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Antonia Rey was born Maria Antonia Francesch on October 12, 1927, in Havana, Cuba to Antonio Francesch, a dentist, and Emilia Rey, a nurse. Antonia’s father died before she was born and she was given her mother’s surname. Rey’s grandmother raised her while her mother studied nursing. Her mother later married Rafael Rangel and had two sons. Antonia was a teenager when her mother remarried. From a young age, Rey wanted to be an actress, but she decided to study the law at the University of Havana, which garnered her stepfather’s approval, unlike her dream of acting on stage. However, Rey dropped out of law school and went on to pursue theater, making her debut in 1948 in “Numancia Cervantes,” at the University of Havana.

In the 1950’s she rose to prominence on the stage in Havana, playing principal roles such as Madge in William Inge’s “Picnic,” the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s “Candida” and Elizabeth Proctor in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” During this epoch, she met her husband Andres Castro who owned the theater, Las Mascaras. Castro, born July 27, 1917, in Havana, Cuba, was from an affluent family that was in the furniture business. He and Rey married in 1958. Reportedly they tied the knot during the intermission of a show they were rehearsing at the time. After the Castros rose to power in 1959, Rey and her husband who were famous in the theater community and considered to be pioneers in the pre-Revolution theater movement. Post-1959 they were presented with the offer of National Theater and getting a plethora of roles in its productions. Rey and her husband, however, decided to flee to the U.S. in 1961 as part of the “first-wave” of Cuban political exiles, which mostly consisted of upper and middle-class professionals and their families. Although she left her illustrious theater career and possessions behind in Havana, Rey’s niece reports that Rey never regretted their decision to leave Cuba.

In the United States, Rey and Castro settled in New York City to continue being part of the theater world. Like many Cuban exiles, the couple had to start from scratch. Through a connection she made, Rey was given a small role, which expanded to further opportunities. Rey made her debut on Broadway in 1964, when she played the role of Lupa in the chorus of the musical “Bajour,” which starred Chita Rivera at the Shubert Theater. Rey also played a Mexican woman in “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1973 and had small roles in two other productions of Tennessee Williams plays, “The Rose Tattoo” in 1995 and as Madrecita in “Camino Real” in 1970 at the Lincoln Center Theatre, New York City; as prisoner in, “Poets from the Inside”, and as Mamita, “The Wonderful Year”, both Public Theatre, New York City; as Fula Lopez, “In the Summer House,” Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City; as Maria in, “Back Bog Beast”, at American Place Theatre; as mother in “Blood Wedding,” INTAR Theatre, New York City; as Ranevsky in “The Cherry Orchard”, in “The Importance of Being Earnest,” and as Mrs. Warren in “Mrs. Warren's Profession,” all Westside Repertory Theatre in New York City. She also appeared in “The Engagement Baby” in 1970, as Mrs. Murino in “42 Seconds from Broadway” in 1973 and “The Ritz” in 1975.

Antonia Rey began appearing on screen in film and television roles, although during the time period when Rey was active, many of the parts available to her were “ethnic” supporting roles that followed the tropes of maternal figures, Gypsies, witches, and fortune tellers. She appeared in 30 movies from comedies to psychological thrillers, including as the landlady in “Klute,” a 1971 crime thriller with Jane Fonda, the 1979 musical “Hair,” “Moscow on the Hudson,” the 1978 drama “King of the Gypsies”, “Coogan’s Bluff,” in 1968 was her first movie appearance,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” the comedy “Kiss Me, Guido” in 1997, the thriller “Jacob’s Ladder” in 1990, as Mrs. Stella in one of the “Die Hard” films, the voice of Trixie in the 2005 animated film “The Corpse Bride,” and the voice of “Abuela” on the children’s show “Dora the Explorer.” She won cameos and small roles in sitcoms as well as soap operas (“As The World Turns,” “All My Children”), police procedurals (“Law and Order” and “Third Watch”), the TV-movie pilot for “Kojak,” and “Who’s the Boss Her final appearance was as Assunta, Blue and Isabella Scaramucci's spiritual aunt on the second season of the series “Happy!” for the Syfy Channel, which premiered after her death.The episodes where she appeared were dedicated in her name.

In 2003, Rey received a lifetime achievement award from the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors. (HOLA) Her frequent appearance on television and in movies caused her to be recognized while out and about. She was beloved by those who world with her and fellow actress Gilda Miros referred to her as “Good-hearted Antonia.” Rey died at the age of 92 on February 21, 2019 in New York City.

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).

Mariel, Revista de Literatura y Arte was a magazine published between 1983 and 1985 by a group of Cuban writers and artists who had arrived to the United States during the Mariel Boatlift. The magazine focused primarily on Marielista works and issues.

Repertorio Español was founded in 1968 by producer Gilberto Zaldívar and Artistic Director René Buch to introduce the best of Latin American, Spanish and Hispanic-American theatre to a broad audience in New York City and across the country. Robert Weber Federico joined the company two years later as Resident Designer and Associate Artistic Producer and is currently the organization’s Executive Director.

From its earliest days, Repertorio has maintained a dramatic ensemble, attracting many talented veterans and emerging Hispanic actors, including Ofelia González, the first actress to win an OBIE Award without having performed in English. Another addition was Pilar Rioja in 1973, marking the beginning of a relationship that has established Ms. Rioja as a legend in Spanish dance. In 1980, Pablo Zinger, Musical Director, initiated a musical ensemble that presented zarzuela, operas, and elegant musical anthologies, and in 1992, Jorge Alí Triana of Colombia’s Teatro Popular de Bogotá began an association with Repertorio and since then has adapted and directed some of the company’s most epic works.

Repertorio Español received the 2011 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement; a 1996 Honorary Drama Desk Award for presenting quality theater; along with many citations by ACE (Association of Hispanic Theatre Critics) and HOLA (Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors). The company has also received an ENCORE Award for Excellence in Arts Management and Theater Communication Group’s Theater Practitioner Award for Messrs. Zaldívar and Buch’s contributions to the development of American theater.