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I divide "Ceiba de Cuba" into four parts. The painting above pertains to the fourth part, which is entitled, “De Su Fruta” ("Of Her Fruit"). This chapter deals with life in Cuba, since the revolution of 1959.
For the painting above; I created a fictitious character, a graffiti artist and poet/rapper with the pen name, "Che Chango." He is married to a graffiti artist and poet/rapper with the pen name "China Ochun." The couple are parents and live in La Habana. They go about the streets, defacing Cuban political propaganda with their graffiti and rapping their sociopolitical poems to people whom they encounter, during the making of their art. Their art and poetry are driven by their own personal suffering which is relevant to current sociopolitical happenings on the island. I chose a rapper for my ficticious character, Che Chango, because I consider contemporary Cuban rappers to be the Mambises of Cuba's impending new revolution. The Mambises were the insurgent soldiers of Cuba's wars of independence from Spain, of which my paternal grandfather was one. Current day Cuban rappers on the island, such as Los Aldeanos, Eskuadron Patriota, and Papa Humbertico among others, whose music is banned in Cuba, use their poetry and rap music to fearless protest the oppression, obstruction of civil liberties and discrimination against Blacks by the Cuban government. In "Song of Che Chango, Rendezvous en La Habana 2013," which is a poem I wrote and perform, pertaining to this painting; I borrow stories from my own ancestry and parts of my real-life family history to tell the life of Che Chango and China Ochun. The words in the pair's poems speak of living conditions in Cuba, coupled with my own actual experiences on the island, during my homecoming to Cuba in the year 2002. This painting is the first in a series of three large paintings of which the fourth act is comprised. All three paintings and the related poetry work together to tell the story of the couple. This painting relates to the mixed media sculpture I created, "A La Memoria de Los Fusilados" (a memoriam of those executed by Che Guevara), which I use in the performance art portion at the end of "Song of Che Chango". The performance art involves Afro-Cuban percussion to the beat of my spoken word and audience participatory graffiti. In 2009, I debuted the work-in-progress, along with a solo art exhibit of my work, at California Institute of the Arts (CAlrts) for the Arts in the One World (AOW) Conference. I have since show-cased the work-in-progress on a number of occasions at my art studio. In March of 2010, I will perform the work at the AOW Conference at Brown University. Click here to read the poem "Song of Che Chango: Rendezvous en La Habana 2013" by Lili Bernard. |