Effects of US involvement in Cuba IMAGE- Pao's post

  Context: 

US Embargo on Cuba, travel/trade bans/restrictions, nationalization of goods/property.

My creative take of analyzing US involvement in foreign countries for personal gain was through a digital collage. I wanted to explore the idea of dual identity embodiment. The identity and belonging within those that are from both the US and foreign places which the US has had interference with; And the relationships we hold with ourselves and our families that live afar.I'm basing the collage on Cuba and my personal experiences with having a dual identity. A Cuban American that is constantly seen as not Cuban enough for living in the United States, and living in the US without the sense of belonging. After the revolution, the US embargo on Cuba is (still in place) a series of sanctions which banned trade and travel, isolating Cuba economically and depriving the island of resources. The economy depends on tourism, which naturally is not enough. Although education and healthcare are free (becoming less accessible) most families live in poverty due to the lack of available resources (mainly hygienic products, food and medication). Driven to rely on its own economy, there are very few nationalized resources (often sold in dollars instead of pesos) because there is not enough capital for that infrastructure. 

I wanted to create a collage of family archived objects that are very representative of the culture in which I was brought up. Below in the collage there is a composition of a gold bracelet that were gifted to me at birth that has my initials and birth date engraved, my first tooth that fell out that my mom had turned into a pendant, and two golden ornaments of La Virgencita. All of these are very specific to a Catholic identity in Cuba, I was not raised catholic my father was and my paternal grandmother insisted on tradition. Thinking about the importance of personal objects starting from birth in a place where there is such scarcity. The idea that these personal belongings are the ones that you will have forever, in one shape or another. My own hand as part of the scan pressed against the glass signals to there being another side where this is being viewed from. 

During this class we had readings such as ‘Agent Orange’ and ‘Desperation drives American dream in Guatemalan town of lost opportunity’ that made me think about American involvement and acknowledgement of repercussions in a different way. Understanding that amount of attention paid to this involvement is always measured by centering the effects it had on the US. This makes me think that it’s partly why it’s so easy to not lift the embargo, there is no actual threat. In Agent Orange the effect that the pesticides had on the people that were exposed to it/(passed down generationally) were never acknowledged for the Vietnamese but for US citizens who provided proof that their abnormality was related to the time and place in which they took place.