anthology of Hispanic children's theater (Arte Público Press, 1995). Martin was a member of the INTAR Playwrights in Residence Laboratory, New York.

In New York and in Puerto Rico he was instructor of drama workshops and gave many conferences in New York, Miami, and Paris. In 1992, he acted as translator and adapter for the program “Dr. Goodmouth” for Colgate-Palmolive, through the UnWorld Group, Inc.

Martín directed plays and musicals in New York, Argentina, and many other places. Until his death on September 28, 2000, he resided in New York.

Frank Martinez is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami, School of Architecture, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Miller School of Medicine. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami and a graduate degree from Princeton University. He teaches design, drawing and theory in the core of both undergraduate and graduate programs in the School of Architecture. In the past five years he has lectured and led tours in the Graduate Rome program on Roman Villas and Gardens, with primary interest in Renaissance & Baroque Architecture and Urban Design, as well as the summer traveling course: The Grand Tour. Professor Martinez is a member of the Built Environment and Health Research Group, an interdisciplinary research team led by José Szapocznik, chair of Epidemiology and Public Health at UM’s Miller School of Medicine, and is co-author of numerous articles on the impact of the built environment on health. The team, investigates the impact of the built environment on Hispanic elders’ health (funded by the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health), children’s conduct and Hispanic immigrants’ risk for metabolic syndrome, The first results of this work were published in the September 2006 issue of the American Journal of Community Psychology with subsequent publications in journals in public health and architecture, most recently, the 2009 Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences. Professor Martinez is also is a founder and design partner in Martinez & Alvarez Architecture, Inc. in which he works collaboratively with his partner and wife, Ana Alvarez. The work has focused primarily on architectural and urban projects that contribute to the art of making cities. Underlying the teaching and research is an exploration of drawing as a method for acquiring and developing architectural knowledge.

Mel (Melquiades Rafael) Martinez was the first Cuban-American to be elected to the United States Senate, serving as the representative for Florida from 2005-2009. Born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba on October 23, 1946, Martinez immigrated to the United States in 1962 at the age of fifteen, through what was later known as Operation Pedro Pan. This initiative, sponsored by the Catholic Welfare Bureau and the U.S. government, coordinated the exodus of over 14,000 children from Fidel Castro’s Communist government in Cuba between 1960 and 1962. For four years, Martinez lived with two different foster families in Orlando, Florida, as he struggled to learn English and adjust to a life away from his family and homeland. His parents and younger sister remained in Cuba, and his younger brother lived with relatives in Miami. Martinez was reunited with his family in Orlando, Florida in 1966.

Martinez worked his way through college and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida State University in 1969. Encouraged by one of his undergraduate professors to pursue law, he proceeded to earn a Juris Doctorate degree from Florida State University in 1973. Martinez practiced law in Orlando for twenty-five years until 1998, when he won the election to serve as Mayor of Orange County, Florida. After two years in this position, Martinez was tapped by President George W. Bush to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), becoming the first Cuban-American to serve in the Cabinet of a President. As HUD Secretary during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Martinez was responsible for overseeing funds appropriated by Congress for the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan. He served as HUD Secretary from 2001-2003. Martinez also served as a key advisor to the President on Cuban policy, and was named co-chair of the Commission for the Assistance to a Free Cuba alongside Secretary of State Colin Powell.

During his service as United States Senator (R-Florida) from January 4, 2005 until his resignation on September 9, 2009, Martinez focused on issues including U.S. policy toward Cuba, immigration reform, housing and the protection of home buyers from bad loans and predatory lending practices, the protection of Florida’s environment, and the modernization of the United States military through increased shipbuilding. He developed a reputation for bipartisanship by partnering with fellow U.S. Senator for Florida Bill Nelson (D) on restricting offshore drilling in Florida’s waters and with U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois) on immigration reform. Martinez was the ranking member of the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging and served on the Armed Services Committee, the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. During his tenure, his office assisted more than 36,000 Florida families through casework, written correspondence, and other efforts.

Martinez is the author of "A Sense of Belonging: From Castro’s Cuba to the U.S. Senate, One Man’s Pursuit of the American Dream" (Crown Forum, 2008). In his inaugural address as a U.S. Senator, he said, “I came to America from Communist Cuba so I might have a better way of life. I wanted to live the American Dream where if you worked hard and put your mind to task, anything was possible.”