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Héctor Santiago Armenteros Ruiz is a versatile artist who was involved in theater in Cuba, before and after the Cuban Revolution, and in the United States. He worked as an actor, playwright, director, choreographer, dancer, and puppeteer.  Santiago was born in Havana, Cuba in 1944. He graduated from the Cuban National Dramatist School after studying literature at the University of Havana. In 1959, he co-founded the Children’s Theatrical Movement in Cuba. The writer Virgilio Piñera was his intimate friend and his literature professor throughout those active years.

In 1965, Santiago was accused of antisocial behavior.  Five years later he was arrested and his literary works seized by the government.  The artist was sentenced to three years service in UMAP (Military Units to Aid Production), which was a type of Cuban forced labor camp where political dissidents were made to work in inhumane conditions.  In 1979, he left Cuba for Spain.  Santiago was eventually able to move to New York, where he resides today.

Santiago has been active in promoting HIV awareness in New York City.  He has shown a strong desire to portray the social and human impacts of the disease, as it was a theme in his plays throughout the 1980s.  He once said, “As a human being, I have tried to bring light to these dark times and unflaggingly struggled so that man does not become man’s wolf.”

Many of his plays have been performed in Cuba and in the United States.  His short stories, essays, and plays have been published and translated into English, French and Catalan. His play Vida y Pasión de la Peregrina (Life and Passion of the Pilgrim) was the winner of the Golden Letters Award from the University of Florida, and the world premiere took place during the Miami International Theatre Festival in 1998.

Caridad Sola is a Cuban-American visual artist who studied at the University of Miami, Columbia University, New York University, and Parsons School of Design. Her work has been exhibited in a variety of places including the Art Basel Miami Closing Party at Fountain, the Lowe Art Museum, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center, The Arts + Literature Laboratory Gallery in New Haven, CT, the Grace Exhibition Space within the Fountain Art Fair at the Armory in NY, and was awarded the “Best of Show” designation in “Made in NY 2006” at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center.

Rosario Hirart was a Cuban-born writer and professor. After going into exile in the United States, she acquired a Doctor of Philosophy degree from New York University and taught at both NYU and Iona College. She later retired to write full-time. She has published numerous fiction and non-fiction books, including biographies of Lydia Cabrera and Francisco Ayala.

René Touzet y Monte was a notable Cuban-American musician and bandleader. He led a sixteen-piece orchestra in Cuba before relocating to the United States in 1944, working with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Desi Arnaz, and Xavier Cugat. He had a relationship with Cuban singer Olga Guillot.

Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar was born in Banes, in the province of Oriente, Cuba, January 16, 1901, to Belisario Batista and Carmela Zaldívar, sugar plantation laborers. Of very humble origins, Batista worked from an early age. An avid reader, he attended public school and Colegio Los Amigos, an American Quaker school, but was primarily a self-educated man. He held a few jobs and in 1921 he joined the Cuban Army. By 1932, he was a military court stenographer with the rank of sergeant major.

The effects of the Great Depression, combined with discontent with President Machado's government, led to violent riots which caused Machado to leave the country in 1933. On September 4 of that year Batista led the so called “sergeant’s revolt”, taking control of the Army under a series of short lived governments. As "Jefe del Estado Mayor del Ejército" (Army Chief of Staff) for the next seven years, Batista increased the size and consolidated the power of the army and suppressed a number of uprisings.

In October of 1940, in the first elections after the inception of a new constitution, Batista was elected president. Succeeded by Ramón Grau San Martín, who won the 1944 elections, Batista left the country. In the 1948 elections in which Carlos Prío Socarrás was elected president Batista, still living in the United States, was elected senator for the province of Las Villas.

On March 10, 1952 Batista staged a military coup overthrowing the Prío presidency. His past democratic and pro-labor tendencies won him support from the financial sector and labor leaders. Among the opponents was Fidel Castro, who led an attack against the Moncada army installation in Santiago de Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow Batista’s government on July 26, 1953. Castro was captured, brought to trial and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

A year later Batista was again elected president. During the following years, post War economic prosperity grew to unprecedented levels. But growing opposition escalated to social unrest and violence. Castro, who was in exile after being freed in the 1955 amnesty, returned to Cuba and after another failed attack retreated to the mountains to wage a guerrilla war. By 1958 the general situation of the country had become difficult, opposition forces had grown in size and won a number of victories, and some of Batista’s officials had deserted. On January 1, 1959, Batista resigned and flew to the Dominican Republic.

In August of the same year, Batista moved to Portugal where he resided until his death in Marbella, Spain, on August 6, 1973. During those years he wrote extensively and corresponded with prominent literary and political figures including both former allies and adversaries.

Eduardo "Guayo" Hernández was a Cuban reporter, cinematographer, and director of the news programs Noticuba and Cineperiodico. He was one of Cuba's most celebrated television reporters in the pre-revolutionary era.

Eduardo Áviles Ramírez was born in Juigalpa, Nicaragua, and enjoyed a distinguished career as a journalist, poet, and scholar for more than sixty years. Áviles Ramírez arrived in Cuba as a young man and wrote articles for many newspapers and magazines. He acquired a wide following among Cubans, who came to regard him as a native of Havana. Áviles Ramírez ultimately joined the renowned circles of Cuban journalists and intellectuals. Through his endeavors in the field of poetry, Áviles Ramírez is included in the anthology of Cuban poetry.

In 1922, Áviles Ramírez undertook his final trip to Nicaragua, where he met Ruben Darío, a prominent literary figure. In 1925, Áviles Ramírez arrived in Paris for the first time. He remained there until the outbreak of World War II. Much of his literary work pertains to Paris and its residents. In 1940, Áviles Ramírez was detained and situated outside of the city. Hispanic American diplomats formed a literary discourse, and Áviles Ramírez seized this opportunity to pay tribute to Ruben Darío.

Eduardo Áviles Ramírez traveled around the world, and reported personal experiences on journeys to places such as Constantinople. Áviles Ramírez also wrote about prominent individuals and literary writers. He published a few books and also formed a collection of letters and photographs he had received from different parts of the world. He wrote for newspapers such as Diario de Yucatán, El Universal, El País, and Diario de la Marina. He wrote for magazines such as Bohemia, Gráfos, Puerto Rico Ilustrado, and Revista Cubana.

Eduardo Áviles Ramírez became ill, but his conviction to write did not subside. Despite his infirmity and physical disability to correspond, he would dictate articles to his daughter Yolanda, and she would have them published. Mr. Áviles Ramírez’s last article was published in 1989. He died on June 28, 1989 in Paris.

Manuel Pereiras García was born in Cifuentes, Cuba in 1950 and is the author and translator of numerous plays in English and Spanish. His works have been performed at Mercy College, Dumé Spanish Theatre, Stonewall Repertory Theatre, Theatre of New City, and INTAR Theatre. Pereiras García has also written about the history of theater with a focus on Cuban and Spanish drama. In 1998, his complete plays were published by Presbyter’s Peartree. He currently resides in New York City.

Bob Simms was born in Snow Hill, Alabama in 1927. Shortly after his birth, Bob Simms' parents Alberta (1888-1970) and Harry Simms (1884-1949) relocated to the community of Tuskegee, Alabama, as members of the music faculty.  Harry Simms was one of Dr. Washington Carver's students in the class of 1907 and often took his youngest son Bob with him on visits to Dr. Carver's home.

Bob Simms moved to Florida in 1953 to join the faculty of the George Washington Carver schools in Coconut Grove and later served as Executive Director of the Metro Dade Community Relations Board from 1968 to 1983. Mr. Simms developed the Miami Inner-City Minority Experience (MICME) for the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1970s and led efforts to create and implement the Inner City Marine Project - now known as Mast Academy. With his wife Aubrey Watkins Simms, he was a founding member of the Church of the Open Door in Liberty City and is the father if the first black woman to serve as judge in Florida, Leah Simms. Mr. Simms is Emeritus Member of the University of Miami, Board of Trustees.

William Calhoun “Bill” Baggs was born In Atlanta, Georgia, on September 30, 1920, the son on C.C. Baggs and the former Kate Bush. Baggs declined an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1941, and travelled to Panama where he worked as a stevedore and copy reader with the Panama Star and Herald. During World War II Baggs served as a pilot with the 485th Bomber Group of the 14th Air Force in North Africa and Italy. Baggs married the former Joan Orr of Athens, Georgia, in 1945 and worked for the Greensboro News (North Carolina) before accepting a position as a reporter with the Miami News in 1946. He was promoted to editor in 1957.

Bill Baggs began a daily column in 1949 and soon became an intimate part of the Miami journalism and political landscape. At the request of President John F. Kennedy, Baggs served of the United States Mission that established the Caribbean Organization. Among countless local activities Baggs served on the Citizens Board of the University of Miami, the Metro Community Relations Board, the State Constitution Revision Commission, and the Cuban Refugee Resettlement Commission. He was also director of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

In 1959 Baggs received the Leonard Abess Human Relations award for his editorial campaign to keep Florida schools open when legislators threatened to close schools rather than end segregation. Baggs fought successfully for the establishment of Cape Florida State Park. He also received the Eleanor Roosevelt-Israel Humanities Award for his editorial on behalf of the State of Israel. Baggs was nominated for the Nobel Prize for his efforts to bring peace to Vietnam. He died shortly before the National Conference of Christians and Jews was able to present him with its highest honor, the Brotherhood Medallion.

As Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Baggs made two trips to Vietnam with State Department approval, in January, 1967, and March, 1968. Baggs and the Center's executive vice president, Harry Ashmore, told of their experiences in a book, Mission to Hanoi: A Chronicle of Double-Dealing in High Places. They returned from Vietnam with the initial aide memoire that set forth North Vietnam position on negotiations with the United States. The memoire was delivered to Ambassador William H. Sullivan in Vientiane, Laos, on April 6, 1968. Baggs wrote and published extensively, in newspapers journals and books. He also appeared frequently on television and traveled the country as a speaker.

Bill Baggs died in Miami Florida, on January 7, 1969, of complications from viral pneumonia.

Art critic and historian, Virgil Barker was born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1889. He attended the Bordentown Military Institute, Harvard University and the Corcoran School of Art. Barker began his professional career in 1919, serving as special assistant for the biennial exhibitions at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. At the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, he held the position of Curator of Paintings, and in 1920, he became director of the Kansas City Art Institute. Following this period of museum work, Barker began writing art history and criticism. He joined the Editorial Board of the Arts, serving as associate editor and later as contributing editor. Working as an art critic in New York during the 1920s, Barker "came to know well many of the many important American painters who gravitated toward Alfred Stieglitz and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and whose works dominated American painting between the two wars."

During 1925-26, Barker acted as foreign editor, travelling through Europe to cover exhibitions. The Arts, which ceased publication in the late 1930s, remains a significant record of the art and art criticism of this period. In 1931, Barker joined the University of Miami as a professor of art. Praised as a great scholar and superb lecturer, he became a popular teacher. Barker remained at the University for twenty-eight years and promoted the visual arts in greater Miami and the University. Barker wrote several reviews for the Miami Herald as well an article on the art of Vizcaya. In addition to teaching, he served as a trustee at the University of Miami and played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Lowe Art Gallery, serving as its first director in 1950. In 1951 the University recognized Barker's scholarship awarding him the honorary Doctor of Letters degree. Barker's reputation as a scholar and teacher also led to his appointment by the Carnegie Foundation to an American Studies committee in 1956. Barker's responsibilities included selecting slides and writing text on colonial American painting for art history courses.

Barker also contributed to the knowledge and interpretation of American art through his writings. Barker served on the editorial boards of The Arts and The Art Bulletin, Art and Archaeology, The Magazine of Art, and Art in America. He contributed articles and reviews to Art in America, The Magazine of Art, The Yale Review, Saturday Review, and other magazines. Barker's first book Pieter Bruegel, the Elder, published in 1926, was the first work on Bruegel written in English. In 1931 Barker published a monograph on Henry Lee McFee as well as A Critical Introduction to American Painting.

Barker travelled throughout the United States for ten years, surveying paintings in museums and private homes for his next book, American Painting: History and Interpretation, published in 1950. The work, which presents American painting within its historical context and includes original interpretations, received favorable reviews. Author, critic, and museum director Lloyd Goodrich described the work as "...the best history of American painting so far written...it will be the definitive work in its field for a long time to come."

Barker's final work, From Realism to Reality in Recent American Painting (1959) contains a series of Barker's lectures. He also wrote numerous biographies of American painters for the Dictionary of American Biography, and Arts of the United States, as well as articles on Colonial American painting and John Singleton Copley for the Encyclopedia of World Art. Barker was a member of the College Art Association, and Association Internationale D'Art. The University of Miami Lowe Art Museum organized the Virgil Barker Memorial Collection of American Paintings following Barker's death in 1965, and numerous friends and colleagues donated to the collection.