Cuba 2016

In 1980, I was granted a fellowship to do oral histories with Cuban teachers and take photographs in the country’s schools. Unfortunately, shortly after Ronald Reagan’s January 1981 inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, the Cuban embargo was hardened and United States foundation travel came to a halt. Although I had wanted to make the ninety-mile trip from Florida to the country many times, oral histories on white supremacy in the United States and then with individuals who were part of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa delayed the trip until 2016. Traveling to Cuba took almost four decades.

I went to Cuba for a workshop with Peter Turnley whose warmth and photographic genious helped me to see differently—more environmentally, with more context. Three things stood out for me as I photographed in Havana and rural Vinales.

1. Life in Cuba is hard for many people.
2. People in Cuba effuse a warmth that I have never before experienced.
3. If I was poor I would choose to live in Havana over any city in the United States.

While in Cuba I took photographs of people in parks, on their stoops, in their homes, and on the streets. I visited dance companies and boxing gyms and schools and had conversations with women and men on tobacco farms as I took their pictures. The colors and the people depict a liveliness that I have never before experienced as I’ve used my camera. The photographs presented in this essay represent that same exuberance.