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Henry Melich was born in Czechoslovakia in 1924. He lived in London for a number of years where he was classically trained before relocating to the Bahamas in 1954 where he began his extensive work around the archipelago. While based in the Bahamas for the remainder of his life, his work extended to Jamaica, the United States, and England. The book "Island Follies" by Alaistar Gordon highlights Melich's residential work in the Bahamas. His work is a celebration of Bahamian architecture, as well as embracing a neo-historical hybrid of architectural styles. Many of the homes he designed were luxury vacation homes for the elite, notably for Prince and Princess Azamat Guirey. Melich completed over 50 projects before his death in 1999.

Natasha Mella (1927-2014) was the only daughter of 1920s Communist leader, Julio Antonio Mella (1903-1929), who founded the Primer Partido Comunista Cubano in 1925. Natasha Mella was an intellectual and for two years, a Cuban diplomat as part of the Departamento de Asuntos Asiáticos del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, appointed by Roberto Agramonte in 1959. However, Mella left Cuba in 1961 as an exile with her husband and the family settled in Miami, where she continued to publish essays, editorials and radio scripts on Cuban politics and history.

César A. Mena Serra was born in Güines, province of La Habana, Cuba, in 1914. He graduated from the University of Havana with degrees in medicine and dentistry. Dr. Mena was a professor of pharmacology and physiology, of the School of Dentistry at the University of Havana until 1959. When Castro seized power in Cuba, Dr. Mena left to Miami as an exile.

Dr. Mena was a founding member of the Cuban Society of the Medical History, member of the American Society of Medicine, the Society of Medical History in Venezuela, and member of the American Academy of the History of Dentistry. He served for four terms as secretary of Retiro Odontológico in Exile. Dr. Mena was the executive director of dental services for Miami-Dade County’s health department until his retirement in 1991.

Dr. Mena has published articles in many scientific journals of Latin America and the United States. He is the author of several books: Historia de los dentistas que lucharon en las Guerras de la Independencia (History of the dentists who fought in Cuban Independence Wars); Historia de la odontología en Cuba, 1492 1980 (History of Dentistry in Cuba 1492 1980); Historia de la medicina en Cuba (History of the Medicine in Cuba; and Santa Apolonia: Patrona dental (Saint Apolonia: Dental Patron).

Luis Felipe Mencía was a medical doctor, professor, and author.

Mencía was born in Havana, Cuba, on April 22, 1922. He went to the Ruston Academy and to the Institute of Secondary Education of Havana from 1927 through 1939. He attended the School of Medicine of the University of Havana and obtained his medical degree in 1946.

Mencía did his first internship at the General Calixto García University Hospital (straight surgical), in Havana, Cuba, from 1947 to 1948. From 1949 to 1953 he acted as assistant resident in surgery at Yale University Hospital.

Dr. Mencía was an important member of different medical societies, in Cuba and the United States, since 1951. He received several academic appointments starting at Yale University School of Medicine, where he served as instructor in thoracic surgery in 1952, and at the University of Havana School of Medicine, from 1954 to 1960, in the same role. He left Cuba as an exile in the early 1960s and was appointed as a fellow in pediatric surgery at the Variety Children's Hospital, Miami, Florida, 1961-1964; clinical instructor in surgery in the Division of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine, 1963-1968; and in 1968 he became clinical assistant professor of surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine. From 1970 to 1987, Mencía was a senior attending pediatric surgeon at the Variety Children’s Hospital, and in 1988, he was appointed surgeon emeritus at the Variety Miami Children’s Hospital.

Luis Felipe Mencía published 20 medical articles (Spanish and English) on thoracic surgery, pediatric surgery and general surgery. These articles were published in important medical journals in Cuba and in the United States, from 1946 to 1977. His last publication was a booklet titled “Recuerdos de la Cirugía en Cuba” published in 1990 in Miami, Florida. This booklet documents the history of surgery in Cuba during the decades of 1920 to 1960.

Luis F. Mencía died in Miami on July 18, 1990.

Elia Rosa Fernández de Mendia was a Cuban sculptor, potter, and clay worker. She studied ceramics in New York. She also started a studio in the Santiago de las Vegas area of Havana, Cuba. She had a ceramics exposition with three other artists, Amelia Pelaez, Maria Garcia Buch, and Rebeca Robes at the Lyceum y Lawn Tennis Club in 1961. She sat on the Directive board of the Lyceum y Lawn Tennis Club, heading the exhibitions committee.

María Mendoza Kranz was born in Key West, Florida. She is a member of a third generation of the Mendoza family that emigrated from Cuba to Key West in the early 1870s to escape Spanish colonial rule. Her grandfather, José González de Mendoza, was one of the founders of the school at the Club San Carlos in Key West.

Mendoza Kranz’s father, Enrique González de Mendoza, who was born in Key West, is said to have introduced Cuban rumba to Miami in the 1930s. He also organized the “El Dulce” rumba band that played at the Roney Plaza Hotel in Miami Beach.

Mendoza Kranz was the first Spanish-speaking salesperson employed by S.H. Kress & Co. in downtown Miami and also among the first women to work at a Miami aircraft factory during World War II. Since 1979, she has taught line dancing to Hispanic senior citizens.