During the post-Fidel Castro age, emboldened Cubans began painting unusual, often beautiful graffiti as seen in earlier posts I have made to Fotodiario. Like other examples, painting any image on a public space without authorization (usually signaled by the zone number of a CDR) remains strictly illegal. This graffiti caught my eye for the social obscurity of its location: the corner of Campanario and Neptuno, right in the heart of the mostly Afro-descended neighborhood of Centro Habana. Painted in red and black, it has the dimensions and detail of a mural invoking the colors of Elegguá, the Yoruba-Cuban orisha of the crossroads. Yet the figure also wears the French revolutionary cap once associated with statues of the Republic, Cuba’s Lady Liberty known as Cuba Libre. Here Cuba Libre cries small hearts while holding up her own heart, aflame with love. Centro Habana, July 2016.
