Heberto Juan Padilla was a Cuban poet put to the center of the so-called Padilla affair when he was imprisoned for criticizing the Cuban government. He was born in Puerta de Golpe, Pinar del Río, Cuba. His first book of poetry, Las rosas audaces, was published in 1949. Although Padilla initially supported the revolution led by Fidel Castro, by the late 1960s he began to criticize it openly and in 1971 he was imprisoned by the Cuban government.
Nancy Morejón is a Cuban poet, critic, and essayist. She was a recipient of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath Award. She has been called "the best known and most widely translated woman poet of post-revolutionary Cuba".
Latin American literature consists of the oral and written literature of Latin America in several languages, particularly in Spanish, Portuguese, and the indigenous languages of the Americas. It rose to particular prominence globally during the second half of the 20th century, largely due to the international success of the style known as magical realism. As such, the region's literature is often associated solely with this style, with the 20th century literary movement known as Latin American Boom, and with its most famous exponent, Gabriel García Márquez. Latin American literature has a rich and complex tradition of literary production that dates back many centuries.
Gustavo Pérez Firmat was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami, Florida. He attended Miami-Dade Community College, the University of Miami, and the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. He taught at Duke University from 1979 to 1999 and at Columbia University until 2022. He is currently the David Feinson Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Columbia University.
Gilberto Ruíz Valdéz is a Cuban-American artist.
Mario Algaze was a Cuban-American photographer who photographed musicians and celebrities, in rural and urban areas, throughout Latin America.
Mario Bencomo is an artist. As an unaccompanied minor he was sent by his parents to live in Spain. At the age of 14, he left Madrid for the U.S., arriving by himself in New York City in the 1960s. He often returns to Europe, and for many years now for regular visits to Montreal, Canada. In 1996 he returns to visit Cuba for the first time, three decades after he left. An American Citizen, he is based in Miami.
Hugo Consuegra was a Cuban-born artist and architect who, in 1953, became one of the founding members of Los Once, a group of young abstract expressionist artists which included the core members Guido Llinás, Raul Martinez, Tomás Oliva and Antonio Vidal. The group broke away from the representational style prevalent at the time in Cuba and produced its largest volume of work between 1953 and 1955. Consuegra and four of the original 11 continued to exhibit in what became known as the post-revolutionary avant-garde movement in Cuba. Consuegra was also a Professor of Art History at Havana University’s School of Architecture (1960–5).
Emilio Falero is a Cuban Fine Arts painter residing in Florida.
Rubén Torres Llorca is a Cuban artist specializing in painting, drawing, sculpture, collages, and photography. He studied from 1972 to 1976 at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" in Havana and from 1976 to 1981, studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA), also in Havana. Torres resided in Mexico City, Mexico, from 1990 to 1993 and has resided in Miami, Florida, since 1993.
Enrico Mario Santí is a Cuban-American writer, poet, and scholar of Spanish American Literature known for his critical essays and annotated editions of Latin American classics, including works by Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda, and Guillermo Cabrera Infante. A frequent political commentator and art critic, he is also a sculptor and voice actor. As a child, Santí emigrated from Cuba to the United States, where he has had an extensive career as a professor in several universities. Currently, he is a research professor at Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, California.
Rafael Consuegra was a Cuban-born American sculptor and ceramist who worked in the United States and Europe.
Jesús A. Permuy is a Cuban-American architect, urban planner, human rights activist, art collector, and businessman. He is known for an extensive career of community projects and initiatives in Florida, Washington, D.C., and Latin America.
Lourdes Gómez Franca, better known simply as Lourdes, was a Cuban-American painter and poet who was active in Cuba and the United States. Her work was significant in Miami and Cuban art communities of the later Twentieth Century and covered by many critics and scholars.
Juan González was an important twentieth-century Cuban-American painter who rose to international fame in the 1970s and remained active until his death in the 1990s. Born in Cuba, González launched his art career in South Florida during the early 1970s and quickly gained recognition in New York City, where he subsequently relocated in 1972. While in New York González won several fine art awards, including the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts grant, and the Cintas Fellowship. González's art known is for its distinctive hyperrealism and magical realism elements delivered in a highly personal style with symbolic overtones. His work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States as well as internationally in Europe, Latin America, and Japan. He is included in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, The Carnegie Museum of Art, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Dionisio Perkins, better known as Dennis Perkins, was a Cuban artist recognized as a key member of the early Cuban exile art community in South Florida.
Baruj Salinas is a Cuban-American contemporary visual artist and architect. He is recognized as a central figure in the establishment of the modern Latin American art market in South Florida.
Marcos F. Pinedo is a Cuban–American art patron, collector, and art dealer who was an active figure in contributing to the establishment of the Cuban and Latin American art market in South Florida. He and his wife, Josefina Camacho Pinedo, own the Pinedo fine art collection of prominent Latin American and European art.
Miguel Jorge (1928–1984), also known as “Micky” Jorge, was a Cuban artist who was influential in the establishment of South Florida's early Latin American art market in the Greater Miami area from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Marta Cazañas Permuy was a Cuban-American fine art patron, art collector, curator, art dealer, and promoter based in Coral Gables, Florida. She was an influential figure in the establishment of the Latin American art market of South Florida. She managed and co-founded Permuy Gallery, one of the first venues dedicated to Cuban art in the United States. She also hosted a long-running art salon where South Florida art, literary, business, and political figures would gather to discuss art and culture.
