Joseph L. Scarpaci is a broadly trained human geographer who has taught in public health, geography, urban studies, and planning programs at the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, Rutgers University, the University of Iowa, Virginia Tech, and Virginia Military Institute. He is currently Associate Professor of Marketing at West Liberty University, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Cuban Culture and Economy, and Vice President of the Havana Consulting Group. Dr. Scarpaci has been conducting research in Cuba since 1990 and has made 70 trips to the island. His books include Plazas and Barrios, Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis, and Marketing without Advertising: Consumer Choice and Brand Preference in Cuba.

Armando H. Portela is a physical geographer who worked for 23 years in the Institute of Geography of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. He coauthored the section “Geomorphology (Relief)” in the Nuevo Atlas Nacional de Cuba (Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, 1989) and produced a number of geomorphologic maps of the island. He currently works at the Miami Herald and freelances for the newsletter CubaNews, where he regularly publishes on geographical issues of the island.