Cuban emigrants to the United States

Lydia Cabrera (May 20, 1899, in Havana, Cuba – September 19, 1991, in Miami, Florida) was a Cuban independent ethnographer, writer, and literary activist. She was an authority on Santería and other Afro-Cuban religions. During her lifetime she published over one hundred books; little of her work is available in English. Her most important book is El Monte (Spanish: "The Wilderness"), which was the first major ethnographic study of Afro-Cuban traditions, herbalism and religion. First published in 1954, the book became a "textbook" for those who practice Lukumi (orisha religion originating from the Yoruba and neighboring ethnic groups) and Palo Monte (a central African faith) both religions reaching the Caribbean through enslaved Africans. Her papers and research materials were donated to the Cuban Heritage Collection - the largest repository of materials on or about Cuba located outside of Cuba - forming part of the library of the University of Miami. A section in Guillermo Cabrera Infante's book Tres Tigres Tristes is written under Lydia Cabrera's name, in a comical rendition of her literary voice. She was one of the first writers to recognize and sensitively publish on the richness of Afro-Cuban culture and religion. She made valuable contributions in the areas of literature, anthropology, art, ethnomusicology, and ethnology.
In El Monte, Cabrera fully described the major Afro-Cuban religions: Regla de Ocha (commonly known as Santeria) and Ifá, which are both derived from traditional Yoruba religion; and Palo Monte, which originated in Central Africa.
Both the literary and anthropological perspectives in Cabrera's work assume that she wrote about mainly oral, practical religions with only an “embryonic” written tradition. She is credited by literary critics for having transformed Afro-Cuban oral narratives into literature, which is, written works of art, while anthropologists rely on her accounts of oral information collected during interviews with santeros, babalawos, and paleros, and on her descriptions of religious ceremonies.
There is a dialectical relationship between Afro-Cuban religious writing and Cabrera's work; she used a religious writing tradition that has now internalized her own ethnography.

Hugo Consuegra (born Hugo Consuegra Sosa October 26, 1929 in Havana, Cuba – January 24th 2003 in New York City, New York) was a Cuban-born artist and architect who, in 1953, became one of the founding members of Los Once (The Eleven), 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).
His first solo exhibition was held in 1953 at the Lyceum in Havana. As part of Los Once (The Eleven), Consuegra was instrumental in introducing abstract expressionism to Cuba. His award-winning artwork was widely exhibited in Cuba and internationally until he received political asylum in Spain in 1967. He moved to New York three years later continuing his painting, drawing and engraving career. He became an American citizen in 1975.
Throughout his career, Consuegra widely exhibited his work in such cities as: Havana, New York, Paris, Cadiz (Spain), and Sao Paulo, among others. His work is part of major collections including Casa de las Américas (Havana), Cintas Foundation (New York), Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Havana), Art Museum of the Americas (Washington D.C.), and the Rodríguez Collection (Miami), among others. He was awarded the Cintas Foundation Fellowship.Edmundo Desnoes’ 1961 essay invites us to consider the artist’s impact: “The paintings of Hugo Consuegra always give us the impression of having penetrated into an occult world: of having descended into an underworld or of stumbling onto the private life of an unknown family. His paintings always produce a subjective effect. His burnished blues, his tanned browns, his nightmare landscapes with black skies and desolated countrysides, belong to the world of the inner personality. There are areas in which color concentrates and seems to form thick drops, and other places in which it evaporates or is forgotten. His canvases are always resolved in genuine good taste.”

Xavier Cugat (Catalan: [ʃəβiˈe kuˈɣat]; 1 January 1900 – 27 October 1990) was a Spanish musician and bandleader who spent his formative years in Havana, Cuba. A trained violinist and arranger, he was a leading figure in the spread of Latin music. In New York City, he was the leader of the resident orchestra at the Waldorf–Astoria before and after World War II. He was also a cartoonist and a restaurateur. The personal papers of Xavier Cugat are preserved in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.