This is a portrait of my mother’s mother Princesa. It came to me in a dream. When I awoke, I immediately drew it on paper with colored pencils, so that I would not forget it. I later painted the whole portrait within a few hours. The colors represent the readily found hues painted on the interior and exterior walls of Cuban homes as well as Abuela’s multi-cultural heritage. Abuela was born in 1912 in Kingston Jamaica. Her mother was mulatto and her father was Chinese. Abuela was their only child. At the age of twelve, Abuela and her mother emigrated to Cuba, where they both lived until their deaths and where my parents and I were born. She married a Catalonian cook named Julio Pallerols (my Spanish grandfather). He had moved from Tarragona to Cuba as an adult. The matriarch of the family, Abuela bore 10 children, 35 grandchildren, 51 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren. Although I left Cuba as a toddler, my Abuela and I maintained a strong soul connection. We kept in touch via letters and phone calls. In October 2002, I returned to Cuba for the first time since I had left the island. At our first embrace, Abuela and I wept. In 2004, Abuela died peacefully. I really miss her. |
