Rafael Esténger was a Cuban poet, historian, and literary critic who worked in Cuba primarily in the early- to mid-20th century. He was a member of the National College of Journalists and the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Born in Santiago de Cuba in 1899, he graduated from the University of Havana in 1925. He held multiple positions throughout his professional career, including as a lawyer in Oriente, municipal secretary in Santiago de Cuba, and advisor to the National Institute of Economic Reform during the government of Gerardo Machado.
His poetry gained international acclaim, with his first works published in La Independencia, El Cubano Libre and other newspapers in Santiago de Cuba. He was the editor of El Sol and contributed to the publications Letras, El Fígaro, Cuba Contemporánea, Alerta, Avance, and Bohemia. Other famous works include the anthology Cien de las mejores poesías cubanas and Homenaje a Maceo.
John Beltrán was born in Guanabacoa, Cuba. He went to Costa Rica in September 1961 as a Cuban exile. He also lived in Nicaragua for a short period of time. In February 1962, he flew to New York where he lived through 1969. From 1969 to 1972, Beltrán was established in Puerto Rico. Finally in 1972, he moved to Miami where he has been living to the present day.
John Beltrán, the collector, was a friend of Olga Guillot and began to collect material related to her since the beginning of Olga's career.
Dr. Enrique Baloyra was born in Cuba in 1942 and exiled to Miami in 1961 at the age of 19. After living in the United States for ten years, he received a PhD in political science from the University of Florida in 1971. He taught in his discipline at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and eventually took a position as associate dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Miami, where he worked until his death in 1997.
Aside from being an accomplished political scientist and Latin Americanist, Baloyra was dedicated to Cuban issues, acting as a founder of the Cuban Committee for Democracy and the Centro de la Democracia Cubana. He served as president of the Coordinadora Social Demócrata and was a member of the Instituto de Estudios Cubanos.
Dr. Antonio Maceo y Macke was born on August 9, 1920 in Havana, Cuba. He attended Colegio Mimó and Instituto de la Habana. Maceo graduated from the University of Paris in 1936 and the University of Havana in 1938 with a doctor of medicine degree. After graduation, Maceo offered his medical services in emergency rooms in Havana, and worked as a surgeon in Havana's General Hospital, in General Hospital of Freyre de Andrade and in Maternity Hospital. He then joined the army at a rank of a Captain and served at Carlos Finlay Hospital. Subsequently, he became Deputy to the Secretary of Health.
On July 11, 1960, Maceo moved to Miami, Florida. Between 1961 and 1963 he was a member of the Consejo Revolucionario Cubano. He also participated in a program of rehabilitation of the sick and injured members of Brigade 2506 offered by the Dade County Medical Association. Maceo appeared regularly in a radio program aired in Cuba and Latin America called "El Medico y usted" (The Doctor and You). In 1963, he began to offer his medical services to the Department of Public Health of Dade County, and in 1971, to the Center of Cuban refugees. From 1976 to 1984, Maceo was in charge of infectious diseases in the Department of Public Health of Dade County.
Gonzalo de Palacio was a Cuban journalist specializing in film, arts, and celebrity reporting. He was an interview writer for Vanidades magazine, as well as writing for other Hispanic and American publications.
Néstor Almendros Cuyás was a Spanish cinematographer who moved to Cuba at 18 years of age to join his father, who had been exiled there by the government of Francisco Franco. He studied in Rome at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, after which he directed six short films in Cuba and two in New York. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, he returned to the island and made documentaries for the Castro government until two of his films were banned. He then moved to Paris and collaborated with French New Wave directors such as Éric Rohmer, François Truffaut, and Barbet Schroeder.
His first Hollywood movie was Days of Heaven (1978), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. He received Academy Award nominations for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Sophie's Choice (1982).
He co-directed two documentaries about human rights in Cuba: Mauvaise Conduite/Improper Conduct (1984), about the persecution of gay people on the island, and Nadie escuchaba/Nobody Listened (1987), about the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of former revolutionaries who had worked with Fidel Castro. Human Rights Watch named an award after him called the Néstor Almendros Award for Courage in Filmmaking, which is given yearly at the organization's film festival.
Almendros died of AIDS-related complications in New York in 1992 at the age of 61.
Erundina Rocha was a Cuban pianist and composer. She was educated in Havana, most notably at the Conservatorio González-Redin. Rocha worked with Gonzalo Roig at the Orquestra Sinfónica de La Habana and Ernesto Lecuona on his radio program “Islas,” beginning in 1945.
She married the painter Raúl Gómez del Río in 1957. They left Cuba for Miami in 1961 and moved to Puerto Rico in 1964. Rocha participated in many groups, unions, and institutions, notably the Unión de Cubanos en el Exilio(UCE) and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña.
She was actively engaged in maintaining Cuba’s cultural identity in exile and spreading Cuban music, especially that of Ernesto Lecuona. Rocha received awards and diplomas for her efforts from several organizations. She died in Puerto Rico on September 22, 1993.
Herman L. Beller (1899-1972) was born in Komonitz Padosky Gobernia, Russia and moved to the United States as an young child. Shortly after his marriage to Jennie Engler, the young couple moved to Cuba for work. Beller began his career in Cuba working on machinery in sugar mills, where he manufactured dies to cast replacement parts for machinery. Deciding to move into the art world, Beller began producing bronze works for the City of Havana and for other commissions with his company, Industrias Unidas de Cuba.
Beller was actively involved in the Cuban-Jewish community and joined the efforts to help German and Austrian refugees seek safety in Cuba during WWII. After the war, Beller returned to New York and continued his work in the metal foundry business. He settled in Florida in the 1950s with his family and died there at age 73 in 1972.
Giulio V. Blanc (1955–1995) was a Cuban-born curator, art historian, and critic renowned for his contributions to Cuban and Latin American art. Through his exhibitions and writings in national and international art journals, Blanc became a leading voice in promoting Latin American art to mainstream audiences during the 1980s. His notable curatorial projects included "The Miami Generation" (1983) and "Amelia Peláez: A Retrospective" (1988) at the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture in Miami, and "Wifredo Lam and His Contemporaries, 1938–1952" (1992) at New York’s Studio Museum in Harlem.
Born in Havana, Blanc was the son of Baron Lodovico Blanc and María V. Blanc, who fled to Miami during the Cuban Revolution, leaving behind a collection of works by prominent Cuban artists. Giulio pursued his education at Harvard, Brown, and the Institute of Fine Arts in New York. He worked with institutions such as Sotheby’s, the Cuban Museum of Arts and Culture, and the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, and contributed to Art Nexus magazine.
Blanc also lectured widely on Latin American art history, including at the Art Museum of the Americas and the University of Miami. At the time of his death in 1995, he was completing a doctorate in art history at the City University of New York.
José Fernández de Villalta y Alvarez de Sotomayor was born in Spain. He participated in the War of Independence of Cuba on the Spanish side as an engineer. Villalta served with General Arola during "la trocha" from Júcaro to Moron, where Villalta demonstrated his talents as a military engineer. Upon returning to Spain, he was accepted to the Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico and continued his service until retirement from the Spanish army.
Villalta later emigrated to Cuba, where he became a renown Spanish engineer in charge of one of the largest house constructions. He died in Cuba in 1918.
Roberto Suarez was a Cuban-American journalist. He worked in North Carolina for a number of years as a journalist before coming to Miami and founding El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald daily edition in Spanish. Suarez passed away in 1995.
