Luisa Guiteras, who founded Lorraine Travel with her husband, the late Jack Guiteras, died March 1. She was 92.
The Guiterases started Lorraine Travel in Havana in 1948. When they fled Cuba in 1960, they reestablished Lorraine Travel in Miami.
Today, the agency is run by their son, CEO Greg Guiteras, and headquartered in Coral Gables, Fla.
Greg described his mother as a calming, selfless person who was always there for her family as well as a savvy business owner who always had her finger on the agency's pulse.
"She had a brilliant smile," Greg said. "And even when the chips were down and things were negative, she always had something positive to say. She always used the phrase 'looking forward,' whether it was in bad times or good times."
Luisa Guiteras with her son Greg Guiteras (center), CEO of Lorraine Travel; Greg's nephew Richie Massa (left), the agency’s director of sales and business development; and her son Louis Guiteras, a corporate travel advisor with the agency, in a December 2022 photo. Source: Greg Guiteras
Luisa was born in Havana in 1931. She and her husband were lifelong advocates for a communism-free Cuba.
Lorraine Travel has long specialized in corporate travel, adding a focus on luxury hotel sales about 20 years ago. In 1989, the agency arranged for an around-the-world trip aboard a chartered Concorde; Luisa and Jack were on that trip.
"The two of them worked in tandem," Greg said of his parents.
Luisa was the planner behind annual family trips in excess of 20 travelers, both before and after her husband died in 2011.
"The unity of the family was very important to her," Greg said.
Luisa and Jack had six children and nine grandchildren.
A memorial mass will be held at Our Lady of Belen Chapel in Miami on April 20 at 2:30 p.m.