The Themes Of The Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution, lasting from 1953 to 1959, imposed a communist regime onto a republic-turned dictatorial government, a change that resulted in the US trade embargo against Cuba in 1960. Fidel Castro, a prominent leader of the revolution, sought to overthrow the U.S.- backed president, Fulgencio Batista, in order to implement a communist government in Cuba. He proved victorious in this effort and further antagonized the U.S. by establishing a relationship with the Soviet Union. These developments compelled U.S. president Eisenhower to place an economic embargo on Cuba. This transformation in diplomatic relations placed Cuba in a perpetual state of poverty as it was cut off from its neighbor, the most powerful country in the world. Photographer

Having been the first western photographer to do a shoot in east Berlin, a city he described as having “morbid places, [where] they didn’t have the money to do proper renovation,” he was able to identify similar themes within Cuban communities. Pawlok was in search of the abandoned world of Cuban aristocracy that thrived under the reign of Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista. He was drawn to the desolation and economic despair that enveloped Cuba and wanted to broadcast it to the uninformed. While his work is limited to spaces, not people, it indirectly conveys the spirit of those living in Cuba by capturing the areas they create and

The floors are masked with a red, green, and black tile pattern that ties in the washed orange walls with intricately carved yellow space dividers. The orange paint is removed in large chunks from the walls, revealing a charcoal grey color beneath it. The center of the photograph is focused on a portrait of Jesus Christ that is suspended above a bouquet of crimson flowers. To its right is a sliver of the house’s lived-in area, revealing a scraped-up refrigerator reminiscent of the 1960s and a black pipe chair shoved before a covered table. It is clear that the house is decaying. Its old appliances, crippled walls, and old-fashioned preferences reveal a hopelessness in moving forward and in fixing what remained. However, the colors among this decomposition convey a contrasting story, one of vibrancy and enrichment. The yellow, orange, and red in the room announce the unerasable sense of Cuban culture integrated into the architecture and furnishing of many homes. The choice of photography to convey this message is important in capturing the space as it is. It doesn’t romanticize or exaggerate the narrative the photograph tells. A photograph captures a moment in time that is unable to change or be reinterpreted, just as the House of Maria remains a time capsule that reminds the world of Cuba’s