Jorge Mas Canosa

Jorge Mas Canosa (1939–1997) was a Cuban-American immigrant who founded the Cuban-American National Foundation and MasTec, a publicly traded company. He was regarded within the US as an effective lobbyist on Cuban and anti-Castro political positions, but was labeled a "counterrevolutionary" by the Cuban government.

Biography

Jorge Mas Canosa was born into a religious, middle-class family in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba on Sept. 21, 1939. Since an early age, he was outspoken about his oppositions to dictatorships and was persecuted and imprisoned for his views by both the Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro regimes. After expressing his views about the latter of these, Mas Canosa was forced into exile and arrived in Miami, Florida.

Personal Life

Mas Canosa married Irma Santos, his high school sweetheart from Santiago, in Miami, Florida. They had three sons, Jorge Mas, Juan Carlos Mas, and Jose Mas.

Cuba

Early Activism

At the age of fifteen, Mas Canosa spoke out against Batista’s dictatorship and was briefly imprisoned. Released into his father’s custody, his family sent him to the Presbyterian Junior College in Maxton, North Carolina. There, Mas Canosa learned English and studied the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, which would influence his outlook in the years to come.