Fidel, Marti & Columbus
HAVANA TIMES, May 13 – One of the most striking pieces during the recent Havana Art Biennial was from Manuel Castro Inda, entitled “Encounter”. With much realism it puts Fidel Castro and Cuban National Hero Jose Marti face-to-face. Another provocative exhibit in the same room is “Columbus Doesn’t Exist” by Julio Alberto Mompié, with the three famous caravels suspended in a dark backdrop. Here is a good look at both, separately and together.
Click on the thumbnails to see all the photos in this gallery
I wouldn’t be surprised if Colombo (Christopher Columbus) didn’t exist). That way we wouldn’t have to learn about that damn bugger (Christopher Columbus) at school otherwise it would be a waste of history lessons. I think that schools around the world should ban Christopher Columbus from history lessons and Colombo should be permanently forgotten.
P.S. The Aztecs, the Mayans, the Incas and a host of other “American,” err, “New World” (the language of colonialism fails me) civilizations and tribes, if they had known what was about to befall them, would have wished that “Colombo No Existe.” Still, if not Columbus, it would have been another Spanish, Portugese, Venetian, Genoan, etc. explorer. The “Indians” were doomed. Fortunately, Phoenix-like, they are now arrising from the ashes of their destroyed civilizations.
Both these works evoke a certain yearning for time travel (an interest which began with my reading H.G. Well’s “The Time Machine” as a child). While Fidel, no doubt, was able to encounter Marti through his writings, the same, of course, could not be possible for Marti, although he did anticipate the future struggles Cuba would have with the Colosus of the North. Still, this imaginative meeting of Marti and Fidel could be the seed for a future drama.
Magnifico an example of the other Cuba . Marti i am sure would have been proud