Fabiana del Valle Archives - Page 4 of 7

Not One Step Back

My cousins were the ultimate expression of rebellion in our bucolic environment and conservative family.

The possibility of having an exit to the sea in the territory allowed the interrelation with all the neighboring areas.

I grew up in rural Cuba, my father was a vet, my mother a housewife, without friends or acquaintances to influence my love for art.

Despite the candid humor that the young ones tried to offer the adults, a different symphony was playing for us. This was a farewell party.

“You’re strong,” you repeat every night when you’re lying in bed & you close your eyes shut to scare off the images that overwhelm you.

When the “leader” came, they thought he could save them, so they risked their lives for a common cause that seemed just and necessary.

Our angel escaped from us, our guide, the light that brought us hope because he never let Life’s trials and tribulations get him down.

This is my island, where there were believers willing to put their lives on the line in trenches for inconceivable causes.

Trying to get anything done in Cuba right now is torture. I’d been waiting months to try to see a dentist, but there are never any resources.

Dariel left his home that day. Those four walls suffocated him & the rain that had been falling for days had begun to filter through the walls…