Marta Moreno Vega is the founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI).
[8] As Director, she continued the founder's, Rafael Montañez Ortiz, work in educating the community about the need to support a museum depicting their history.
In June 1974, she curated an exhibition documenting slavery and Afro-Puerto Rican heritage called Aspectos de la esclavitud en Puerto Rico.
[9] In 1976, she founded and became the Director of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) in New York City.
[10] The CCCADI is an international nonprofit dedicated to maintaining the history and traditions of the African diaspora in the Americas and promoting social activism, among other things.
Vega was inspired to create the CCCADI after realizing that there was limited information about the African and Native cultures from the Caribbean and Latin American countries.
[11] From 1996 to 2000, she was an assistant professor at Baruch College of City University of New York in the Black and Hispanic Studies department.
In 2004, a few years later, Vega published a personal memoir based on the documentary, When the Spirits Dance Mambo: Growing Up Nuyorican in El Barrio.
[15] It covers the range of issues such as the influence of African culture in South America, Afro-Caribbean-American identity in the Latin community, and the religious aspects of the Santeria religion.
[20][21] In 2012, Vega gave a talk at the TEDxHarlem detailing Afro-Latino spirituality in Puerto Rican and other Caribbean cultures.