Reflecting on the 24th Annual Excellence Awards Gala

Four hundred and fifty guests filled the ballroom at the Loews Hotel in Coral Gables on June 3 for FACE's 24th Annual Excellence Awards & Oral History Luncheon and for an organization built on the idea that memory is worth protecting, this year's program was proof that the mission is only getting stronger.

Facts About Cuban Exiles (FACE) was founded in 1982 on a simple conviction: that the story of the Cuban exile community deserved to be told accurately, and that no one else was going to tell it for us. More than four decades later, that conviction filled a room in Coral Gables with community leaders, elected officials, corporate sponsors, and Cuban American families who came together to honor excellence and preserve history in the same afternoon.

Emceed by iHeartLatino's Enrique Santos, the luncheon opened with a tribute to FACE's founding story before moving into the FACE Excellence Awards, honoring four Cuban Americans whose achievements reflect the values the exile generation built this city on: Ana-Marie Codina (Business), University of Miami head football coach Mario Cristobal (Sports), Leslie Pantin (Entrepreneurship), and NFL first-round draft pick Fernando Mendoza, honored with a Special Award for carrying his grandparents' story onto the national stage.

The afternoon's most solemn moment came with the presentation of FACE's Valor Award to La Brigada 2506; the Bay of Pigs veterans whose 1961 landing at Playa Girón remains one of the defining chapters of the Cuban exile experience. Presented by former FACE Chairman Mario Murgado and accepted by Bay of Pigs Museum President Carlos Luis, the award drew one of the longest standing ovations of the day.

FACE also used the luncheon to announce two organizational milestones. The nonprofit is formally establishing a Board of Trustees, with co-founder Armando Codina named as its first member; a full-circle moment, given that his daughter Ana-Marie was honored with the Business Award on the very same stage. FACE also announced the launch of its Young Professionals Initiative, inviting the next generation of Cuban Americans to help shape the organization's future.

"Forty-four years ago, four visionaries started something in this city. Today, in this room, 450 people are continuing it. That is the state of FACE. And the best is yet to come."

The luncheon closed with the premiere of fourteen new interviews from FACE's oral history archive; first-person accounts from Miami leaders reflecting on the Cuba their families left and the community they built here instead. It's a fitting way to close a day built entirely around a single idea: that the Cuban exile story belongs to every generation that follows, and that someone has to keep telling it.