Barbara Trachtenberg: 2013

TALKING HISTORY, LIFE AND REVOLUTION

I am back from my Cuba trip this October and November, living in a barrio with friends of friends, and photographing in color for a change. From this short first trip I met artists, had the freedom I love to travel alone and with local friends, staying in a casa particular with a fascinating woman who had just become a grandmother to twins. My local friends, Arturo, Omar and an eagerly open couple—Juanita and Angel—in their 80s who live on the fourth floor of a house down the street from me. It is their fourth-floor partially-lit staircase I climb to visit them, as the phone they share with 3 others in the building rings and they call down, Arturo! Carolina! and return to our conversation. While Juanita is analfabeta—unable to read or write—from her years of daytime fieldwork and evening housework, she would walk to the 8 to 9 PM class at the local school if she had energy left. Angelito had more educational opportunity, though also grew up poor. You see, there’s a long story here, as with all of us. Let me introduce you to Juanita and Arturo and their environment. I’m in the process of putting this together with the spoken and written sounds of the people and their environment. Our email contact continues despite the difficulties. Ojalá que I will see them again soon.