The Fire Behind the Passion

Andy Garcia, The fire behind the passion.

By, Andres Solimar

As a youngster, Andres "Andy" Garcia dreamed of playing professional baseball. Born on the Island of Cuba, Garcia's family fled to Miami Beach, Florida in the United States of America following Fidel Castro's communist revolution. At Natilus Junior High School and later at Miami Beach Senior High School, Garcia excelled in baseball. In his senior year, illness prevented him from playing and he drifted into the drama department. He studied acting with Jay W. Jensen. Jensen was a South Florida legend, counting among his numerous students, Brett Ratner, Roy Firestone, Mickey Rourke, and Luther Campbell. Following his positive high school experiences in acting, he continued his drama studies at Florida International University. From there he traveled to Hollywood, California to make his mark in movie-stardom. To his friends and fans in Miami Beach, Andy Garcia will always be remembered as a friendly, down-to-earth, all-around good guy. We fled our homeland when I was five years old, never to return. You grow up hearing of a life lost in Cuba, of a country that over the years fades into a collage of mirages, of a land that when mentioned brings tears to your eyes. Imagine that personal journey and you may glimpse some of what makes actor Andy Garcia who he is. You begin to understand why he’s been struggling for 10 years to finance a film called The Lost City about Havana in the years before Fidel Castro’s revolution.