Hi,  English is not my forte but this is what  I have been working on.

Today 3rd of May 2016

 

Embargoed Cuba

I have spent two months and a half in Cuba, mostly Havana,  and have enjoyed the warm and uncomplicated nature of the Cubans, this is what I have found for my project.

This project is to show the face of embargoed Cuba.  A small island marginalized  by, their neighbour and  biggest superpower,  USA.  When we are living in times of global economies,  Cuba looks like an attraction park, albeit a charming one, striving to play a role to keep the tourists  coming.

This is to the human race .  If there is food shelter and friendship,  the human race will adapt,  survive and be able to  be happy.

This is to innocence.

This is to ingenuity.

Embargo

Back in the 50’s The primary source of income, for the Cuban people was the exportation of sugar cane.  They lost that with the embargo

In 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved and its assistance to Cuba ended. Loss of Soviet financial support and the continuing U.S. economic embargo resulted in severe poverty

There are  six  USA acts to enforce the embargo in Cuba , and  unspoken penalties to third parties business partners with Cuba.  It will take years to end the embargo, and Cuba is left waiting

The embargo has been a failure. It has not changed the Cuban government. It has not liberated a single Cuban citizen. In fact, the embargo has, for more than 50 years, made the Cuban people more impoverished, without making them one bit more free

Cuba has an Endemic shortage for medicines and soap.   The people most affected by the embargo is the elderly, priority goes to the young and children.   Cuba also has  variable shortages for basic necessities, every day.

Cubans have learned that they can leave poverty behind by flirting with, dancing with, and talking with visitors who become their companions and/or lovers. This has resulted in Cuba’s two economies, one for the people who earn $20 a month and the other,  for people involved with tourism by providing services,  who can spend more on a single meal or bed than, those who are not connected to the tourist economy can  spend in a month.

A few people are becoming  wealthy with the new opportunities, but for the vast majority of people, regardless of their very good education and health,  they will have to live for many years to come, with a very meagre salary, with fast rising prices in basic products, like food,  as the tourist industry,  for lack of any other,  has a mouth to feed getting bigger and bigger.  

We left the caves long time ago, and today is  not about surviving, today we can afford to be generous.  Today should be about sharing, and not  about  the strongest to bully the weakest.

 

Below some of my first sketches.    the first three are ” Old Havana”,  I am working on “Jineteras” sex ladies.  I will have some regarding their wonderful falling houses,  and of course some of people having  a fiesta.  this will keep me busy for a while,  I will upload my web with the finished pieces when I make them, so far is only a work in progress sketches.