Who We Are

Gabriela Rivero is a recent graduate of Harvard College with a major in Sociology and minor in Latinx Studies. She comes from a colorful Caribbean (Cuban & Venezuelan) and Mediterranean (Spanish & Italian) background, to which she attributes her love of sunshine and her addiction to guava pastelitos. Gabby uses her English–Spanish bilingualism in her work with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC), helping immigrants obtain asylum in the United States. She’ll be starting law school at the University of Miami to become an immigration attorney —shocker!-— specializing in asylum law. She enjoys writing, cooking, singing, and playing tennis and guitar. However, Gabby’s favorite activity is traveling to Cuba, exploring her grandparents’ home country and visiting the friends she made while studying abroad at the University of Havana.

Denise S. Valenti is a writer, essayist and editor who grew up as a first generation Cuban American in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Working Mother, Martha Stewart Living, USA Today’s Hispanic Living magazine, and Latina, where she served as an editor. She currently is working on a novel based in Cuba in the mid-20th century.

Mónica Rivero Cabrera is a Cuban journalist with eight years of experience in digital journalism. For three years she worked as editor in chief of OnCuba News. She is a founder of Revista Late, a multinational journalism network. Though she’s back in Havana due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Mónica is currently a Humphrey Fellow at Arizona State University. Fun fact: growing up, she wanted to be an actress.

Miguel Freijo Buendia is the founder of the Havana Music School, an independent project that provides music lessons to anyone interested in Cuban music. After working in the stock market for more than twelve years, Miguel decided to take a break for three months and went to Cuba to study bass guitar. He began his journey in Pinar del Río, the town where his grandfather was born, but soon moved to Havana where he took bass lessons with Fernando Tort. The experience and lessons changed his life completely and after graduating from bass guitar, he decided to stay longer in the island playing Cuban music and attending many live concerts every week. He is married to Claudia and they proudly welcomed the birth of their child, Luna in 2019.

Erin Goodman has been an editor and a contributor at Startup Cuba. She is a longtime follower of US-Cuba relations and contemporary Cuban culture. Erin first traveled to Havana in 2002, and later founded a travel and translation company, taking groups of women to Havana with a focus on the arts and entrepreneurship. She has translated for The New York Times, OnCuba Travel, and many other publications.

Christopher P. Baker is hailed by National Geographic as “One of the world’s leading authorities on Cuba travel and culture.” He has won numerous awards, including the Lowell Thomas Award in 2008 for Travel Journalist of the Year. Christopher has made Cuba his professional calling for three decades, and has published seven travel books about Cuba including the Moon Cuba and National Geographic Traveler Cuba guidebooks, his award-winning literary travelog “Mi Moto Fidel: Motorcycling Through Castro’s Cuba,” plus his coffee-table book Cuba Classics: A Celebration of Vintage American Automobiles. His stories on Cuba have appeared in scores of publications, from BBC Travel and CNN Travel to National Geographic Traveler and even Penthouse. Chris has led more than 120 tours to Cuba for entities from the Children’s Cancer Foundation to National Geographic Expeditions and Santa Fe Photo Workshops, including on-going photography tours for Jim Cline Photo Tours and Lumaria Workshops. He has motorcycled through Cuba numerous times, and leads custom motorcycle tours for individuals and groups using BMWs and Harley-Davidsons. He promotes his work though his website: www.christopherpbaker.com. Fun fact: Christopher trips over himself in his attempts to dance salsa!

Carmen & Fryda are two Cuban-born, Miami bffs who started a podcast called teikirisi to celebrate and educate on all things cuban-american. Together, Carmen & Fryda spill the cafecito on Cuban-American identity, navigate Cuban-American culture, and tell stories about life in Cuba & the diaspora.

Carmen studied political science and journalism at the University of Miami, and has spent the last 8 years working as a documentary filmmaker. She currently works as a producer for a financial media outlet, and moonlights as an oil-painter. Carmen’s toxic traits include making finance puns nobody likes, hating on Miami, and buying plants she doesn’t have space for. She loves reading, her cat, Isaac, and frolicking around Brooklyn, camera in tow, hunting down the best eats and drinks.

Fryda studied political science at Yale University. She has 7 years of experience working in advocacy, community mobilization, and civic engagement. Currently, Fryda works as a consultant in data analysis, strategy, and technology for nonprofit & political organizations. She loves soaking up the sun on walks with her dog, Amelia (who she believes is her actual child), going rock climbing and hiking, and enjoying a delicious meal with a cocktail.

Melissa Mansfield is a Brooklyn-based dancer and producer whose work centers on cultural immersion as the key to truly learning and embodying dance forms. Her web series “Follow My Lead” invites viewers into the thriving sub-cultures of the iconic dances of Havana (salsa and folkloric) and Buenos Aires (tango), revealing the transformational wisdom each dance imparts and exposing her own vulnerable personal journey as a re-dedicated dancer after turning 40. Her most recent piece, “To the Heart of Dance in Cuba”, is a deeply immersive short documentary that has been released in episodic form, which explores the nuance of traditional folkloric dance as a still relevant and ever-evolving element of modern Cuban culture. All three experiences can be viewed on her YouTube and Facebook channels.

Luis Orlando León Carpio is a Cuban journalist living in Denmark and Czech Republic, where he is completing a master’s degree in Journalism, Media and Globalization as an Erasmus scholar. He has worked as a reporter, editor and content producer for Vanguardia newspaper and Tornapunta magazine in his hometown, Trinidad. He has also contributed as a freelancer at El Toque, OnCuba & Tremenda Nota among other international publications. Telling the right stories, no matter what they are about, is the way he finds to make the world a little bit better. He holds a BA in Journalism from the Universidad Central Marta Abreu de Las Villas in Santa Clara, Cuba. Fun fact: he also loves to sing!

Laura Catana is an entrepreneur, professional globetrotter, cultural connectress, and music junkie, passionate about promoting cultural diplomacy through music. Her experience includes managing Havana’s first independent urban indie music label, Guámpara Music, for three years, and working as an independent music producer, consultant and digital marketer. She currently resides in Miami and is working on a music co-working startup while simultaneously helping manage an independent music studio out of Havana. Fun fact: She used to be a landscape designer and knows more Latin botanical plant names than your average person!

Hope Bastian is a Havana based cultural anthropologist and the author of Everyday Adjustments in Havana: Economic Reforms, Mobility, and Emerging Inequalities. She visited Cuba for the first time the summer after graduating high school and moved there after college. In her day jobs she helps study abroad students discover the best parts of life in Cuba and teaches Cuban students about intangible cultural heritage. Her current research focuses on gender, public health and breastfeeding in Cuba. In her free time she is active in the LGBT community, supporting breastfeeding mothers with La Leche League and tending to her balcony garden.

Based in Havana, Dachelys Valdés Moreno is a Cuban psychologist who is deeply passionate about what makes families tick. She has worked as a therapist for 10 years but is now taking a break to be with her baby boy, Paulo. In her spare time, she helps design workshops for kids with Lo Llevamos Rizo, to share history and resources to celebrate and care for natural Afro hair. She is part of the editorial collective of Akokán en casa, an entertaining bimonthly magazine for kids to help them adjust to life with coronavirus. With friends she enjoys biking, playing the ukulele and trying out new recipes. Born and raised in Havana, three decades later it is still her favorite city in the entire world.

Nathan Cryder is a vice chair of the Engage Cuba coalition in Kentucky and has traveled to Cuba on 14 occasions. He has a broad range of executive and leadership experience in the business, government, non-profit, and education sectors. Currently he is Managing Partner at Edelen Ventures and a special advisor to 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi. In 2016, Nathan arranged Mr. Satyarthi’s official state visit to Cuba for the purposed of engaging the country’s leaders in the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation’s “100 Million for 100 Million Campaign” to increase global awareness of child labor and child slavery. Nathan is also a co-founder of Breakout, the world’s largest escape room company, as well as Sig Luscher Brewery. Nathan holds dual master’s degrees in diplomacy and sociology from the University of Kentucky and a B.A. in sociology from Miami University. He resides in Lexington, Kentucky with his daughter and son.

Mario González is a historian who graduated from the University of Havana. Currently he is a professor and also teaches Cuban History classes. A true believer in win-win, he is interested in Political Science and hopes to pursue a master’s degree in Cuba-United States relations.

Leilani Bruce is a Miami native, first-generation Afro-Caribeña with Cuban and Jamaican roots. In 2020, Leilani co-founded CANDELA: Cuban American Narratives & Dialogue for Equity, Liberation, and Allyship, a virtual book club dedicated to diving into the issues of racism and discrimination within the Cuban and Cuban American communities while amplifying the voices and sharing the stories of Black and Afro-Cuban voices both here in the states and on the island. By day, Leilani works as a Director of Client Strategy at a content marketing agency, and in her free time she enjoys lounging in the sunshine, hunting for vinyls, and hunting for food spots.

Laura N. Pérez Sánchez is a Puerto Rican investigative journalist who has developed her career in her native city of San Juan. Laura has worked both as a reporter and editor, and she also enjoys writing chronicles and in-depth reports. In 2018, while working as deputy news editor for the newspaper El Nuevo Día, she was selected as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and as one of three inaugural Abrams Nieman Fellows for Local Investigative Journalism. Thanks to this scholarship, Laura returned to Puerto Rico after her year at Harvard to carry out an independent journalistic investigation into the island’s reconstruction after Hurricane Maria, which she hopes to publish soon. Laura recently released her own newsletter, Particular, through which she aims for more direct contact with her readers, while sharing some of her favorite content, which offers different or complementary perspectives on public interest topics and current events.

Jami Erriquez is a part-time chef, food stylist, and an avid cookbook collector from South Florida. She studied culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in Atlanta, Georgia. Her love for cooking came from her father, Danny. She is a traveler, a yogi, and a beach bum, and has been eating Cuban sandwiches and listening to Celia Cruz since she was seven!. When Jami isn’t in the kitchen she is binge-watching Golden Girls and hanging out with her family and pet cat, Irma.

Carlos Sotolongo is a Cuban transplant based in New York City who considers himself a creator that pursues stories and recounts them either through the blank page or the lens of my camera. After majoring in Journalism at Marta Abreu University, in Santa Clara, Cuba, he worked as a reporter, editor and main correspondent in Trinidad for Escambray newspaper. He’s also been a freelance writer for Arte por Excelencias, OnCuba, El Toque, among other international publications. Pursuing his love for photography he also counts several solo art exhibitions under his belt. Images and words are Carlos’ tools to translate the perception he has of the world that around him.

Cray Novick is director of the mini-series “Re-Evolution: The Cuban Dream.” He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker telling social justice stories that highlight our shared humanity. Cray edited “Defying the Nazis” under the mentorship of Ken Burns, and helped launch the film’s grassroots impact campaign. Cray is currently co-directing “The Genetics of Hope,” a feature documentary on genetics and biotechnology. In 2018, he founded True Spectrum Media, a film, podcast, and XR studio based in Boston, MA. He first went to Cuba as a student in 2016 and has been going back ever since as a filmmaker, friend, and dreamer. Contrary to popular belief, Cray can function with or without cafecitos.

Claire Boobbyer is a freelance travel writer who writes travel features for the UK national press as well as international media, mostly about Cuba, Vietnam and Laos. She’s also written articles about Central America, South America, and Morocco. As a travel guide she’s led tours for Smithsonian Journeys, National Geographic Expeditions, and New York Times Journeys among others. Claire is the author of the newly published Havana Pocket Precincts Guide (Hardie Grant) as well as the last three editions of Frommer’s Cuba. She’s been visiting Cuba for 20 years and the island is her second home.

Carmen Torre Pérez is a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania. A member of the punk scene in her home region of Cantabria, Spain, her research looks at punk and “friki” culture in Cuba as an alternative gateway to the country’s history of the last thirty years. She has curated the website punkcubano.net, the first digital archive devoted to punk music on the island.

Rafael Bou is a Cuban rapper better known as El Individuo. He founded the project Con100cia. He has a degree in Comunicación Social from the Universidad de La Habana.

Pilar Egüez Guevara is an Ecuadorian anthropologist, filmmaker and author. She is director and founder of Comidas que Curan, an independent education initiative advocating for the value of traditional foods through research and film. She directed and produced the documentary Raspando coco (2018, Scraping coconuts), which has been presented at film festivals in Latin America, the United States, Europe and Japan and has won several awards, including Best Foreign Documentary, Best Documentary Short, and Best Female Director. She is a published author and speaks internationally on the intersections of food, culture, conflict and health. She is also a conflict mediator and coach.

Evan Elkowitz is a New York stylist and fixture in Cuba’s underground fashion and design scene. After many years as a stay-at-home mom, she began a career as a stylist. She ventured to Cuba for the first time in December 2017 and styled her first photoshoot in Havana. Since then she founded the first Fashion & Arts tour to Havana with the goal of collectivizing her knowledge in order to give an insider’s look into the unexpected creative world of Cuban design. She also loves salsa and Cuban music in general!

Cassie is a Cuba travel planner and freelance writer. In 2016 she threw caution to the wind and swapped office life in London for the slow life in rural Cuba. Here she met her now-husband, and together they navigate the complexities of cross-cultural, cross-continental and bilingual married life. An advocate for responsible and sustainable travel, Cassie specializes in promoting immersive and meaningful experiences in Cuba. She works with US, European and Cuban travel agencies & tour operators – as well as private clients – in planning, organizing, and curating bespoke itineraries. Endeavoring to support both the local environment and community, Cassie and her husband are building a rural eco-project and home in the outskirts of Viñales. Her idea of heaven is exploring Cuba’s countryside on horseback, ending with a bowl of ‘arroz y frijoles’ and a swig of rum at sunset. Though a fresh coconut on the beach wouldn’t go a miss either.

Giselle Gonzalez Garcia was born and raised in Havana, and named after the famous ballet. She obtained a BA in History from the University of Havana (2016), and is currently a second year MA student in History & Irish Studies at Concordia University’s School of Irish Studies (Montreal). She is a co-author of Irlanda y Cuba: Historias Entretejidas / Ireland & Cuba: Intertwined Histories, the first bilingual compilation of works by both Cuban and Irish authors on the many connections between these two island-nations. Fun fact: Lover of all kinds of music, she is usually found debating people on politics and social issues on social media.

Cynthia Carris Alonso is the author of two books about Cuba and has been photographing the island since 1992. She is a photographer, photo editor, and researcher and has worked for internationally-renowned magazines, books, and websites such as Time.com, ABCnews.com, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Rhythm Music Magazine, People en Español, Scholastic and Vanity Fair. In 2016, Cynthia Carris Alonso covered President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba, as the two countries continued working toward normalizing relations. With rare access to Cuba, Alonso has photographed Cuba’s most famous musicians, covered news events and daily life of the Cuban people on assignment, and documented their unique and mysterious culture, people, passions and spirit of survival. Cynthia’s first photography book, Passage to Cuba, was published by Skyhorse Publishing in 2015. Her latest book, A Taste of Cuba (Apollo Publishers, 2018), celebrates the wonderful taste of Cuban cuisine, as well as the sites, colors, and energy of the Cuban culture. Alonso has given speeches about photography, journalism and Cuba. She has appeared on television and in the press, as a Cuba consultant giving interviews in both English and Spanish. Cynthia is married to Cuban writer José Luis Alonso, and they live in New York City with their daughter.