My Strange Havana
HAVANA TIMES – Despair and sadness have taken hold of Cuba, as if beauty itself had emigrated, just like the uncontrollable exodus. Everything looks dim, alien, as if it were an unfamiliar city that never belonged to us.
I wanted to share these photographs I’ve taken on my walks, in which I always see faces marked by the urgency of buying food. I hear conversations circling around the same themes: prices, the lack of money for a decent diet, blackouts—in short, survival.
There are few pleasant scenes; facades are degraded with shameful posters, while others carry satirical messages.
Many people buy goods just to resell them—whether cigarettes, bread, or some other merchandise. You see people on the sidewalks with bags full of produce and vegetables. No one intervenes anymore to confiscate their products. Police cars have vanished from the streetscape. Only occasionally do traffic police appear, lurking on corners to hand out fines.
And yet, some walls shout truths—perhaps a painted Cuban flag, or a thought by José Martí.
What will happen tomorrow? We don’t know. Uncertainty is our daily bread. Look at the images. Judge for yourselves.
