Photographer and writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1971. Trained as a molecular biochemist, he is the webmaster for the blogs Lunes de Post-Revolución and Boring Home Utopics. His writing has appeared in Sampsonia Way Magazine, Diario De Cuba, CubaEncuentro, Penúltimos Días, All Voices, In These Times, Qué Pasa, and many other international publications. As an editor, he has compiled two anthologies of contemporary Cuban fiction translated into English and worked for the cultural magazine Extramuros as well as several independent Cuban digital magazines, including Cacharro(s), The Revolution Evening Post, and Voces. In 2012, he organized País de Píxeles, the first independent photodocumentary festival in Cuba. In 2013 his photographic work was profiled by David González of The New York Times. A resident of Havana, he visits the United States to give university lectures about social activism and Cuban civic society using new media.
Jon Lee Anderson has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1998. He has covered conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, reported from Latin America and the Caribbean, and written on Augusto Pinochet, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chávez. He is the author of several books, including The Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan, Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life, and The Fall of Baghdad.
Mary Jo Porteris an American who lives in Seattle devoted to helping Cuban dissidents on the island, especially the independent bloggers. Mary Jo, or “Maria” as her Cuban friends know her, is responsible for the English translation of Yoani Sanchez’s world renowned blog, Generation Y. She also translates for Claudia Cadelo’s Octavo Cerco, Reinaldo Escobar’s Desde Aquí, and many others. Together with friends and volunteers, Maria has help set up Hemos Oido, a website that posts the blogs of members of the alternative Cuban blogosphere and allows anyone who wishes to volunteer to translate these bloggers into other languages.