Octavio Armand (b. 1946, Guantánamo): Critic, poet, translator and founder and director of the literary magazine Escandalar, Armand’s books include the poetry collections Biografía para reacios, Cosas pasan, Superficies, Oregami, El pez folado and Son de ausencia. Refractions, published in 1994, includes essays as well as poems. (Cintas for literature, 1977-78)

Doris Castellanos (Cintas for literature, 1976-77, 1977-78)

Untitled,1976, Oil on canvas, 49" x 36"

Eloisa Castellanos (b. 1938, Camagüey) A painter trained at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Havana and at the Pan American Art School in New York, Castellanos has participated in group shows in the United States, Latin America and Europe, in venues such as the Bronx Museum of Art, The Ponce Museum in Puerto Rico, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Madrid and the Museum of Albuquerque in New Mexico. Her work was represented at the First Biennial of Iberoamerican Painting in Mexico. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1976-77, 1977-78)

Vicente Dopico (b. 1945, Havana) An expressionist painter and water-colorist, Dopico also writes on Latin American art and was the director of the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture in Miami. He has participated in many group and individual exhibitions, including the Contemporary Latin-American Art Exhibition at the Museum of Art and History in Delray Beach and Latin-American Painters of Today held at the Museum of the Americas in San Juan. His work is in the permanent collection of the Miami-Dade Public Library. Dopico received a Bachelor and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of St. Thomas in Miami and studied visual arts, watercolor, drawing, painting and design at the Art Student League of New York. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1977-78)

Untitled, 1978, Oil on canvas, 47” x 43”

Emilio Falero (b. 1947, Sagua la Grande) Highly influenced by the Spanish masters whose work he often quotes in his large paintings, Falero is the winner of a Ziuta and Joseph James Akston Foundation Award from the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach. He has shown his work in galleries and museums such as the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale and the Museum of Modern Art of Latin America in Washington, D.C. His work was included in the Outside Cuba exhibition, the Miami Generation traveling exhibition and the Cuba-USA: The First Generation traveling exhibition. His work is in the permanent collections of the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami and the Miami Dade Public Library System, among others. He studied at Miami-Dade Community College and Barry College. (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1977-78)

Jorge Hernández Porto: (CINTAS for Visual Arts, 1977-78)

Oscar Hijuelos (b.1951, New York City – d. 2013, New York City): In 1990, Hijuelos became the first Hispanic to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He novels include Our House in the Last World, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, Empress of the Splendid Season, Mr. Ives’ Christmasand A Simple Habana Melody. He received a master’s degree from City College of New York and won a Breadloaf Writers Conference scholarship as well as grants from the Creative Artists Programs Service, the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, was made into a film starring Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas. (CINTAS for literature, 1977-78)

 Maritza Leal Banchz (Cintas for music, 1975-76, 1977-78)

Mario Parajón (b. 1929, Havana – d. 2006 Madrid): An editor, theater director and critic, Parajón’s  many books include Cinco escritores y su Madrid: Galdós, Azorín, Baroja, Rubén Darío y Ramón; Eugenio Florit y su poesía; Santa Teresa de Lisieux and El teatro de O’Neill, published by Orígenes in 1952. At the time of his death, he was professor of philosophy of secondary education at the Institute of Alcobendas and Madrid.(Cintas for literature, 1976-77, 1977-78)

Caracolamizina, 1978, ink on paper print edition 10/30, 12.5” x 17”

José A. Peláez (b. 1950, Havana) An architecture graduate from the University of Puerto Rico, Peláez has devoted himself to graphic design, printmaking, photography and literature. He exhibits his print work regularly and directs a workshop, Arte Sobre Papel, in Puerto Rico. Peláez has taught graphic arts at Monmouth University in New Jersey, and at the schools of Architecture and Communications at the University of Puerto Rico. His books include La verdad sencilla, a selection of works by José Martí, and the poetry collections Poemas sobre el lienzo con música y dos películas de terror, and Arqueología. (Cintas for art, 1977-78)

Arnaldo Ravelo De Avellaneda (b. 1929, Cuba –d. 1979, Miami) A painter, sculptor and educator, Ravelo taught drawing and art history in Güines, Cuba, New York and Miami, where he was a member of the Grupo Artístico Literario Abril (GALA) Ravelo studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro in Havana, at Manhattan Community College and at La Moncloa in Madrid. (Cintas for art, 1977-78) 

Laura Ymayo Tartakoff (b. 1954). An adjunct professor in the political science department at Case Western Reserve University, where she has received numerous teaching awards, Ymayo Tartakoff is also a lawyer specializing in constitutional law, civil liberties and Latin American issues. She received a law degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1990, a Bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and Master’s degrees from Tufts University and the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Her essays have appeared in European Community, La Tribune de Genève and Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. She is coeditor of Poetry and Politics: Selected Poems of Heberto Padilla. Her books of poetry include Mujer martes and Entero lugar, íntimo color. Her poems were selected for El zunzún viajero, a series edited by Juana Rosa Pita. (Cintas, 1977-78)