Hatuey (died February 2, 1512) was a Taíno Cacique (chief) from the island of Hispaniola who lived in the early sixteenth century. He has attained legendary status for leading a group of natives in a fight against the invading Spaniards, and thus becoming the second fighter against colonialism in the New World after Anacaona. He is celebrated as "Cuba's First National Hero."

In 1511, Diego Velázquez set out from Hispaniola to conquer the island of Caobana (Cuba). He was preceded, however, by Hatuey, who fled Hispaniola with a party of four hundred in canoes and warned the inhabitants of Caobana about what to expect from the Spaniards.

Bartolomé de Las Casas later attributed the following speech to Hatuey. He showed the Taíno of Caobana a basket of gold and jewels, saying:

The people of Caobana could not believe Hatuey's message, and few joined him to fight. Hatuey resorted to guerrilla tactics against the Spaniards, and was able to confine them to their fort at Baracoa. Eventually the Spaniards succeeded in capturing him. On February 2, 1512, he was tied to a stake and burned alive at Yara.

Rita Montaner, born Rita Aurelia Fulcida Montaner y Facenda (Guanabacoa, 21 October 1900 – Havana, 17 April 1958), was a Cuban singer, pianist, actress and star of stage, film, radio and television. In Cuban parlance, she was a vedette (a star), and she was well known in Mexico City, Paris, Miami and New York, where she performed, filmed and recorded on various occasions. She was probably the best-loved female star in Cuba of the period 1920–1960; they called her Rita de Cuba. Though classically trained, her mark was made as a singer of Afrocubanist salon songs.

She was one of three great musicians born in the small town of Guanabacoa in the province of Havana; the others were Bola de Nieve and Ernesto Lecuona. The lives of the three friends were connected professionally; they worked together many times.

Rita's family and upbringing was middle-class. Her father, Domingo Montaner Pulgarón, was a white pharmacist and her mother, Mercedes Facenda, a mulatta; she herself was short in stature, good-looking with a fine smile, and intelligent. She learnt English, Italian and French at religious school, and at 10 attended the Peyrellade Conservatory in Havana. There she studied music: solfege, theory, harmony and piano; at 16 she started on voice lessons.

Eliseo Grenet Sánchez (Havana, 12 June 1893 – 4 November 1950) was a Cuban pianist and a leading composer/arranger of the day. He composed music for stage shows and films, and some famous Cuban dance music. Eliseo was one of three musical brothers, all composers, the others being Emilio ('Neno', 1901–1941) and Ernesto (1908–1981). Emilio went on composing even after having an arm and a leg bitten off by a shark in 1930; Ernesto was a drummer who became leader of the Tropicana's orchestra.

Eliseo studied music under Mercedes Valenzuela and Leandro Simón Guergué, the father of Moisés Simons. In 1905 he played piano in the silent film theatre La Caricatura, and in 1909 directed the orchestra of the Politeama Habanero theatre, which mostly showed zarzuelas. Later he joined the company of Regino López at the Teatro Cubano.

In 1925 Grenet founded a jazz band which played in the cabaret Montmatre and the Jockey Club. The line-up included Grenet (piano); Manolo Castro (alto sax); José Ramón Betancourt (tenor sax); Pedro Mercado (trumpet); Jorge Bolet (piano sub); Enrique Santiesteban (percussion and singer). In 1927 came the premiere of the zarzuela La Niña Rita, o La Habana de 1830 at the Teatro Regina, with music by Grenet and Ernesto Lecuona. In this zarzuela, Grenet's number, the tango-congo Ay, Mamá Inéz, became a huge hit, and remains popular today and is often heard at wedding receptions. Its origins lie in a comparsa number of 1868, and in its new guise became one of the signature numbers for the vedette Rita Montaner. In 1930 he set a number of Nicolas Guillén's poems Motivos del son to music.