In the early 1960s, my parents and many relatives migrated to the United States from Cuba as political exiles; this occurrence influenced the course of my artwork. From 1990-2000, I created work for the Immigration Series, exploring issues of cultural identity, history, immigration, assimilation, and marginality. Through this work, I came to understand cultural migration on a personal level, and drew attention to the importance of diversity to a larger audience. Feeling I had thoroughly addressed the concept of cultural identity, I dramatically changed the direction of my work for another decade. However in January of 2011, I traveled to Cuba for the first time with my immediate family to visit Havana and to meet relatives that chose to stay behind. Despite my belief that I had long ago moved away from creating work about Cuban lineage, I returned inspired based on this life changing experience.
Then and Now Series (2012-2013) is a response to my witnessing a sea of commodities, medicines and food being carried into Cuba in suitcases by U.S. visitors to assist those who have no access to necessary, daily items. The series draws attention to the unfavorable conditions in Cuba, with expatriates trying to bridge the disparity gap. In 2012, foreign remittances (money sent to Cuba by émigrés) were estimated at more than $2 billion a year by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy added another $2 .5 billion in goods, pharmaceuticals and food, items, which the Cuban government taxes heavily. Digitally photographed commodities are placed side by side with Cuban revolution or government images; for the latter, the stylized look of Alberto Korda’s iconic Che Guevara portrait was used as a model for digitally manipulating each image. These mixed-media pieces juxtapose the past and present within one work - overlapping history - images which represent the revolution and the hopes that came with it, with images of items currently in need brought into Cuba by Cuban-Americans; there is an intentional irony to the representation and cause of elation by two different events sixty years apart.
This series was funded by a Morehead State University Creative Productions Summer Fellowship, and a W. Paul & Lucille Caudill Little Foundation
Fuse the Muse Grant, Rowan County Arts Center, Morehead, Kentucky.
Then and Now Series (2012-2013) is a response to my witnessing a sea of commodities, medicines and food being carried into Cuba in suitcases by U.S. visitors to assist those who have no access to necessary, daily items. The series draws attention to the unfavorable conditions in Cuba, with expatriates trying to bridge the disparity gap. In 2012, foreign remittances (money sent to Cuba by émigrés) were estimated at more than $2 billion a year by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy added another $2 .5 billion in goods, pharmaceuticals and food, items, which the Cuban government taxes heavily. Digitally photographed commodities are placed side by side with Cuban revolution or government images; for the latter, the stylized look of Alberto Korda’s iconic Che Guevara portrait was used as a model for digitally manipulating each image. These mixed-media pieces juxtapose the past and present within one work - overlapping history - images which represent the revolution and the hopes that came with it, with images of items currently in need brought into Cuba by Cuban-Americans; there is an intentional irony to the representation and cause of elation by two different events sixty years apart.
This series was funded by a Morehead State University Creative Productions Summer Fellowship, and a W. Paul & Lucille Caudill Little Foundation
Fuse the Muse Grant, Rowan County Arts Center, Morehead, Kentucky.