MIAMI LEGENDARY

ANDREW OTAZO is the author of The Miami Creation Myth (independently published) and CEO of ARO Communications, a public relations firm. Prior to that he served as the Cuba Study Group’s executive director and worked at several other PR agencies. Otazo was a case writer at Harvard Business School, implemented foreign policy at the State Department, and was Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s assistant. He has removed 23,000 pounds of trash from Miami’s coast. Otazo was named to Brickell Magazine’s Top 20 Under 40 List and named Local 10 News' Most Treasured Citizen, Miami’s Next Leader and FAES Latino Leader, and has received two proclamations from the village of Key Biscayne.

CAROLINE CABRERA is the author of the lyric essay collection (lack begins as a tiny rumble) from Tinderbox Editions, as well as three poetry collections: Saint X, winner of the Hudson Prize from Black Lawrence Press; The Bicycle Year; and Flood Bloom, as well as two chapbooks, The Coma of the Comet – winner of the Burnside Review chapbook contest – and Dear Sensitive Beard (Dancing Girl Press). She serves as director of education for O, Miami.

MARIO ALEJANDRO ARIZA is an investigative reporter for Floodlight, an environmental news collaborative. He is a Dominican immigrant and the author of Disposable City: Miami’s future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe. His essays can be found in Best American Essays 2019. Ariza holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Miami and a master’s degree in Hispanic cultural studies from Columbia University. His writing can be found in places like The New Republic, The Atlantic, and The Believer.