The Cubans

Resumen del Libro

Asked to conjure an image of Cuba, most Americans see a countryof elegant, crumbling buildings and old American cars. While it takes less thantwenty-five minutes to fly from Miami to Havana, the United States and its islandneighbor have been mired in hostility and distrust since the Castro Revolutionousted the American-backed puppet Batista fifty years ago. Shared family connectionshave allowed both Americans and Cubans to separate the governments of each countryfrom its people, but there is still misunderstanding on bothsides. Photographs that purportto represent Cuba and its people often reproduce the narrow American imagination ofthe place, starting and ending in Old Habana. While it is true that the buildings inthis small section of the city, many of which are 300 years old, have been crumblingfor 150 years, and many of the cars are from the pre-Revolution era, this quaintimage bears little reality to the country and itspeople. The documentaryphotographer Jack Combs has been making photographs of the Cuban people over thecourse of six years and fifteen visits to the island. His images range from theurban to the rural, from saturated colors and polished night skies to vibrant streetscenes full of movement and sere agricultural landscapes. Much of Combss time wasspent outside Havana, traveling to cities, smaller towns, villages, and farms inevery Cuban province. His pictures of agricultural life are beautiful pastoralcompositions. Rarer still is the emphasis his eye places on ordinary people livingtheir everyday lives. Their faces and settings demonstrate that Cubans may have lessthan they need, but they are nonetheless a people of strength, good humor, and greatnational pride. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the end of its massive economicsubsidies may have shattered the Cuban leaders dream of economic independence, butnot the peoples spirit. Distributed forDocumentary Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico