The nonprofit Florida Cultural Heritage Center is located on the campus of the historic Corpus Christi Catholic Church in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Father José Luis Menéndez is the parish priest of Corpus Christi and the head of the Florida Cultural Heritage Center, a project under the umbrella of Colonial Heritage of Florida, Inc., and the Archdiocese of Miami. Born in Havana
, Cuba in 1947, he left the island in 1961, coursing through the United States before finally heading to Spain. He did his secondary education in Madrid and, from 1965-1971, resided in La Congregación de los Sagrados Corazones. He continued his studies in the Archdiocese of Madrid and was ordained into the priesthood in 1977. After appointments in several Miami parishes, Fr. Menéndez arrived to Corpus Christi in 1988. He has been the parish priest ever since. Ray Zamora is director of the Florida Cultural Heritage Center. Ray has more fifty years of experience in the art world. Beginning his art career in 1962 at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC, Ray moved on to designing and manufacturing fine jewelry. He opened his first business in fine art in 1975, dedicating his attention to the European old masters of 17th-19th centuries. It was in this year that Ray began collecting and selling Colonial art of the Americas. After ten years, Ray arrived in Miami and soon after co-owned a fine arts and antique store. Ray continued his collection and selling of Colonial art through the years, culminating with a private art gallery of his own, and worked as an art agent representing both local and international artists. Upon closing his gallery, Ray became involved with the Florida Cultural Heritage project and was named director in 2012. Alfredo Garcia is the social media chair of the Florida Cultural Heritage Center He is currently a graduate student in the sociology department at Princeton University. He graduated from Duke University in 2008 and from Harvard Divinity School in 2011. He is currently conducting a multi-year ethnography of Wynwood, Miami: a neighborhood which was once the Puerto Rican barrio of Miami and is now one of the most popular arts districts in the country. His main research interests now are in the sociology of culture, sociology of religion, and urban renewal. You can find out more about Alfredo on his blog at: www.etreligio.blogspot.com
