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Blanca Varela was a singer born in Camagüey, Cuba, on April 6, 1927. Her vocal range from mezzosoprano to soprano coloratura allowed her to sing parts for various operas, operettas and zarzuelas Cubanas. Varela studied ballet, singing and piano. She graduated from la Academia de Música Colonia Española in Camagüey. At the young age of 9, she debuted her singing on the radio station CMJC with a selection of tangoes. She then went on to win a local contest hosted by the chocolate brand “La Estrella,” which allowed her to travel to Havana with her parents to appear in a special performance at Cadena Crusellas. She sang the zarzuela (romantic operetta) “María La O ' soprano, by Ernesto Lecuona. During her youth, she performed many more operatic recitals of bel canto repertoire and particularly mastered the “Aria de la locura'' from Lucia De Lammemoor, which became one of her signature pieces.

In the 1950’s, she was invited to perform in variety programs in Havana. At one of these recitals, the composer and director Gonzalo Roig heard her performance and was impressed by her voice. He invited her to sing the principal role in his zarzuela Cecilia Valdés, which is now considered one of Roig’s most popular works. She took on the roles of all the heroines of the Cuban zarzuela repertoire, such as “Amalia Batista'' and performed as "Cio-Cio-San" in the opera Madam Butterfly on three separate occasions. Additionally, Varela performed as "Micaela" in Carmen and "Leonor" in Il Trovatore. She also starred in long-running productions with roles created for her voice such as Luisa Fernanda or La Viuda Alegre (the Happy Widow) at the famous Tropicana nightclub.

In 1961, she interpreted six zarzuelas, Katiuska, Luisa Fernanda, Los Claveles, La Parranda, Amalia Batista, and Cecilia Valdés, for a new television program under the direction of singer and director Miguel de Grandy, and all conducted by the maestro Gonzalo Roig. Later in 1961, she left Cuba, relocating to South Florida with her family. Several full recordings of Varela were released during this time, Amalia Batista, Los claveles, La parranda, which was edited by JA Productions of Miami in 1961 and Cecilia Valdés edited by JBR of Miami in 1962. Additionally, selections of her music has been included in recordings: “Romanza” de Maria La O, “Los aguinaldos” de Lola Cruz, “Romanza” de Soledad, “Romanza de Sagrario” de La Rosa de Azafrán, “Romanza” de El Clarín, “Romanza” de La Hija Del Sol, released by JB Productions of Miami, 1955-1962.

In Miami, she quickly became involved with the “Sociedad Pro Arte Grateli,” which was founded to promote the musical legacy of Cuba, Spain, and Latin America. In 1968, she performed in their second production, Luisa Fernanda. For several decades, she performed her extensive repertoire for the Sociedad and took on a prominent position there along with her associate Marta Pérez. She also took her concerts abroad, traveling around the U.S. and to other countries abroad. Even upon her retirement from the stage, she continued to sing in her Christian church congregation.

Tony Varona was a major figure, both in Cuba, and later in the Cuban exile community in the United States. He was a loyal supporter of President Carlos Prio and served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1948-1950. When the Cuban Revolution began, he worked with Prio and the Central Intelligence Agency to instigate a counter-revolution, ultimately having to flee to Miami. He co-founded Movimiento de Recuperacion Revolucionario(MRR) and later headed Consejo Revolucionario Cuba, the Cuban government-in-exile. He was a notable anti-Castro leader in the United States.

Veruska Vasconez is an architectural and urban designer practicing nationally and internationally. She is a full time professor and the Visual Studies Coordinator for M.Arch at the University of Miami. She has been teaching at the University of Miami since 2005 and has created two new courses in Visual Representation in Architecture, and Mapping & Visualization. She is well known for her expertise in computer graphics and representation; she has worked in collaboration students, professionals, and advocacy groups on urban historic documentation and analysis projects. She has been a curator and assistant curator on numerous exhibitions, and is co-founder and curator for Meetinghouse, a not-for-profit art gallery located in the Penthouse of the historic Huntington Building in downtown Miami. Veruska has a fellowship in the department of Planning and Design Excellence at Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation. She has been developing Data Mapping of demographics, geography, topography, climate, health status, socio-economic status, and urban infrastructure in relation to MDPROS properties, programs, and strategic planning. Also developing visual representations of OSMP implementation strategies, market research, and analysis, Veruska assists in identification of health and well-being disparities, including the categorization and representation of community design elements— buildings, streets, blocks, neighborhoods, materials, vernacular architecture, native and exotic landscape materials- relevant to MDPROS strategies.

Aurelio de la Vega is a Cuban-American composer, teacher, and writer on music. He studied in Cuba and the U.S (1947), and he has lived in the U.S. since 1959. De la Vega is one of the most innovative Cuban composers of his generation. He has used compositional devices such as atonalism, serialism, improvisatory structures, aleatory procedures, electronic music and prerecorded sounds in his works, amongst other resources.

Caridad “Pitucha” Vega was a Cuban rumba dancer from Havana who was one of the first to bring Afro-Cuban music and dance to the popular stage in the United States. The “Tropicana Nightclub” in Havana was a famous tourist spot that showcased Rumba, becoming an icon of the post-1959 Cuban cultural scene. Vega was part of Tampa billionaire Leon Claxon’s “Harlem in Havana” revue, where she and her dancing partner Mario Valdes were recruited from the Tropicana and became showrunners in the 1957 and 1959 seasons of “Harlem in Havana.” She and dozens of other cast members of the revue are said to have performed more than a dozen shows per day, depending on the size of the audience. Vega reportedly said of her performances in the U.S. that “I love the evening shows because then you get the feel.” After the Cuban Revolution of 1959 when Cuban artists were no longer free to travel between the U.S. and Cuba and visas were restricted, the revue never recovered to its heyday when Vega, “The Cuban Dancing Dolls,” Mercedes Valdes, the Rodríguez Brothers, and others were top performers. Many of the artists, like Vega, decided to remain in the United States after Castro took power.

Francisco de la Vega was a Spanish agent that had business between Spain and Cuba during the nineteenth century.

Francisco de Vega was a Spanish agent that had business between Spain and Cuba during the nineteenth century.

Richard Charles Veit II (1918-1970) was an experimental photographer who resided in Coral Gables, FL for many years. He traveled extensively around the world for the Miami-based Pan Am Travel Agency and photographed several locations for them. He experimented often with color and black-and-white renderings of photographs and negatives.

Several of his photographs were taken in the 1930s through the 1960s, including photos of Cuba before the U.S. travel embargo and Haitian cities before the 2010 hurricane. However, most of his photographs portray sailing events and groups, including the Southern Ocean Racing Conference, the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, and the Coral Reef Yacht Club, which were regularly published in sailing magazines.

In 1966, he published the book With a Few Comments on the Photographic Art, followed by a second book in German, Grosse Segel, Kleine Segel in 1967. The books reflect his particular interest in marine photography, especially in Miami and Florida. His works were exhibited in acknowledged institutions such as The Art Institute of Chicago, the Galeria Am Platz Eglisau in Switzerland, and the National Maritime Museum Greenwich in England among many others.

–Vanessa Rodrigues Barcelos da Silva
Graduate Student Assistant for Manuscripts and Archives Management, Summer 2025