Michael Shapiro

Michael Shapiro; MA, MLIS (Madison, Wisconsin 1957) drove his appreciation for old American cars, a box of tools and a beige 1962 Ford Falcon down the Panamericana Highway from San Francisco to Managua, Nicaragua in the mid-1980's; then moved on to found "Libros Sin Fronteras," a US-based, Spanish language book and music distributorship. He traveled regularly to Cuba between 1998 and 2002 to select Cuban books and music for US public and university libraries. Michael gained his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and Master’s Degrees in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico, and Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a lifetime member of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking. His penchant for the Spanish language and publishing has allowed him to work with the Gates Foundation funded library cooperative WebJunction (a project of OCLC); and IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology. He has authored articles and essays relating to bilingual education and print and digital content distribution. Michael, his wife Tanya and daughters Isabel and Maya make their homes in Traslasierra, Cordoba, Argentina and Seattle, Washington. "Under Cuba's Hood / Cuba bajo el capó" is his first book.