Pau Casals i Defilló, known in English by his Spanish name Pablo Casals, was a Spanish and Puerto Rican cellist, composer, and conductor. He made many recordings throughout his career of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, including some as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings he made of the Cello Suites by Bach. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy.
Yolanda Rosa Monge Betancourt, known professionally as Yolandita Monge, is a Puerto Rican singer, actress, and television personality. She has been active in the music business since her teen years and has recorded 27 studio albums and two live albums, as well as several greatest hits compilations and special appearance recordings.
Yolanda Vadiz was a Puerto Rican soprano. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Puerto Rico and her master's from the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard School in New York. While in New York, she sang the lead role in the zarzuela "Doña Francisquita" for the Repertorio Español theater company located at the Gramercy Arts Theater, Off-Broadway. As the winner of the Rome Festival in Italy, she played the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. While in Italy, she was hired by RAI Television Network, and sang in front of kings and high dignitaries from different countries.
Eugene George Istomin was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose.
Antonia Pantoja, was a Puerto Rican educator, social worker, feminist, civil rights leader and the founder of ASPIRA, the Puerto Rican Forum, Boricua College and Producir. In 1996, she was the first Puerto Rican woman to receive the American Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Justino Díaz is a Puerto Rican operatic bass-baritone. In 1963, Díaz won an annual contest held at the Metropolitan Opera of New York, becoming the first Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor and as a consequence, made his Metropolitan debut in October 1963 in Verdi's Rigoletto as Monterone.
El Museo del Barrio, often known simply as El Museo, is a museum at 1230 Fifth Avenue in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is located near the northern end of Fifth Avenue's Museum Mile, immediately north of the Museum of the City of New York. Founded in 1969, El Museo specializes in Latin American and Caribbean art, with an emphasis on works from Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican community in New York City. It is the oldest museum of the country dedicated to Latino art.
Lucila Boscana Bravo, known professionally as Lucy Boscana, was a Puerto Rican actress and a pioneer in Puerto Rico's television industry.
Paloma Suau is a Catalan–Puerto Rican film and video director, writer, editor and actress. Suau's father, Gabriel Suau, is a Spaniard who immigrated to Puerto Rico, where he became a well known television figure. Her mother is Camille Carrion, a well known Puerto Rican actress. Suau's second cousin is Richard Carrión, president of Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.
The Casals Festival is a classical music event celebrated every year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in honor of classical musician Pablo Casals.
Ernestina Ramirez was an American dancer and educator, best known as the founder and artistic director (1970–2009) of Ballet Hispanico, the premier Latino dance organization in the United States.
Micaela Nevárez is a Puerto Rican actress who has appeared in independent and European films. She made her film debut in the Spanish film Princesas which was directed by Fernando León de Aranoa, in which she played Zulema, an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic trying to make a living as a prostitute on the streets of Madrid, Spain. Her performance in this film earned her a Goya Award for Best New Actress in 2006, making her the first Puerto Rican actress to win this notable award.
Gloria González is a Puerto Rican composer with an extensive repertoire of pop and salsa songs.
Emilio Colón is an American solo cellist, chamber musician, conductor, composer and pedagogue. He is an international artist, concertizing in Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Malta, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.
The recorded history of Puerto Rican women can trace its roots back to the era of the Taíno, the indigenous people of the Caribbean, who inhabited the island that they called Boriken before the arrival of Spaniards. During the Spanish colonization the cultures and customs of the Taíno, Spanish, African and women from non-Hispanic European countries blended into what became the culture and customs of Puerto Rico.
Myrna Báez was a Puerto Rican painter and printmaker, considered one of the most important visual artists in Puerto Rico. She has been instrumental in promoting art and art education in her country. Her work has been shown and collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her work has been characterized as confident and complex. She lived and worked in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Vilma Reyes Díaz is a Puerto Rican poet, storyteller and educator. She has served as a teacher of Spanish language and has chaired the International Poetry Festival in Puerto Rico since 2010. She has been an influence on young Puerto Ricans in literary creation by offering free workshops for children and youth poetry and has published several books as a result of that work.
Marta Moreno Vega is the founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). She led El Museo del Barrio, is one of the founders of the Association of Hispanic Arts, and founded the Network of Centers of Color and the Roundtable of Institutions of Colors. Vega is also a visual artist and an Afro-Latina activist.
Carmen Rivera is an American playwright, teacher, and producer. Working for over 20 years in the arts, she is best known for her play La Gringa (1996) and the musical Celia: The Life and Music of Celia Cruz (2007), which she co-wrote with playwright and husband Cándido Tirado.
Sandra Rivera was a Puerto Rican actress, theater, television and film producer, director and writer. For 56 years she was also the artistic director of La Comedia Puertorriqueña, one of the island's leading theater companies founded by her in 1965.
