Andy García, born 1956

Born Havana, Cuba

In the early 1980s, the Cuban American actor Andy García began landing film roles, but during that time, he was often cast to play criminals. He soon grew weary of typecasting and pushed for better representation of Latinos in the entertainment industry. To that end, he acted in Stand and Deliver (1988), an award-winning film that tells the true story of the Bolivian American math teacher Jaime Escalante (1930–2010), who leads a group of Hispanic students to pass a rigorous Advanced Placement exam. García claimed Hollywood star status after playing Vincent Mancini in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part III (1990), for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

In collaboration with Tico Torres, Alexis Rodríguez-Duarte captured García on the set of Night Falls on Manhattan (1996). The photograph is part of their series Cuba Out of Cuba, which has documented prominent Cuban exiles for nearly three decades.

Acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center