Jesús J. Barquet (b. 1953, Havana): A professor in the Department of Languages and Linguistics at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, Barquet is also a poet and critic and has lectured in various universities in Latin America. He came to the United States on the 1980 Mariel boatlift and received Master’s and PhD degrees in Spanish at Tulane University. His critical work includes the books Consagración de La Habana, which received the Letras de Oro award from the University of Miami in 1991, and  Escrituras poéticas de una nación: Dulce María Loynaz, Juana Rosa Pita y Carlota Caulfield, which received the Lourdes Casal Award in Havana. His poetry collections include Sin decir el mar, Sagradas herejías,  Ícaro, El libro del desterrado, El libro de los héroes and  Naufragios. Barquet was writer-in-residence at the Altos de Chavón's Residency Program in 1994. (Cintas for literature, 1991-92)

Carlos E. Concepción (b. Havana) A graduate of Florida A&M University, Concepción has a Master’s in Architecture from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he was also an instructor. He worked with Richard Meier and Partners and with Michael Feldman and Partners on nationally and internationally recognized projects such as the Bridgeport Center in Connecticut and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art. He is the recipient of a grant by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and was a lecturer and participant in the VII Bienal de Arquitectura in Quito. He has lectured in universities in New York and Ecuador, and has held teaching positions at the Parsons School of Design and the University of Illinois at Chicago. (CINTAS for Architecture & Design, 1991-92)

Silvia Curbelo (b. 1955, Matanzas): The Tampa-based poet and editor has been published in journals such as American Poetry Review and Kenyon Review and in several anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books, The Geography of Leaving and The Secret History of Water, which became the first volume issued by the Anhinga Press in its Florida Poetry Series. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Florida Arts Council, the Seaside Institute and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.  Curbelo won the Jessica Noble Maxwell Memorial Poetry Prize given by the American Poetry Review and the James Wright Award for Poetry from Mid-American Review. (Cintas for literature, 1991-92, 1998-99)

Lourdes Gil (b. 1950, Havana - d. 2023, New York): A writer, teacher, editor and journalist, Gil is the author of the poetry collections El cerco de las transfiguraciones, Empieza la ciudad, Vencido el fuego de la especie, Manuscrito de la niña ausente and Neumas, among others. She frequently writes for cultural magazines such as Encuentro and her work has appeared in many anthologies. Gil studied at New York University and Fordham University and teaches at Baruch College of the City University of New York. She was co-director of the literary magazines Lyra and Románica. In 1994, she was guest editor of Brújula, the magazine of the New York Institute of Latin American Writers. As a journalist, she has worked for The Jersey Journal, Hearst International Publications and Editors Press Service. Her work has been recognized by the New Jersey State Council for the Arts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. (Cintas for literature, 1979-80. 1991-92)

Untitled, 1992, graphite on paper, 23.375” x 19.875”

Linda Matalon (b. 1958, Brooklyn): The magazine Art in America described Matalon’s post-minimalist work as an “unflagging effort, by turns dogged, tender, angry and amused, to wrestle pure vision into tangible form.” Her drawings and sculpture have been featured in exhibitions throughout the United States and in Paris, including The Drawing Center and The New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and The Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington. Matalon has received grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Art Matters.  In the fall of 2012, she was an artist in residence at Dartmouth. (Cintas for art, 1991-92)

Faceless Even Now, Clay, paint, 29.5" x 18.25" x 5.125"

Mario Petrirena (b.1953, Union de Reyes). Petrirena is a visual artist whose work is primarily sculptural, although he also works in collage. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner and the Georgia Council for the Arts. His work is included in the collections of the Fort Lauderdale Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, the Rubin Foundation in New York, and the High Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta. His work has been shown in group and solo exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally, including Convergence, Beijing, curated by Feng Boyi and Marilyn Kiang. Petrirena’s work was included in Outside Cuba/Fuera de Cuba, Cuba-USA and Breaking Barriers. (CINTAS for 1986-87 and 1991-92)

Daniel Ponce (b. 1953, Havana - d. 2013, Miami): A percussionist and bandleader, Ponce began playing music in Cuba, but fully dedicated himself to music as a profession when he arrived in the United States in 1980. He performed in albums by Kip Hanrahan, Paquito D'Rivera, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Laurie Anderson and Mick Jagger, among others. His solo albums include New York Now, Arawe '87 and Changó te llama. Known as a virtuoso of the conga drums, he performed in many major venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Jazz Festival. Ponce received the Creative Artists public service award for composition. (Cintas for music, 1991-92)

No puedo dormir (I can’t sleep), 1997, Oil paint on antique bed headboard and antique oars, 57” x 55.5”

Ernesto Pujol (b. 1957, Havana): Although he originally trained as a painter, Pujol work has broadened into installation work, performance art and photography. He has said his work deals with obsessive memory as its main theme, which he divides into memory of place, of gender and of violence. Pujol attended the University of Puerto Rico and the Universidad Complutense in Madrid and has a Master of Fine Arts in interdisciplinary studio practice from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico City, the Casa de las Américas in Havana and El Museo del Barrio in New York. In 1997, Pujol represented the United States in the Second Johannesburg Biennial in South Africa, the Second Saaremaa Biennial in Estonia and the Sixth Havana Biennial. Recent works include Speaking in Silence, a 2011 sunrise-to-sunset performance for the Contemporary Museum throughout the city of Honolulu, with 18 performers as public orators. (Cintas in art, 1991-92, 1997-98)

Ernest Delamartier Scott (b. 1959, Camagüey): A photographer and educator, Scott is associate professor of photography at the University of Illinois, Champaign. He is the winner of awards from the Illinois Arts Council, the Polaroid Corporation and the UCLA Art Council. His work is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Historical Society, the University of Notre Dame Library and the Joseph Brodsky Collection, among others. Scott received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. (Cintas for art, 1991-92)

Ernesto I. Urdaneta (b. 1964, Sancti Spiritus): A graduate of the Parson’s School of Design, Urdaneta has received awards from the Long Island Arts Council and the Kodak Professional Photography Scholarship. (Cintas for art, 1991-92)

Endangered Dream (Into The Garden),1992, Mixed media on canvas, H12 x W72 x D3"inches

Rafael Vadía (b. 1950, Havana): Vadía’s work has been shows at galleries and museums such as the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, the Art Museum at Florida International University and the Lowe Art Museum. His pieces were also included in Expresiones Hispanas, the Coors National Art Exhibition and Tour, and Latin American Artists of the United States at the Organization of American States.  He is the winner of the Norton Museum’s Verna Lammi Memorial award, and his work is in the permanent collection of the Miami-Dade Public Library. Vadía studied at Miami-Dade College, the Ecole Des Beaux Arts in Paris and Florida International University (Cintas for art, 1991-92)

Therapy IV,60 x 40 inches, photo-performance still from Humane Society Series, 1987

Ricardo Zulueta (b. 1962, Havana): A multimedia artist and scholar who uses photography, performance, video, digital imaging, sculpture and/or installation, holds a Ph.D. from the Cinema and Interactive Media Department at the University of Miami and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts. Zulueta incorporates an interdisciplinary approach by crossing boundaries and adopting hybrid forms of investigation, interpretation, and representation. More recently, he has returned to the studio with his pseudo-ethnography photo-performance project titled Domesticated Homosapiens in Traditional Costume Circa Twenty-First Century (2010).  His work has been exhibited in national and international group and solo shows most notably at the Grey Art Gallery at New York University, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the International Center for Photography in New York, New York, the Museo Alejandro Otero, in Caracas, the Smithsonian Institution, the Centro Reina Sofia Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid and the Museo del Barrio in New York, among others. His work has been published in many journals and periodicals including Artforum, Flash Art, Interview Magazine, Village Voice, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker.  He has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. (Cintas for art, 1991-92)