A common external feature of many homes in Cuban cities is the use of bricks, cement, and chain link fences to literally wall off intruding eyes and not simply discourage potential thieves. To foreign eyes, these efforts inexplicably destroy the aesthetics of many once majestic homes built during Cuba’s Gilded Age of the early Republic as well as its many Mid-Century modern apartments and cottages. However, if you visit earlier editions of Fotodiario that document this phenomenon, it is easy to grasp how a country in which every citizen is required to snoop on others and report both economic and political transgressions might adopt this standard. The interiors of private homes, by contrast, are often startling for their tranquil beauty and the many small touches that make them private sanctuaries. City of Pinar del Rio and Centro Habana, November 2011.
Photographs by Reny Díaz Arango and Lillian Guerra.