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Alberto Sarraín is a Cuban theater director, playwright, actor, and educator. He was born in Cuba in 1949. He graduated with a degree in psychology from La Universidad de La Habana in 1976. In 1979 he immigrated to the United States where he has worked and lived. He founded the Cuban Cultural Group, also known as La Má Teodora in 1996. He has taught theater, directed Cuban works, and been involved in festivals in the United States, Cuba, Spain, and other Latin American countries. He was the co-recipient of the 2001 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award, for leading a legal battle to allow the performances of Cuban plays in Florida.

Carlos Márquez-Sterling (1898-1991) was a Cuban lawyer, professor, writer and statesman active in island politics from the 1930s to the 1950s, and whose stature and political clout made him a leader of the exile patriotic movement from the 1960s to the 1980s. Márquez-Sterling was a congressman in Cuba’s House of Representatives from 1936 to 1946, acting as president of that body in 1936 and 1941. In 1940, he presided over the constitutional convention that created a more progressive constitution for the country; the document was in effect until Fulgencio Batista’s 1952 coup d’état.  Márquez-Sterling also worked as a professor of political economy at the University of Havana. Expanding on his political calling, he was appointed Minister of Labor and Minister of Education from 1941 to 1942, and would eventually become a presidential candidate in 1958 before the rise of Fidel Castro.

Early on Márquez-Sterling had qualms about Castro’s revolutionary movement, predicting it would lead to totalitarian rule: “Una revolución sólo podrá traer la anarquía y desembocar en una dictadura de tipo totalitario que Cuba nunca ha experimentado.”

Márquez-Sterling was an exile leader, founding the Movimiento Patriótico Cuba Libre in New York in the early 1960s, lobbying the United States for the establishment of a Cuban government in exile and organizing exile groups across the country. He moved to Miami in 1979, teaching and writing in his retirement.

The Cuban Refugee Program was authorized by the President of the United States in February 1961. Federal assistance for Cuban refugees had begun in 1960 under President Eisenhower in response to the growing number of Cubans fleeing the Castro regime. President John F. Kennedy, recognizing that the situation was beyond the scope of individual states and volunteer agencies, assigned responsibility to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), at the time Abraham Ribicoff, who delegated implementation and administration to William L. Mitchell, Commissioner of Social Security. The “Migration and Refugee Assistance Act,” enacted in 1962, provided the legislative basis for the program and authorized appropriations. The Florida State Department of Public Welfare, representing the federal government, set up an office in Miami for the assistance, child welfare services and medical care of Cuban refugees.

The Miami Cuban Refugee Emergency Center, located at the Freedom Tower, 600 Biscayne Boulevard, became the focal point of refugee registration, assistance, relief and resettlement, as well as coordination of government and independent agencies’ programs. Federal funding provided for the center’s operations, record keeping, publications, coordination of agencies and research on different aspects of the refugee situation, as well as for programs. The latter included financial assistance, educational loans, health care, adult education and re-training, resettlement and care of unaccompanied children. By 1962 between 1500 and 2000 Cubans were arriving weekly.

In 1963 the newly formed Welfare Administration succeeded Social Security in overseeing the Cuban Refugee Program. The decrease in influx of refugees following the cessation of regular flights and the implementation of programs such as home visits facilitated the transition from crisis response to a more efficient, better organized program.

In the years to come, however, the program would have to adapt to new emergency situations such as the arrival of Bay of Pigs Brigade 2506 prisoners in 1963 and the Camarioca boatlift of 1965. Perhaps the most taxing year was 1980 when the Mariel boatlift brought more than 125,000 Cubans to the United States. Simultaneously, Haitian refugees had started to arrive in growing numbers. The federal government declared a state of emergency and charged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with processing and assisting the entrants. On July of the same year the Cuban-Haitian Task Force (CHTF) was created to coordinate federal resources in support of county and state efforts, and to address community problems related to the influx of refugees into the Miami area, replacing FEMA in this capacity.

The Center closed its last location on Ponce de Leon Boulevard and 8th Street on July 1994, after more than three decades of providing assistance to thousands of refugees. Its archives were donated to Professor Juan Clark of Miami-Dade College who in turn donated them to the Cuban Heritage Collection.

Juana Rosa Pita is a Cuban writer, poet, and academic. She taught and co-founded Ediciones Solar in Washington D.C., as well as teaching at Toulane University in New Orleans and multiple institutions in Boston, Massachussetts. She has published over 22 volumes of poetry.

Mario Girbau was born in Matanzas, Cuba, in 1916. After being educated in the United States, Girbau graduated as an accountant from the University of Havana in 1943 and worked as an official in the government's Ministerio de Utilidades until 1960, when he left Cuba for Miami.

Actively involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion, Girbau managed funds for Brigade 2506, the CIA-funded incursion force that invaded Cuba in 1961. His counter-revolutionary activities continued into the 1970s.

Girbau died in Miami in 2002.

Antonio Fernández Reboiro was born in Nuevitas, Camagüey, the son of Spanish immigrants Antonio Fernández de La Fuente and Julia Reboiro Vásquez. Between 1960 and 2003 he designed works for theater and music groups in Madrid as well as different groups all through Spain. His works are located in The Museum of Modern Art in New York; Musée de L’Affiche et la Publicité and the Centre National d’Art et de Culture George Pompidou in Paris; the National Gallery in London; the Museo del Cartel in Varsovia; the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami; and the Museo Carlos Maside in Spain, along with many other museums all around the world.

Eric Bennett was born Erich Behnsch in Tarnowitz, Germany, on September 24, 1902. He worked as a hardware salesman until he was arrested, along with thousands of other Jews, on November 9, 1938, on Kristallnacht and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar, Germany. Mr. Behnsch was deported in 1939 and went to Cuba, one of the few countries that would take Jewish refugees at the time.

In Havana he turned his hobby into a profession and worked as a children's portrait photographer. Behnsch was allowed to enter the United States in late 1941 and joined other members of his family in Detroit, Michigan. He changed his name to Eric Bennett and continued to work in Detroit as a professional photographer until his death in 1964.

Teresa Fernández Soneira is a writer and researcher of Cuban history, particularly of the XIX century and religion. She was born in Havana, Cuba in 1947 to Cuban parents of Galician Spanish ancestry. In Cuba, she went to school at the Colegio del Apostolado del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de Vedado. She and her family went into exile and relocated from Cuba to Miami, Florida in 1961. She then traveled to Madrid, Spain to finish her education at the Colegio del Apostolado de Madrid in 1964. She then returned to Miami and received an Associates Degree in Philosophy of Arts from Miami Dade College and later earned a degree in Humanities from Barry University.

She has made important contributions to scholarship on the history of Cuba and has seven books published, including: Mujeres de la Patria (Women of the Motherland) (2014) in which she has brought to life more than 1,300 Cuban women and their work during the struggles for independence in Cuba, Con La Estrella Y La Cruz: Historia De La Federación De Las Juventudes De Acción Católica Cubana (2002), Cuba: Historia De La Educación Católica, 1582-1961 (1997), about which a reviewer states: “The work identifies sixty religious orders, both feminine and masculine, that founded and staffed schools on the island; reproduces twenty-four historical documents; and lists Catholic schools in Cuba from 1582 to 1961, all arranged chronologically. As far as I can ascertain, no work containing this vast amount of information on the topic has been published until now.” (Miranda, Salvador. "Book Review: Cuba: Historia De La Educación Católica 1582-1961, Volumes 1 and 2." Cuban Studies. 30 (2000): 160-162.), Apuntes Desde El Destierro (1989), Niños Que Triunfan (Leading Children to Success): Centro Mater Sus Historias y Sus Colaborades) (2008.)

She has also published several scholarly articles on topics of Cuban history and historical figures. And written articles for El Nuevo Herald, Semanario ¡Éxito !, Geomundo, La Voz Católica, Buenhogar, El Pinareño, Convived, Ideal, and Heritage of Cuban Culture. She was the editor of the magazine Maria Stella for alumni of Colegio Apostolado of Cuba as well as a columnist for 7 years for the monthly publication La Voz Católica. She has participated in radio programs such as Radio República del Movimiento Democrático Cubano and Radio Martí, and given conferences to different organizations and presented at the Miami Book Fair. In 1990, she won the award given for the first literary contest of the Father Felix Varela Foundation of Miami, one of several honors she had been awarded for her work.

Andrés Vargas Gómez, Cuban diplomat, lawyer and former political prisoner, was born in Havana, Cuba on May 4, 1915. He graduated from the School of Law at the University of Havana in 1944 with pre-law courses at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. He married María Teresa Campa in 1960.

From 1936 to 1959 Vargas, Gómez was director of the "División Asuntos Ecónomicos del Ministerio de Estado,” member of the “Comision Técnica de la Junta Nacional de Economía,” member of the “Comisión Técnica Arancelaria,” and member of the "Colegio de Economistas de Cuba." As a diplomat, he represented Cuba in various international conferences given by the United Nations, the World Organization of Sugar, and was chief of the Cuban Delegation to The General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) conference. In 1960 he was assigned as Ambassador of Cuba before the European Organization of the United Nations in Geneva. He resigned this position on the same year when he attained knowledge that the new government of Fidel Castro conspired to establish a Communist regime in Cuba.

Vargas Gómez came to the United States on that year and was one of the founders of “Frente Revolucionario Democrático.” This was the first organization that confronted Fidel Castro and that constituted the civil branch of the process of Bay of Pigs Invasion. He was also a member of the “Comité Ejecutivo del Frente Revolucionario Democrático” and director of its radio broadcasting station “Por Cuba y Para Cuba.” Vargas Gómez assumed the political responsibility of the invasion of Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs Invasion) and returned to Cuba as a member of the underground resistance. As the Bay of Pigs Invasion failed, he was taken prisoner and sentenced to death. Later Vargas Gómez was re-sentenced to thirty years in prison of which he served twenty one years. He came to Miami, Florida in June, 1984, and currently lives in Coral Gables, Florida with his wife María Teresa.

Vargas Gómez published several books, among them Poemas Innominados, Sombras y Luces, and Espejismos y Agonías. Also, he has been a columnist in local newspapers such as El Diario las Américas, The Miami Herald, and El Nuevo Herald.

From August 1984 to 1985 Vargas Gómez was Project Director of the Latin American Institute at St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida. Currently, he worked as a consultant of the International Trade Board of the city of Miami.

Andrés Vargas Gómez is a prominent member of the Cuban exile community, working for human rights and the release of political prisoners in Cuba. He is the grandson of Generalísimo Máximo Gómez who played a very important role in Cuba's Independence.

The Guantánamo Sugar Company offices were located at 120 Wall Street, New York from 1915 through 1959. This company was the owner of the Soledad Sugar Mill, Los Caños Sugar Mill, the Isabel B. Sugar Mill and the Guantánamo Railroad Co. all located around the Guantánamo Bay. The Soledad Sugar Mill was founded before 1860 and his owner was Gregorio Malleta. In 1878, it became property of the Brooks Family. Los Caños Sugar Mill was founded in 1861 by Carlos Rancole, and in 1883 became property of the Brooks Family. The date of the foundation of the Isabel Sugar Mill is unknown, but in 1860 the owner was the widow of the French Couroneaux, and in 1898 the Mill became the property of the Brooks Family.

Later these three sugar mills were the property of Arturo Pita who was the president of the Guantánamo Sugar Company and the Guantánamo Railroad Co. when Pita died, the inheritors of these companies were his daughters, Zoila Margarita Pita García-Chacón and Marta Isabel Pita Ariosa.

Leopoldo Hernández is a Cuban lawyer, writer, and dramatist who resides in the United States. He has written a number of books and plays, including “Teatro de la Revolución,” “La espalda,” “La consagración del miedo” and “Los hombres mueren solos.”

The Cuban Women's Club is a women's social club founded in Miami in 1969. Catering to a middle-class demographic, the club was modeled after Havana's Liceo Cubano and sponsored "luncheons, conferences, art exhibitions, and literary contests" as well as actively supporting charities and fundraising for the community.

By the mid-1970s, the organization's goals eventually expanded to address "issues pertinent [to members'] careers and their new roles in society," including conferences on "bilingual education, voting and political representation, salaries and the workplace." The club would grow to eventually accept members from all nationalities and professional and educational backgrounds.

Fernando López Fernández was a Cuban doctor and political activist who led protests against the regime of Gerardo Machado. Born in Santa Clara in 1907, he began studying medicine at the University of Havana in 1924. He was an associate professor at the University of Havana, Cuban delegate to the World Health Organization and a member of various medical associations in Cuba until 1959.

Later, Fernández was exiled from Cuba and relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where he became director of Martha Washington Hospital. He died in that city in 1975.