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Juana de Arcos Babun was a member of the Cuban Babun family. Immigrants from Palestine in the early 1900s, they became a prominent family of businessmen in Cuba. Teofilo Babun Sr. owned a logging business near Santiago, Cuba, and became an early financier of the Cuban Revolution. Later, he was declared a traitor by Fidel Castro due to his wealth, and was forced to flee to Miami with his sons.

Juana's nephews Lincoln, Santiago, and Teofilo Babun Franco participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion as members of Brigade 2506.

María Antonia Avilés Casanova was born in Cuba in 1912. She was a daughter of José M. Avilés and Rosa Casanova, aristocratic and wealthy family of Cienfuegos, Cuba. Later, the family relocated to Havana.

Her mother, Rosa Casanova Avilés fluently spoke English, French and Spanish. She raised her family in a bilingual environment. One of her children, Marianita, as everybody used to call her, spoke English and Spanish too. She graduated from Ruston Academy, in Havana during the 40s. Marianita liked to do art work, and her brother José liked to do art work as well. They liked music and all related to the art world. they were artists. Some of their works are listed in this collection. After she graduated from Ruston Academy, Marianita started to work in some libraries in Havana and then as a hostess at the Hilton Hotel.

Marianita never got married. As well as many Cubans, she left Cuba when Fidel Castro seized the power in Cuba in 1959. She landed at Miami International Airport during the 60s as a Cuban exile and immediately she started to work at the Archdioceses of Miami. Marianita was the assistant of Monsignor Orlando Fernández at Saint Francis of Sales, Miami Beach, Florida, and later, she worked for the Youth Center. She was a deeply religious person. She was involved in several activities related with the church. She also worked with Archbishop Edward McCarthy and Monsignor Bryan Walsh, helping the children who arrived from Cuba during 1960.

Marianita lived serving and helping people. She spent her last years in Miami, Florida where she died in 1997.

Thomas W. Austin was born in Bethesda, Maryland on December 7, 1955, and he graduated in 1978 from University of Miami with a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism/Communications. He began his journalism career mainly writing for the Miami Herald and the Miami, Broward, and Palm Beach Review newspapers from 1987 to 1991. From 1991 to 1996, he served as a regular columnist for the New Times, mainly authoring its Swelter column before he went on to write for Ocean Drive Magazine from 1996 to 2015. He also frequently contributed freelance articles for several popular nationwide magazines, such as US Magazine, USA Today, People Magazine, W, Interview magazine, Spanish Vogue, Travel & Leisure, Art & Antiquities, and the New York Times.

His articles mainly highlighted the Miami experience from an insider's perspective as he often wrote about the city's prolific nightlife and celebrity culture; its many civic scandals, local breaking news stories, and thriving businesses; and profiles on esteemed Miamians, such as Edie Beale of Grey Gardens. He continued to document the city's social scene right up until his death in 2022.