On Friday, April 7, 2017, the New Orleans Hispanic Heritage Foundation (NOHHF) sponsored renowned Cuban author and architect Hermes Mallea with the presentation of his book Great Houses of Havana: A Century of Cuban Style. At the presentation, Mr. Mallea gave an insider’s tour of some of Havana’s most important architectural homes built between 1860 and 1960 and discussed the fascinating personal histories of these homes alongside Havana’s architectural patrimony. The event took place at the Auditorium of the New Orleans Museum of Art, with the lecture and book signing. Hermes Mallea, who lives in New York City, received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Miami, attended the Master’s Program in Historic Preservation at Columbia University, and is a licensed architect in the State of New York and a member of the AIA. He has published and lectured extensively in the U.S. and abroad on the subjects of Caribbean architecture and historic Cuban family life in Havana and elsewhere and has presented papers on the design links between Paris and Havana, historic photographs of Cuban domestic interiors, and Havana lifestyles stories chronicling the individualism and self-expression that has been accomplished in Cuba in spite of the island’s severe constraints over the last fifty-seven years. Collaborators of the New Orleans Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Hermes Mallea presentation included the New Orleans Museum of Art, Beatriz Ball, JW Marriott, Jahncke & Burns Architects, the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, Ileana and José Suquet, Tulane School of Architecture’s Master of Preservation Studies and Tulane University’s Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute.