Cuba-- Hasta Siempre
A photographic journey of a country on the brink of change, where the past is still visible, but the future not yet in focus.
CUBA--Hasta Siempre
With the fall of the Soviet Union, America's foreign policy focus turning to the Middle East and Castro's revolution two generations removed from young Americans, Cuba has fallen into the backwater of American consciousness. Since President Obama's recent announcement to ease the travel ban and establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, Cuba has emerged to the foreground again.
When I started documenting Cuba in 2011, front page stories used to be premature obituaries of Fidel Castro, rather than analysis or news as to what has become of the Cuban people and their aspirations. Poverty, primitive agriculture, lack of modern goods, and a dual currency system, have plagued the country for the past 60 years following the revolution, but with Russia and Venezuela, once its strongest allies, withdrawing aid, as their own economies are faltering, living standards have further declined.
With closer ties to the US, Cuba has now moved to the crossroads of change. A transformation to a 21st century developing economy actually seems possible. The first stirrings of change are unfolding: Small entrepreneurial privately owned businesses are beginning to emerge. Cubans with money can travel outside of Cuba.
My goal is to reveal hidden truths of communities either forgotten or on the margins, ignored by choice or by chance. The marginalized often reveal deeper truths about perseverance and survival. Cuba because of its history has been frozen in time, its entire society exists in the margins.
Even though change is gradual, and hard to see in the short term. I am documenting just that, the subtle, the hidden as change in Cuba just begins to unfold.
Magdalena Solé -- msole@me.com -- 917.273.1742
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