Cuba Nostalgia 2010
Marcial and Adriana invited us Cuba Nostalgia 2010, and I am so glad that they did! Held in Miami, this exposition highlights the Cuba I have only heard about. However, for at least one afternoon, I was able to visit!
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
On October 10, 1868, he proclaimed Cuban Independence, with the Grito de Yara, which led to the Ten Year War with Spain. (I do not have a single picture of Jose Marti from this day – why?)
Public Television, in Miami, ran a program about Cuban Grandmothers, which encapsulated my experience at Cuba Nostalgia. The documentary said that because so few Cubans, living in the exile, were able to bring family photographs with them, that a picture of one grandmother, becomes everyone’s grandmother. This exposition was dominated by photographs of Cuba and all things Cuban, more so than actual items, as so few artifacts actually exist. However, the Cuban spirit was alive and well in her sons and daughters!
This picture speaks to what Cuba has become for so many of us – half reality and half myth – the cut sugar cane is real, grown in South Florida, not Cuba; but the beautiful photographic background is just an illusion, trying to capture what once was.
This large map was laid out for us to find where we had lived or where our families had lived
I found my Father’s street, in Santiago de Cuba, where he was born and raised.
I loved this little market – I remember making a market of empty tin cans and plastic bread wrappers filled with paper, to imitate bread, when I was in fifth grade.
Cuba and her classic cars
1956 — Obviously brought here before the Revolution
Rolling cigars by hand
El Encanto was Cuba’s finest department store, prior to the Revolution. It was burnt to the ground in April of 1961.
~ M ~
Decorated for Christmas
One of the nightgowns sold at El Encanto – such beauty and elegance
The exhibits I wish I had more time with
~ M~
~M~
Perhaps the only hope left
