An Island can be at the same time a segregated and isolated place and a global crossroad of cultures, events and melting-pot processes. Cuba has been “The key of the Caribbean”, one of the wealthiest nations worldwide and center of the new world then an example and lead for many third-world not-aligned countries. Lately a very isolated one.
With the recent political and economical opening measures and the slow political retirement of Castro family and the historical old revolutionaries generation, a new era has started for Cuba and its citizens.In Cuba, everybody is something and at the same time something else or a mix of many different things often in juxtaposition with one another. One can be a doctor, a military, a teacher or a taxi driver and at the same time a Freemason, a “Santero”, an “Abakúa”, a “Gallero”, a Cowboy and a Pigeon Fancier. Through those many identities they have built complex social nets that, in some way, flatten, democratize and equalize the social and racial ladder even further than socialism. Believing and/or belonging to an association or religion has helped many Cubans solve their problems, achieving their goals or find their place in the society avoiding politics.Nevertheless Cuba representation is submitted from the touristic point of view, the expat-opposition point of view and the leftist point of view to a misinterpretation of its distinctive characteristics.
This long term reportage, started in 2017, is composed from chapters or independent reportages about different aspects of Cuban society.
My intention is to document this period of changes in Cuba society and give a deeper glimpse on the hidden reality of the island and its rich cultural crossover heritage avoiding the usual clichés.The Cuba culture goes far beyond old timers, rum and cigars. A rich culture and interesting stories lie beneath this thick misrepresentation façade waiting to be told. Even if they seem marginal in their totality and interdependency they show the complexity and peculiarity of Cuba.