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Ermina Luisa Odoardo Jähkel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on June 8th, 1923 to Rogelio Odoardo and Helen Jähkel. In 1930, she and her family moved to Cuba from Argentina as her father was from Cuba and his parents lived there. She began her art education early at the San Alejandro school of fine arts. She earned her Bachelor Degree in Letters and Sciences in 1940 and then a degree in architecture in 1945, both from the University of Havana. Her thesis architecture project was the development of the Gonzalo de Quesada Park in the city of Camagüey.

She and her husband Ricardo Eguilior y Perea worked together at their architecture firm, Ermina Odoardo Ricardo Eguilior Arquitectos, in Santiago de Cuba. Odoardo is known for being the first woman to practice architecture in Santiago. She was registered by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Oriente in 1948. During this time, their architectural style was mainly Rationalist, creating more than 50 buildings. Additionally, in the mid-1950’s, they were central to the urbanization and expansion of the Vista Alegre neighborhood in Santiago de Cuba, which remains to this day one of the most attractive areas of the city. Her firm constructed a condominium building there, shifting the overall aesthetic of the area. Some of the houses she created were on Calle 12 no. 206, at Avenida Manduley no. 301, at Calle 3 no. 202, at Anacaona no. 152, in the Merrimac division are the homes of Calle del Mirador, from Brooks Avenue and Rosell Street. Odoardo’s works could also be found in the Historic Center and in the districts of Development, Terrazas, Veguita de Gala and Santa Bárbara. She designed the house where she lived in Vista Alegre at Calle 19 esquina a Avenida Cebreco. In 1951, she won third prize for the Municipal Palace project. They built the Vista Alegre Tennis Club in 1953.

Odoardo and Eguilior greatly contributed to the development of modern Cuban architecture that was both modern and appropriate to the tropical climate. In 1958, their work was featured in the magazine, Arquitectura de La Habana. Her most notable projects built in Santiago de Cuba are the Bacardi Rum Company, Vista Alegre Tennis Club, Ferreiro Supermarket, Mestre and Espinoza drugstore, League Against Cancer Hospital, Office Building for Texaco, Texaco Refinery Laboratory Building, Texaco Employee Recreation Building, Pool on Siboney beach, Pool at Club Ciudamar, Merrimac Cast Planning, and the Planning of the Vista Alegre District Expansion.

Odoardo and her family left Santiago de Cuba and moved to Miami, Florida in 1960. In 1972, Odoardo and Eguilior’s firm designed the Bacardi International Limited Building in Bermuda, heavily influenced by Mies van der Rohe. Living in Miami, Odoardo also pursued painting and joined a local arts group. She passed away in 2018.

Manuel Ochoa was born on October 6, 1925, in Holguín, Cuba to Manuel Trinidad Ochoa and Caridad Ochoa. He showed a strong ability for music from an early age, beginning his music studies with his mother, Caridad Ochoa, a classically trained opera singer. Manuel Ochoa made his musical debut in his hometown at the age of seventeen, conducting Verdi’s Il Trovatore. In 1942 he created the Sociedad Coral de Holguín, conducting the chorale ensemble until 1946. As music director of the Sociedad Coral, Ochoa presented international renowned artists such as the Vienna Boys Choir, with whom he began a close and longstanding collaboration. This relationship served as inspiration to create the Niños Cantores de la Habana for Cardinal Archbishop Monsignor Manuel Arteaga.

Ochoa went on to graduate from the Conservatorio Internacional de Música in Havana, and began his professional career as a choral conductor in Havana. He was the conductor of several choirs in Havana, such as the Coro de Madrigalistas. With the Coro de Madrigalistas, he presented a capella polyphonic works along with symphonic-choral works. Ochoa continued his education in Europe, where he graduated from the Real Conservatorio de Madrid in Spain after receiving a scholarship from the Instituto de Cultura Hispanica. He then studied conducting technique at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome under Maestro Bonaventura Somma; and in Vienna under Hermann Scherchen of the German School of Conducting.

Upon returning to Cuba after his studies, Ochoa was named Professor of Conducting Techniques at the Conservatorio Nacional and conducted the Orquesta Filarmonica de la Habana and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. Later in Europe, he conducted the Orquesta y Coro de la Radio Nacional de España, the Orquesta de Camara de Madrid, and the Piccola Opera di Roma.

After studying and working in Cuba, Spain, Vienna, and Rome, Ochoa settled in Miami following the Cuban Revolution. He was among the first of Miami’s Cuban exile artists to see the creative opportunities that the city could offer as the gateway of the Americas. In 1969 Ochoa conceived the Centro de Artes de America, a performing arts center to promote cultural collaboration across the Americas. Between 1969 and 1980 he founded and became general director and orchestra conductor for the Sociedad Artístico Cultural de las Americas and the Compañia Hispano-Americana de Arte in Miami. Both organizations made major contributions to the cultural development of the South Florida area and received public recognition from the City of Miami and Dade County for outstanding cultural achievement.

In 1989 Maestro Ochoa founded the Miami Symphony Orchestra as a cultural expression of Miami’s multiethnic community. Ochoa served as the artistic director and conductor of the Miami Symphony Orchestra from its founding in 1989 until 2006, leading the orchestra in award-winning programming and performances, including guest performances at prestigious venues such as New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall.

Manuel Ochoa was married to Sofia Ochoa and they had one son, Manuel.

O, Miami is a local organization that promotes literary culture in the South Florida region. Founded by P. Scott Cunningham, the organization has a major presence in the literary scene in Miami. Their events include the O, Miami Poetry Festival and a visiting writers series, along with smaller events throughout the course of the year. The organization also maintains a publishing wing, Jai-Alai Books, and produces a literary magazine, also under the Jai-Alai title.