David Powell

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the Columbia Journalism School, David Powell worked as a reporter for ten years, most of that with the Associated Press in New York, Miami, and Tallahassee. Starting in 1975, he witnessed Miami's wrenching transformation as this down-on-its-luck resort struggled to absorb the hundreds of thousands of Cuban refugees who had settled there since 1959, most arriving in two massive waves as Fidel Castro turned Cuba's political, economic, and social order upside down and ended American domination of the island. He learned about other facets of the Cuban exile experience when he transferred to the AP's statehouse bureau in Tallahassee. After earning a law degree from Florida State University and becoming a lawyer in 1987, he practiced law for thirty years throughout Florida. In his work he met many Cuban Americans and was moved by the stories of their lives. He began recording interviews about their memories in 2016, first in Florida and then elsewhere. In 2021, the University of Miami acquired his interview recordings, transcripts, and workpapers for its Cuban Heritage Collection. He and his wife reside in Tallahassee, Florida.