Founded in 1979, Teatro Avante is a non-profit, tax-exempt cultural organization whose main goal is the preservation of Hispanic cultural heritage. The group has represented the United States at international theatre festivals in Mexico, Costa Rica, Spain, Japan, France, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Portugal, Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles, California. The company has staged works by Albee, Alomá, Ariza, Assad, Cabrujas, Cocteau, Ferrer, García Lorca, Manet, Matas, Pinto, Piñera, Reguera Saumell, Santana, Triana, Valle-Inclán, Williams and Shakespeare, among others. In 1994, the Atlanta Olympic Committee's Cultural Olympiads honored Teatro Avante with the Regional Arts Award. In 1994, the company received the Ollantay Award in Madrid; in 1995, the prestigious Federico Garcia Lorca Award in Fuente Vaqueros, Spain; and in 2004, the Kusillo Award in La Paz, Bolivia, for its "enormous contribution to the development of Hispanic theatre in the Americas." Teatro Avante organizes and produces the annual award-winning International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami. Thanks to the generous support of the International Cultural Exchange Program of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, last year Teatro Avante had the privilege of staging its acclaimed production of Una tempestad, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest by Raquel Carrió, directed by Lilliam Vega, in five cities in Slovenia.