Cuba Libre

Protesters chanting "Patria y Vida" - "Homeland and Life"

The Cuban people have suffered enough. Today a new generation, a younger one, have taken to the streets of Havana and across all of the isle of Cuba. The youth are finally demanding a truthful, and long-awaited "Libertad" - a freedom. 

In 1958, a corrupt dictator, Fulgencio Batista was overthrown by a new ideology, and within seven years, a newly established revolutionary government had adopted a Marxist- Leninist approach - the Communist Party of Cuba -  thus beginning 56 years of oppression.

I traveled to Cuba on a journalist's visa and stayed over several times. The Cuban people are a proud, and a good people. And for the most part, like all things American.  Most envy the US.

 

Looking across the street from where I lived during my first short stay, staying with a young family.       

Old Havana, (La Habana Vieja) 1994.

 

 

 

Thankfully, they adopted me.  My Cuban family.  ‘Romilia’ and the girls celebrating a family birthday. And no, the TV didn't work.  We just played Parcheesi most nights on the floor.

 

'Malula' (12) beating me on the board, using buttons for pieces.

  

Romilia's upstairs apartment.

 

 

My sleeping quarter's upstairs from Romilia's. Viewpoint from my apartment's bed on the floor.

 

In 1998, I returned intentionally, to stay longer and to help with Gonzalo, Romilia and the girls - and photographically, to document the neighborhood.  

Below, the corner across the street in old Havana, in the neighborhood of Jesus Maria, where I set-up daily, my large field camera outside for a week, shooting B&W street portraits with interviews.  Corner of Calle Cardenas & Apodaca.

 

 

Elementary students wearing their national 'pioneer' school uniform.

 Upper-school students in uniform.

 

 

 

 

 

 Pride in their heritage, pride in their flag.

 

 

This younger generation above, now some 20 years on, have patiently grown, waited.  They deserve better. They deserve so much more.