May 30 – June 1, 2012
As with most city tours, we spent some time in museums. One of my favorites was the Museum of Fine Arts. The lobby had some beautiful pieces that were being feature for the Bienal while the rest of the floors set up an interesting timeline of Cuban artistic style and content. Many of us noticed that a significant amount of pre-Revolution art exhibited the techniques and styles of many outside influences (namely Mexican and European) or showed discontent with common Cuban life. Art created after the M 26-7 movement suddenly seemed decidedly Cuban in aesthetics and themes. Colors were brighter and messages were pro-Cuba, showing unified communities, strong bodies, hard workers, and a disgust in American materialism and capitalism.
The Museum of the Revolution was also a treat. We saw the clothes, letters, and other belongings of many revolutionaries as well as newspaper clippings, photographs, and weapons of the time. We were definitely most excited by the vehicles we got to look at. Even the Granma, the ship on which Fidel Castro and other revolutionaries sailed from Mexico to Cuba in 1956, was on display amidst the planes and other armored vehicles.
At La Zorro y El Cuervo Jazz Club in Vedado we saw a fresh-faced Latin jazz group called Joven Jazz. All of us sat staring in awe at the stage as a trumpet and saxophone player took turns absolutely tearing apart the music in the best way possible. The entire band was so skilled and the fervor with which we clapped after each improvisation was overpowering.
-Colleen Daly ’12
Poets Visit Cuba '12 