Since the university was founded in 1972, Florida International University has always been an epicenter of Cuban heritage studies. The school now offers more than 70 courses related to Cuba across more than 20 disciplines, spanning the humanities and social sciences, the natural sciences, law, architecture and medicine. Of interest to genealogists is the Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza Collection of Cuban Genealogy, held in the Green Library at the univesity.

Florida International University Libraries has acquired this collection of thousands of books, handwritten and typed letters, photos and other primary documents relating to Cuba and Cuban genealogy, collected over four decades by Felix Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza. The collection includes rare 17th and 18th century books, long out-of-print publications and periodicals that few, if any, U.S. libraries hold in their catalogs. Additionally, thousands of unpublished family genealogies and manuscripts make this collection particularly significant.

The collection, which also contains genealogy books for countries in North, Central and South America, as well as Spain, France, Italy and other European countries, came to FIU in 200 boxes. It will facilitate historical, genealogical and anthropological research of Hispanic America, including Spanish Florida and Spain. The collection includes hundreds of sacramental and civil documents, unpublished Archive of the Indies records and beautiful old photographs of Cuban families.

You can learn more about the collection at the Florida International University's Digital Library of the Caribbean at https://dloc.com/collections/iFiuHurtado.