Frank de Varona is an educator, historian, journalist, and internationally known expert on Hispanic contributions to America, politics, economics, foreign affairs, and national security issues. Frank was born in Camagüey, Cuba in 1943. He came to study at Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida when he was 14 and graduated in 1960.
At the age of 17, he participated in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 to eradicate communism in Cuba. After spending two years in prison, where he was tortured along with other prisoners of war, he returned to U. S. where he earned a B.A. in political science and economics, a Certificate in Latin American Studies, a Master’s in social studies, and a Specialist in Educational Administration. He is married and has a daughter and a grandson.
Frank de Varona worked as an escort Spanish-English interpreter in the Department of State in 1966 and 1968. Professor de Varona had a successful 38-year career in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools as a social studies teacher; adult education coordinator; assistant principal; principal of an adult education center, middle school, and high school; region superintendent, associate superintendent of instruction; and interim deputy superintendent of schools. He served as associate professor of social studies in at Florida International University for seven years.
Professor de Varona has written 28 books and over 500 articles in newspapers, magazines, and several websites. Among his books are the following: Hispanics in U.S. History Volume 1 and Volume 2 (1989), Hispanic Presence in the United States (1993), Latino Literacy: The Complete Guide to Our Hispanic History and Culture (1996); Florida Government and Economics (1999); Florida History, Geography, Government and Economics (2003); ¿Obama o McCain? (2008); El Verdadero Obama (2010); ¿Obama o Romney? (2012); Presencia Hispana en los Estados Unidos: Quinto Centenario (2013), America in Decline (2014); Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Radical Islam (2016); The Gathering Threat of Russia, China, and Their Allies to America (2016); The New World Order Threatens America and the World (2017); Trump’s America Under Siege (2018); Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, the Kennedy Assassination, the Vatican, and the New World Order (2018); Socialism or Freedom: The 2020 Election and Beyond (2020), and Bahía de Cochinos: Mi Historia (2021).
Professor de Varona has a weekly radio program in Radio Libertad in Spanish. He is being frequently interviewed in local, national, and international radio and television stations. Professor de Varona is interviewed once a week in Spanish in La Poderosa Radio in Miami, twice a week by IHeart radio stations in Florida and transmitted to 14 states, and frequently in English radio and podcast across the nation.
Professor de Varona was appointed by the National Republican Party as Office Manager of the West Dade Trump Victory Office in 2016. In 2020 he was a surrogate of the Trump campaign. President Trump invited Professor de Varona and his wife as part of a delegation from the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association to a ceremony in the White House held on September 23, 2020. Together with seven other members of the Board of Directors, he met briefly with Vice President Mike Pence and President Donald Trump in the Blue Room of the White House.
