Juan Ponce de León was a Spanish explorer and conquistador known for leading the first official European expedition to Puerto Rico in 1508 and Florida in 1513. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in 1474. Though little is known about his family, he was of noble birth and served in the Spanish military from a young age. He first came to the Americas as a "gentleman volunteer" with Christopher Columbus's second expedition in 1493.
Alberto de Jesús Mercado, better known as Tito Kayak, is an activist from Jayuya, Puerto Rico, and founder of the Puerto Rican environmental group, Amig@s Del Mar. The organization utilizes a dual approach, which they call "manatiburón (manatee/shark)", which Kayak describes as a combination of "peaceful and simple ways to fulfill our environmental ideals", and the more “revolutionary approach", which is "only used when we are prohibited from working peacefully towards our goals of improving the environment." Kayak is best known for his activism against the damaging environmental effect of the U.S. Navy presence on Vieques.
Jai alai is a sport involving bouncing a ball off a walled-in space by accelerating it to high speeds with a hand-held wicker, commonly referred to as a cesta. It is a variation of Basque pelota. The term jai alai, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton where matches take place. The game, whose name means "merry festival" in Basque, is called cesta-punta in the Basque Country. The sport is played worldwide, but especially in Spain, France, the U.S. state of Florida, and in various Latin American countries.
Santo Trafficante Sr. was a Sicilian-born mobster, and father of the powerful mobster Santo Trafficante Jr.
Santo Trafficante Jr. was among the most powerful Mafia bosses in the United States. He headed the Trafficante crime family from 1954 to 1987 and controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante Sr.
Ramón Emeterio Betances y Alacán was a Puerto Rican independence advocate and medical doctor. He was the primary instigator of El Grito de Lares revolution and is considered to be the father of the Puerto Rican independence movement. Since the Grito galvanized a burgeoning nationalist movement among Puerto Ricans, Betances is also considered "El Padre de la Patria". Because of his charitable deeds for people in need, he also became known as "El Padre de los Pobres".
The numbers game, also known as the numbers racket, the Italian lottery, Mafia lottery or the daily number, is a form of illegal gambling or illegal lottery played mostly in poor and working-class neighborhoods in the United States, wherein a bettor attempts to pick three digits to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. For many years the "number" has been the last three digits of "the handle", the amount race track bettors placed on race day at a major racetrack, published in racing journals and major newspapers in New York.
El Tropicana Night Club in Havana, Cuba located in a lush, six-acre estate tropical garden opened on December 30, 1939 at the Villa Mina in Marianao. It is located next door to the old Colegio de Belén, Havana, presently, the Instituto Técnico Militar.
Nicolo Impastato, also known as "Nick Tousa", was a Kansas City gangster.
Jose Miguel Battle Sr. was a policeman and Cuban exile who served in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow the communist Cuban regime in 1961. He later became the nominal leader and founder of The Corporation, also known as the Cuban Mafia, and he invested in the gambling industry in the United States and Peru. He was eventually convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Anthony Carfano, also known as "Little Augie Pisano", was a New York gangster who became a caporegime, or group leader, in the Luciano crime family under mob bosses Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Frank Costello.
The French Connection was a scheme through which heroin was smuggled from Indochina through Turkey to France and then to the United States and Canada. The operation started in the 1930s, reached its peak in the 1960s, and was dismantled in the 1970s. It was responsible for providing the vast majority of the heroin used in the United States at the time. The operation was headed by Corsicans Antoine Guérini and Paul Carbone. It also involved Auguste Ricord, Paul Mondoloni and Salvatore Greco.
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood that includes the Ybor City Historic District in Tampa, Florida. It is located just northeast of downtown Tampa and north of Port Tampa Bay. The neighborhood has distinct architectural, culinary, cultural, and historical legacy that reflects its multi-ethnic composition. It was unique in the American South as a prosperous manufacturing community built and populated almost entirely by immigrants.
Salvatore Mooney Giancana was an American mobster who was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966.
The Jewish immigration to Puerto Rico began in the 15th century with the arrival of the anusim who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage. An open Jewish community did not flourish in the colony because Judaism was prohibited by the Spanish Inquisition. However, many migrated to mountainous parts of the island, far from the central power of San Juan, and continued to self-identify as Jews and practice Crypto-Judaism.
Frank Ragano was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. In his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer, Ragano recounted his career in defending members of organized crime, and made the controversial allegation that Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. confessed to him shortly before he died in 1987 that he and Carlos Marcello had arranged for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The Trafficante crime family, also known as the Tampa Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family based in Tampa, Florida. The most notable boss was Santo Trafficante, Jr. who ruled Tampa and the crime family with an iron fist. Author Scott Deitche reported that Santo Jr. was involved with the CIA to plot assassination attempts on Fidel Castro. After the death of Santo Jr. in 1987, the Tampa Mafia family has been controlled by Vincent LoScalzo.
Charles McKay Wall was an American businessman, mobster, and political figure who was a rival of reputed mobsters Santo Trafficante Sr. and Santo Trafficante Jr. His parents were John Perry Wall and Matilda McKay, a former Tampa Mayor and daughter of a former Tampa Mayor. Wall rapidly gained status within the criminal underworld from his early endeavors in the operation of several gambling, prostitution, and illegal numbers rackets. He was beaten with a baseball bat, his throat slit and killed, on April 18, 1955. He is buried in Tampa's Oaklawn Cemetery.
Evaristo "Tito" Rubio was an American mobster of Cuban descent and an associate of businessman and crime boss Charlie Wall. Rubio was also a leader in Tampa's Cuban community, prominently involved in illegal numbers racket with Wall.
Agustín Fernández was a Cuban painter, sculptor, and multimedia artist. Although he was born in Cuba, he spent the majority of his career outside of Cuba, and produced art in Havana, Paris, San Juan, and New York.
