Teofilo F. Ruiz (born 1943) is a Cuban-American medieval historian and professor currently at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Ruiz was eventually released after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961) in order to make room for new prisoners of war.

[1] In 1961, Ruiz left Cuba for Miami with "only three changes of clothing, $45, a box of Cuban cigars to sell and a Spanish translation of Jacob Burckhardt's A History of Greek Civilization."

[1] In 2007, Ruiz was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his project on festivals, rituals, and power in late medieval and early modern Spain.

[4] In 2013, Ruiz was elected into American Academy of Arts and Sciences[5] and the same year was named Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar.