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For the last three years a small group of San Antonio artists and friends have been making trips to Cuba, on a mission that has been equal parts difficult, and rewarding.
One of those artists is photographer Anthony Garcia who owns JoJo Dancer Photography.
“The first years that we were going, we were putting together showings from their art and San Antonio artists, and it kind of morphed into just going there and helping the artist and wanting to bring more attention to what's going on in Cuba,” Garcia said.
They navigated that dicey relationship between our government and theirs.
“No politics involved. It's strictly art,” he said.
The U.S. trade embargo with Cuba leaves the island country with frequent shortages, from art supplies to medicine.
“We gather up supplies and take it to the artists over there,” he said. “The paint, painting brushes, guitars, different types of artist supplies, but what they really need over there is medicines, anything from ibuprofen to diabetes medicines.”
Angela Martinez began this program and said the aspects of Cuba that Americans have seen in the last few years is changing—and not for the better.
“The tourist industry has collapsed. So whereas before, we would see a lot of tourists on the street, now there was not very many tourists at all, not a lot of food, not a lot of medicine,” Martinez said.
Cuba has found a way to get by through strategic alliances with partners.
“When we were there, one of the Venezuelan oil ships was seized. So they had made a small drop in Cuba, and then they were sending the rest of that oil to China, and then China pays Cuba,” she said.
In the tricky world of international trade and embargos, Cuba has had to be creative to generate even the basics.
“After this happened with Venezuela, no one's allowed to give them oil,” Martinez said. “So Mexico has been giving Cuba oil, but now Mexico is not sure what to do.”
And while it’s only 90 miles from the tip of Florida to Cuba, these two and others have been navigating those rough waters as a reminder to both governments that art, and the people who make it, matter.
