Author: Luis Rondón

Last Thursday at 3 PM, somebody knocked on my house door. Who is it at this time of day? I asked myself, curious, as I’m not used to receiving visits at home at this time in the afternoon.

I thought that my activism had resolved the water problem on my block, but when the problem is just as bad or worse, I thought that maybe it was hurricane Irma’s fault. It’s been more than a week now since this precious liquid hasn’t come to my home.

News of the Havana Biennial being canceled by the National Council of Visual Arts was a hard blow to the artistic movement on the island. However the disappointment turned into initiative as a call went out to hold an Alternative Biennial in May of 2018.

Havana has begun to recover. Some areas already have electricity and parks with WIFI connections have begun to fill with people, except for Havana’s Malecon seawall area because all the antennas were removed there in anticipation of the winds and sea surge.

On our way to our destination, fear and insecurity took over my mind, it would be the first time I’d be somewhere where everyone else would be naked in the light of day outside.

A backpack and two suitcases was my baggage to fly from Terminal 2 at the Jose Marti Airport in Havana, to Fort Lauderdale in the United States on June 30th 2017. “Florida, wait for me I’m coming,” I said to myself while waiting for my flight once I’d got through airport security.