I am a cultural anthropologist, historian (co-author of A History of Little Havana and an East Little Havana resident who leads private and customized walking tours of Little Havana. A History of Little Havana is the first book to focus on Latino contributions to the neighborhood.I have led walking tours of Little Havana since 2006, when I served as director of Viernes Culturales/Cultural Fridays, Little Havana's popular monthly arts festival.

Currently, I am a full-time graduate student (and teaching assistant) in anthropology within the Global & Sociocultural Studies Department at Florida International University.There, I am also earning graduate certificates in Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Afro-Latin American Studies and African & African Diaspora Studies.In 2014, I was also a Graduate Fellow with the Smithsonian’s Latino Museum Studies Program, where I did my Practicum at the first federally funded community museum in the U.S.: the Anacostia Community Museum.I was engaged in research related to an exhibit on immigrants of African descent (including Afro-Latinos) to Washington, DC.

For more than nine years I have lived in Miami’s East Little Havana neighborhood.I am co-founder and former Vice Chair of the Little Havana Merchant Alliance and a well-known community activist who has been interviewed for National Geographic Traveler, National Public Radio, Der Spiegel, 60 Minutes Australia, Florida Travel & Life, The Miami Herald and numerous other media outlets; I've also been featured in numerous documentaries, and was the subject of a mini-documentary for PBS based on my work in Little Havana.

My knowledge of Afro-Cuban arts and cultural traditions is extensive, and includes fifteen years of training in Afro-Cuban folkloric dance as well as intensive research on religious practices.