Por el Mar de las Antillas
anda un barco de papel:
anda y anda el barco barco,
sin timonel.
anda un barco de papel:
anda y anda el barco barco,
sin timonel.
De La Habana a Portobelo,
de Jamaica a Trinidad,
anda y anda el barco barco,
sin capitán.
de Jamaica a Trinidad,
anda y anda el barco barco,
sin capitán.
Una negra va en la popa,
va en la proa un español:
anda y anda el barco barco,
con ellos dos.
va en la proa un español:
anda y anda el barco barco,
con ellos dos.
Pasan islas, islas, islas,
muchas islas, siempre más:
anda y anda el barco barco,
sin descansar.
muchas islas, siempre más:
anda y anda el barco barco,
sin descansar.
Un cañón de chocolate
contra el barco disparó,
y un cañón de azúcar, zúcar,
le contestó.
contra el barco disparó,
y un cañón de azúcar, zúcar,
le contestó.
¡Ay, mi barco marinero,
con su casco de papel!
¡Ay, mi barco negro y blanco
sin timonel!
con su casco de papel!
¡Ay, mi barco negro y blanco
sin timonel!
Allá va la negra negra,
junto junto al español;
anda y anda el barco barco,
con ellos dos
junto junto al español;
anda y anda el barco barco,
con ellos dos
Nicolás Guillén
I’m obsessed with Cuba; I’ve been there twice, and I can’t wait to go back.
I’ve been dreaming about my trip: with Condor Airlines, from Paris to Frankfurt; then fly to the eastern part of Cuba, Holguin … From Holguin, reach the mythical Santiago de Cuba; then head to Baracoa, where everything started … and move on capturing people, landscape, moments with my camera …
A colour and texture explosion: that is a good way to describe the island; it resonates deeply with my subconscious as the living representation of a Golden Age era that each west-Indian has buried into its soul. The one that Gabriel Garcia Marquez has beautifully described in his novel Cien Anos de Soledad.
I love the Hispanic and Yoruba cultures gradation spreading from the white western part, with rice and tobacco plantations, to the darker eastern part, with sugar cane plantations.
I love the coffee roasting technique which provides unmatched expresso flavours. I love the music …
And most importantly, I love the people from Cuba.
There is no such paradoxical place on the planet as Cuba!
On one hand there is our collective unconscious, which pushes us to contemplate the island as a gigantic Disney Land park frozen in the 50’s. At some point History made it “the United States’ whore” during Prohibition, carrying prejudices about Cuba as a languorous Eden Garden.
On the other hand, there is Amargura Cubana, the Cuban Bitterness, to which Ernest Hemmingway and Wim Wanders, did not give justice, not denying their genuine love for the island. Everyone has the opportunity to learn about the history of Cuba, and how a series of dramatic events turned it from a land of opportunity to a land of endemic scarcity ...
This photographic project is aiming at celebrating the people from Cuba, with whom I’m sharing the same Creole foundations. I've mostly used the CANON 6D Mark I camera, which unique processor color rendering, combined with the 16 - 35 mm L 2.8 and 50 mm 1.4 lenses, and with slight contrast editing in Adobe Lightroom, provide, I believe, a dreamy look to the pictures.
