Lincoln Díaz-Balart was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1954. From 1993 to 2011, he was the U.S. Representative for Florida's 21st congressional district (R), previously serving in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida State Senate from 1986 to 1989 and 1989 to 1992, respectively.
Throughout his congressional tenure, Díaz-Balart was a member of the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process and took on leadership positions in the House Republican Policy Committee. In 2010, Díaz-Balart announced his intention to not seek congressional re-election; his brother, Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, ran to replace him as representative for Florida's 21st congressional district and succeeded him in the position until January 2013. After leaving office, Lincoln Díaz-Balart practiced law in Miami. He died in Key Biscayne, Florida.
David L. Powell is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Columbia Journalism School. He began his professional life as a reporter for the Associated Press in New York, Miami, and Tallahassee. After earning a law degree from Florida State University, he practiced law for thirty years. In his work and through civic organizations he met many Cuban Americans and was moved by the stories of their lives. He began recording interviews about their memories in 2016, which were compiled in the book "Ninety Miles and a Lifetime Away: Memories of Early Cuban Exiles."
