PHOTO ESSAY
CUBA
Beyond the Surface
Shackles hang outside of a former domestic slaves’ barracks on a coffee plantation in Matanzas.
Shells are fossilized in a wall that was once below sea level and was eventually used for a firing squad.
A small arched window illuminates an alcove in the former prison.
Roots layer themselves over bricks, creating dynamic shapes.
Vegetation hugs a weather-beaten wall in Matanzas.
The surfaces of Cuba’s buildings and structures
reveal the country’s complex history and social layers. Bullet holes mar
a wall used by a firing squad in a former shipping port, later used as a prison,
marking Cuba’s sometimes violent history. Iron shackles quietly hanging
from a wall of a slave barracks to remind us who involuntarily helped build
the colonized Caribbean country. Paint peels from a wall as moss grows over,
a fitting metaphor for Cuba’s races and religions that have layered together
and synthesized to produce what we consider a familiar Cuba.