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Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born in Birán, Holguin Province, Cuba, the fifth of nine children of Ángel María Bautista Castro y Argiz, a plantation owner originally from Galicia, Spain, who operated a plantation in Cuba's Oriente Province. His mother, Lina Ruz González, was a servant in his father's home who bore Fidel out of wedlock (they later were married several years after Angel's first wife died). Known as a rebellious, loud, and troublesome child, Fidel was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in Santiago de Cuba, where he was often teased by his wealthier classmates who called him a "peasant." He later attended Belen College before enrolling at the University of Havana, where he earned a law degree. After graduating from the university, Castro briefly practiced law, before he went on to marry Mirta Diaz-Balart, a wealthy philosophy student with family ties to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. They had a son, Fidelito, but after 5 years, the couple divorce and went their separate ways. After several years in prison and exile (he lived in Mexico and New York City before starting the revolution) Castro led an attack on the Moncada barracks on July 26, 1953. The attack, which was a major attack on Batista's hold of Cuba, found Castro once again imprisoned before he was released. After his release he went to the Yucatan, where he organized a rebel force that landed in Cuba in 1958 and after many successful battles, Castro rode triumphantly into Havana on January 8, 1959.

Cuba's greatest and best-known director, Tomas Gutierrez Alea fell in love with cinema at an early age, began as a documentarian much influenced by Italian neorealism and came into his own as an artist during Fidel Castro's regime. Over the years he has evinced a fondness for both historical and contemporary fables, invariably politically pointed and satirical, their flights into absurdity showing the influence of Luis Buñuel. An ardent supporter of the revolution that rid the country of the despotic Fulgencio Batista and brought Castro to power, Alea has painted a more complex portrait of Cuba in his cinema than the rest of the world has generally been willing to conceive. The documentary impulse has remained, yet it is used to constantly scrutinize contemporary Cuba. Indeed, Alea has made some gutsy critiques of the socioeconomic and political realities of his land, as he ponders the persistence of a petty-bourgeois mentality in a society supposedly dedicated to the plight of the working poor.

Born to a fairly well-off family, Alea was sent to college in Havana to follow in his father's footsteps and become a lawyer. At about the same time he entered school, though, he acquired an 8mm camera and made two short films, El faquir (1947) and La caperucita roja (1947). Several years later he collaborated with fellow student (and future film great) Néstor Almendros on a short adaptation of a Franz Kafka story they named Una confusión cotidiana (1950). Upon graduation, Alea journeyed to Italy to study film directing for two years during the crest of neorealism at the famed Centro Sperimentale de Cinematografia. He returned to Cuba in 1953 and joined the radical "Nuestro Tiempo" cultural society, becoming active in the film section, working as a publicist and aligning himself with Castro's fight against the Batista regime. In 1955 Alea co-directed, with fellow society member 'Julio Garcia Espinosa', the 16mm short El mégano (1955), a semi-documentary about exploited workers, acted by nonprofessionals from the locales in which it was shot. The film was seized by Batista's secret police because of its political content.

Soon after the Cuban revolution in 1959, Alea co-founded (with Santiago Álvarez) the national revolutionary film institute ICAIC ("Instituto del Arte y Industria Cinematografica"). He promptly made a documentary, Esta tierra nuestra (1959), full of hope for the new government's plan to help the poor through agrarian reform, and has remained a pillar of the organization ever since. Alea's diverse creative personality has led him to experiment with a broad range of styles and themes. His first feature, Stories of the Revolution (1960), employs a neorealist style to present three dramatic sketches depicting the armed insurrection against Batista. Alea's relatively straightforward approach to film style, however, would change, altered not only through his appropriation of Hollywood and art cinema stylistics but also by his increasingly personal attempts at self-expression. A Cuban Fight Against Demons (1972), the film on which he first worked with regular cinematographer Mario García Joya, comes across as the prelude to a period Alea has described as full of personal and artistic instability as much as it does an aggressive allegorical portrait of church and state corruption. The director's later Cartas del parque (1988) is more of a twilight work, exploring the romantic period piece as a scribe meets a diverse cross-section of society via his talents at letter writing.

The finest of Alea's historical films, The Last Supper (1976), continued to highlight his versatility, drawing on Afro-Cuban musical motifs and the literary style of magic realism to recreate an 18th-century slave revolt. Alea has also made several satiric comedies that explore the legacy of bourgeois society in post-revolutionary Cuba. The madcap adventure The Twelve Chairs (1962), a tale also told by Russian filmmakers and by Mel Brooks, satirizes greed and bureaucracy as a lingering post-revolutionary bourgeois, his roguish manservant and a corrupt priest hunt for a chair concealing priceless diamonds. The Hollywoodian black comedy Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) cites not only Buñuel but also Mack Sennett and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as it criticizes, at an early point in the Castro regime, the administrative muck of the political system (Alea reused the gallows humor of the bureaucracy connected with burying a corpse for his road picture Guantanamera (1995), which began to appear at festivals in 1995 and 1996). In Los sobrevivientes (1979) an aristocratic family devolves from civilization to savagery; using a metaphor found in many films from poor countries, the family resorts to cannibalism in trying to remain isolated from the Revolution. The stresses and strains of a revolutionary society were explored in several dramatic works set in contemporary Cuba, among them Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) and Hasta cierto punto (1983). "Memories", Alea's masterpiece and arguably the best-known Cuban film ever made, brilliantly blends documentary and drama to create an extremely witty yet sensitive portrait of a restless, oversexed, politically uncommitted intellectual as he meanders through the early days of the Revolution. The latter film is, in some ways, a continuation of the former, as documentary filmmakers attempt to examine lingering machismo among dockworkers, eventually discovering that the Revolution's goals for changes in consciousness have succeeded only "up to a certain point."

Alea returned yet again to the nexus between the sexual and the political with the best-known Cuban film of the 1990s, Strawberry & Chocolate (1993). The story of the unusual friendship that develops between a naive believer in Castro's contemporary version of communism and a more experienced, gay critic of the regime was widely praised and just as widely attacked. Some found it atypically gentle for Alea and read its gay lead as a cover-up of Castro's horrifying treatment of homosexuals, while others thought it needlessly provocative in its characterizations; such divergent responses only testify to the complexity typical of Alea's tapestries. In 1994, "Strawberry and Chocolate" became the first Cuban film to receive an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Film. Alea has written or co-scripted all his features and, in accordance with ICAIC's collective approach to filmmaking, has served as advisor on two of the institute's most stylistically innovative films: El otro Francisco (1974), directed by Sergio Giral, and One Way or Another (1975), directed by Sara Gomez.

Alea has been less active in filmmaking in the 1980s and 1990s, and Juan Carlos Tabío has co-directed several of the aging master's recent films. He has, though, written a book of film theory, "Dialectica del espectador (1982)", and continued to inspire a new generation of sophisticated and politically committed artists.

One of the great filmmakers of revolutionary Cuba, Humberto Solás entered the film industry as a teenager, and made his first short at 18. After taking a film course at Centro Sperimentale de Cinema in Rome, he made a big impression with his 1966 medium-length fiction "Manuela", the first of many films dedicated to the Cuban woman. In 1968 his masterpiece "Lucía" won many prizes and brought him international recognition. But the so-called "parametrización" (discredit or persecution of homosexuals and other "anti-socials") during the early 70's, prevented him from making more personal films. In the 80s he had a big success with "Cecilia", followed by a big controversy due to his free adaptation (along with this longtime friend and collaborator, editor Nelson Rodríguez, and Norma Torrado, editor of documentalist Santiago Alvarez' classics "LBJ" and "Now") of "Cecilia Valdés o La loma del ángel", considered the "national novel" in Cuba. After this scandal, he proved he could make a film on time and under budget with "Amada" (co-directed with Rodríguez) and had another big hit with "Un hombre de éxito", which won first prize in the Havana and Cartagena film festivals. In 1992 he realized an old dream, when he filmed Alejo Carpentier's epic novel "El siglo de las luces" for French television.

Sergio Corrieri was born on 2 March 1939 in Havana, Cuba. He was an actor, known for Memories of Underdevelopment (1968), The Man from Maisinicu (1973) and I Am Cuba (1964). He died on 29 February 2008 in Havana, Cuba.

Raquel Revuelta was born on 14 November 1925 in Havana, Cuba. She was an actress, known for I Am Cuba (1964), Siete muertes a plazo fijo (1950) and Lucia (1968). She died on 24 January 2004 in Havana, Cuba.

Julio García Espinosa was born on 5 September 1926 in Havana, Cuba. He was a writer and director, known for Reina y Rey (1994), The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin (1967) and El joven rebelde (1961). He was married to Dolores Calviño. He died on 13 April 2016 in Havana, Cuba.

Rita Montaner was born on 20 August 1900 in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Negro es mi color (1951), Victims of Sin (1951) and It Happened in Havana (1938). She was married to Javier Calderón Poveda, Ernesto Estévez Navarro, Alberto Fernández Díaz and Xavier Cugat. She died on 17 April 1958 in Havana, Cuba.

Adolfo Llauradó was born on 29 September 1941 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. He was an actor and director, known for The Man from Maisinicu (1973), Amores (1994) and La primera carga al machete (1969). He was married to Jacqueline Meppiel. He died on 3 November 2001 in Havana, Cuba.

Rogelio Blain was born on 24 August 1944 in Cuba. He was an actor, known for The Man from Maisinicu (1973), The Stevensons (2006) and Las huérfanas de la Obra Pía (2000). He died on 13 May 2018 in Havana, Cuba.

Alexis Díaz de Villegas was born on 7 December 1966 in Cumanayagua, Cuba. He was an actor, known for Juan of the Dead (2011), Habana Blues (2005) and Between Two Hurricanes (2003). He died on 24 June 2022 in Havana, Cuba.

Mario Balmaseda was born on 19 January 1941 in Havana, Cuba. He was an actor, known for Nazca (1995), One Way or Another (1975) and The Man from Maisinicu (1973). He died on 8 October 2022 in Havana, Cuba.

Juan Carlos Tabío was born on 3 September 1943 in Havana, Cuba. He was a director and writer, known for Guantanamera (1995), El cuerno de la abundancia (2008) and Strawberry & Chocolate (1993). He died on 18 January 2021 in Havana, Cuba.

Ibrahim Ferrer was born on 20 February 1927 in Santiago, Cuba. He was an actor, known for The Party (2017), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017) and Gorillaz: Live in Manchester (2006). He was married to Caridad Diaz. He died on 6 August 2005 in Havana, Cuba.

Enrique Molina was born on 31 October 1943 in Bauta, Artemisa, Cuba. He was an actor, known for The Human Thing (2016), El cuerno de la abundancia (2008) and The Man from Maisinicu (1973). He died on 3 September 2021 in Havana, Cuba.

Jorge Luis Sánchez was born on 20 January 1960 in Havana, Cuba. He was a director and writer, known for El Benny (2006), Irremediablemente Juntos (2012) and Cuba Libre (2015). He died on 9 January 2025 in Havana, Cuba.

Mario Limonta was born on 19 January 1936 in Guantánamo, Cuba. He was an actor, known for Honey for Oshun (2001), Barrio Cuba (2005) and One Way or Another (1975). He was married to Aurora Basnuevo. He died on 18 January 2025 in Havana, Cuba.

Benny Moré was born on 24 August 1919 in Santa Isabel de las Lajas, Cuba. He was a composer, known for Overboard (2018), Before Night Falls (2000) and Cuban Fury (2014). He died on 19 February 1963 in Havana, Cuba.

Enrique Pineda Barnet was born on 28 October 1933 in Havana, Cuba. He was a director and writer, known for I Am Cuba (1964), La bella del Alhambra (1989) and La anunciacion (2008). He died on 12 January 2021 in Havana, Cuba.

Silvia Planas was born in 1901 in Havana, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Una novia para David (1985), Lucia (1968) and Death of a Bureaucrat (1966). She died in 1998 in Havana, Cuba.

Salvador Wood was born on 24 November 1928 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. He was an actor, known for I Am Cuba (1964), Death of a Bureaucrat (1966) and La segunda hora de Esteban Zayas (1984). He was married to Yolanda. He died on 1 June 2019 in Havana, Cuba.

Aurora Basnuevo was born on 13 August 1938 in Colón, Matanzas, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Salsa and Love (1999), Day of the Flowers (2012) and Rosa la China (2002). She was married to Mario Limonta. She died on 26 September 2022 in Havana, Cuba.

Rolando Núñez was born on 9 February 1956. He was an actor, known for Terre indigo (1996), Songs from the Second Floor (2000) and Le retour d'Arsène Lupin (1989). He died on 23 November 2017 in Havana, Cuba.

Teté Vergara was born in 1914 in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Realengo 18 (1961), Lucia (1968) and Cumbite (1964). She died in 1981 in Havana, Cuba.

He felt drawn to music as a child. At the age of 14, Segundo learned to play the typical Cuban string instrument the tres, later adding the guitar. As a teenager, Segundo came to Santiago de Cuba to be fascinated by the cultural life of the big city. There he met the musician Miguel Matamoros, who had a decisive influence on his future career. As the leader of the music band in the city of Santiago, Segundo came to Havana in 1929 to gradually appear as a musician in bars and public places. Since he couldn't live on his own, the musician also began working as a hairdresser and cigar roller in the Cuban capital. In collaboration with famous musicians such as Sindo Garay, Nico Saquito, Miguel Matamaros and Benny Moré, Segundo revived the tradition of the Cuban "Son", which as a special musical style goes back to the struggle for the liberation of black slaves.

From the mid-1930s, Segundo created his own, unique style of the Cuban "Son": on a self-made instrument, the seven-string "Harmonico" guitar, the musician ensured the spread of the "Son", which he used in the songs he knew of the Cuban farmers. Segundo composed hundreds of songs that are now part of the "Son" standard repertoire. In 1939 Segundo joined the group "El Conjunto Matamaros". Towards the end of the 1940s he founded the duo "Los Compadres" with Lorenzo Hierrezuelo, in which he appeared for the first time under the stage name Compay Segundo. When Segundo was called to the Dominican Republic for an engagement in 1953, the duo broke up. In the following decades, the musician appeared as an ambassador for Cuban music in numerous countries around the world. In 1956, Segundo founded his own group under the name "Compay Segundo y sus Muchachos", which soon expanded from a trio to a quartet.

The band developed - not least with the participation of his son Salvador Repilado - into one of the largest Cuban groups in the classic "Son" tradition. With his participation in the "Buena Vista Social Club", Segundo only celebrated his breakthrough with a worldwide audience in 1997, i.e. at the age of 90, as the first recording of a record and his participation in the film of the same name by Wim Wenders led to the general popularization of the artist contributed. After his records sold over a million copies, Segundo received a record award in 2000. In the same year, the musician met Cuban leader Fidel Castro. He also met Pope John Paul II on one of his tours to Italy.

Compay Segundo died in Havana on July 14, 2003 at the age of 95. He left behind his life partner Aidita and a worldwide audience of millions of mourning fans.

Santiago Álvarez was born on 18 March 1919 in Cuba. He was a director and writer, known for 79 primaveras (1969), Hanoi, martes 13 (1968) and El sueño del pongo (1970). He died on 20 May 1998 in Havana, Cuba.