TGIF

And I'm not even employed yet! The man at the Partagas cigar factor in Havana probably agrees with me right now. Have a good weekend everyone!

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

And I'm not only talking about the state-subsidized ice cream parlor in Havana, where Cubans wait in line for hours for the flavor of the day--at times with empty plastic containers in tow.*

This is where they hide all they good stuff: the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes' Coleccion de Arte Cubano. The museum proceeds chronologically from the pre-Colonial to contemporary post-Revolution Cuban art. Here they have a horde of works by the under-appreciated Fidelio Ponce de Leon and some of Wilfredo Lam's most famous paintings, including La Silla, as well as extensive drawings of his. After reading up on these painters a few months ago, it was a joy to see them.

Fidelio Ponce de Leon is an artist who is difficult to research, and there I was in the museum without even a pen to jot down the titles of his works! Unfortunately the museum is extensively staffed with gaurds who shout their Draconian policy of "No Foto," even when you are photographing the caption next to the painting. It is a shame because there were many interesting artists who were new to me. To top it off, now that I have returned to the land of the internet, I find that the museum does not have a website. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer on that one.

Another place that holds some good stuff, if you'll allow me to toot my own horn, is Escape Into Life online arts journal, which posted an essay of mine last night. You might remember that I wrote a bit about Gauguin before on this blog, about the time I was writing about Ponce de Leon and Lam. If you want to continue the stroll down Memory Lane, check out Paul Gauguin and Savageness on Escape Into Life.


*You can buy roughly 50 scoops for the equivalent of 1 USD!, so it makes sense to fill up while you can.

Non-political streeet art in Cuba?

It wasn't all Che and political slogans. Somebody in Cienfuegoes had a lot of fun with the mural above and below. Click for the full size version of the mural above to see how nicely the artist did her eyes.



In Havana, this long wall along the Paseo Marti had an intricate mural running down toward the Malecon. What's going on? I'm not entirely sure, but it involves a cigar, a film strip, and the head of Aristotle on a column interspersed with darker, more realistic scenes.





I suspect, rather than being deviant, these works must have gotten the official stamp to have survived in the prominent locations that they have.

Everywhere El Guerrillero Heroico

I didn't buy the T-shirt, but that doesn't mean the iconic image of Ernesto "Che" Guevara wasn't before my eyes everywhere I went the past 10 days. Che has become the definitive symbol of rebellion, a legendary leader of revolution, and in this widely reproduced image a 20th c. pop culture icon.

At the right is the popularized cropped version of Guerrillero Heroico, as the photograph taken by Cuban State Photographer Alberto Korda during a speech by Castro at the funeral for the victims of the La Coubre explosion in Havana, Cuba. It was taken on March 5, 1960 and Korda willingly shared the image when anybody he could- gratis- in order to share the ideals of Che. Korda has said that when he shot the picture he was drawn to Guevara's expression of "absolute implacability" as well as anger and pain.


Slogans, such as "Hasta la victoria sempre" and "una de las mas nobles formas de servir a la Patria es consagrarse al trabajo," appear next to the image, restating his ideals and beliefs in the revolution. By the end of the 1960s, mass produced posters and lithographs and the adoption of the image by Pop artists, turned the image of the charismatic and controversial leader into a cultural icon around the world. His death in Bolivia in 1967 elevated his status to that of a martyr, and his popularity in Cuba, where his family still resides, remains as high as ever. This image of him was first seen in Cuba at his funeral, and since proliferated there as it has in the rest of the world.

Guantanamera

It's my new favorite song, because of or despite the fact I heard it a lot when I was in Cuba the past 10 days. In many ways the trip was an eye opener for me, and I took 538 pictures to prove it (Holy Fidel!). Music is in all the squares and streets from radios in the morning to the ubiquitous live bands at night. I was staying in casa particulares, private houses that rented rooms, and I began to suspect after a few nights that every Cuban knows how to play an instrument and dance salsa.



The cheerfulness of the music and the dancing glosses over some of the harder aspects of Cuban life, but at night in Havana when the dim lights hide the cracks and dirt of some old square, and the musicians play Guantanamera, it can be truly magical.