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The Idea of Cuba
by Alex Harris
With an essay by Lillian Guerra
Published by the University
of New Mexico Press and CDS Books at the Center for Documentary
Studies
Description
Photo Gallery and Podcasts
Events
Exhibition
Description
"Cuba is very much an
idea, much more than a reality; it is an idea that no Cuban takes
for granted, but nurtures, cultivates, defends, possesses, celebrates.
This book both documents and brings to life Cubans' experiences
of being part of Cuba. . . . Thus the idea of Cuba emerges slowly,
deliberately, bit by bit. The images in this book are seductive
and powerful, and the voice that conveys its stories both vulnerable
and compelling, much like Cuba itself."—Lillian Guerra,
from her essay
"Everyone seems to be waiting. A young woman in a pink shirt
leans against a pillar. Two men sit on a stoop and look in her direction.
Like most Havana streets, this one, Calle Zapatos in Santos Suárez,
has seen better days. A glance reveals generations of faded paint,
cracked plaster, and worn-down sidewalks. It's a curious kind of
waiting—at once lethargic and restless—that I've become
accustomed to in Cuba. Whatever is going to happen seems a long
way off."—Alex Harris
This remarkable journey into contemporary Cuba by photographer and
writer Alex Harris is both a powerful and mysterious evocation of
life on the island and an original meditation on the nature of documentary
photography that reveals what Harris has learned over thirty-five
years as a documentary photographer.
Like his mentor, Walker Evans, who photographed Cuba in 1933 at
a pivotal political moment, Harris arrived in Cuba with his camera
at a crossroads in Cuban history. Well known for over thirty-five
years of photographic work in the Hispanic Southwest, Alaska, and
the American South, Harris made three trips to Cuba to photograph
a nation coming to grips with the economic and social devastation
that followed the collapse of the socialist bloc in 1989, a nation
beginning to imagine a future without Fidel Castro.
On each trip to Cuba, Harris used a different approach to peer deeper
into the fabric of Cuban society. In the foreground of Harris's
photographs and text are some of the archetypes of contemporary
Cuban life: the indomitable 1950s American car, the beautiful young
woman, and the revered revolutionary hero. Yet Harris recasts these
symbols. We don't look at the car, but through it to consider the
tangled relationship between Cuba and the United States.
His portraits of young women challenge us to consider the nature
of our gaze and to see the changing status of Cuban women in relation
to Castro's political survival. The Cuban hero José Martí,
a repeated icon in Harris's photographs and the focus of his text,
evokes Martí's constant physical and spiritual presence for
the Cuban people. Indeed, Martí is at the heart of this book,
a visual and textual mantra giving us insight into the Cuban national
character and helping us to understand what gives Cubans—on
the island or in exile—their enduring strength and their hope
for the future.
In her accompanying essay, Yale historian Lillian Guerra confronts
the paradox of Cuba from a different perspective. An American daughter
of Cuban exiles, she has visited the island repeatedly to conduct
research and to try to understand what it means to be Cuban.
Alex Harris is professor of the
practice of public policy and documentary studies at Duke University
and a founder of the Center for Documentary Studies and of DoubleTake
magazine. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including
River of Traps (UNM Press)
with William deBuys, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction.
Harris's work can be seen on the Web at http://alex-harris.com.
Lillian Guerra is assistant professor
of Caribbean history at Yale University. She is the author most
recently of The Myth of José
Martí: Conflicting Nationalisms in Early Twentieth-Century
Cuba.
Photo Gallery and Podcasts
Events
September 28, 2007
Talk and book signing. 2–4 p.m.
Moby Dickens Bookshop, Taos, New Mexico
September 29, 2007
Talk and book signing. 2–4 p.m.
Scheinbaum and Russek Ltd., Verve Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
October 6, 2007
Talk and book signing. 7 p.m.
Books and Books, Coral Gables, Florida
October 12, 2007
Reception and book signing. 6–7:30 p.m.
International Center of Photography, New York, New York
October 17, 2007
Reception and book signing. 6 p.m.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Atlanta, Georgia
November 10–12, 2007
Miami Book Fair International, Florida
November 16, 2007
Talk and book signing. Reception, 5:30 p.m. / Alex Harris and Lillian Guerra, 6:30 p.m.
Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
December 6–9, 2007
Art Basel Miami Beach, Florida
January 1–30, 2008
Ann Stewart Fine Art, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
February 2, 2008
9:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Seminar on Contemporary Cuba sponsored by the UNC Institute of Latin American Studies with participants Louis A. Perez, Rosa Perelmuter, Alex Harris, and Lars Schoultz.
FedEx Global Education Center, UNC–Chapel Hill, 301 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
April 10, 2008
9 p.m.
Talk and book signing. Part of Inter(Cambio): Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: The Duke Cuba Conference, hosted by Duke University's Cuban American Student Association. Richard White Auditorium, East Campus, Duke University.
For more information: alex-harris.com
Exhibition
An exhibition of The Idea of Cuba organized by the Southeast
Museum of Photography will travel from 2008 to 2010.
banner image:
Photograph by Christopher Sims
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