Drawing Cuba
Cuba is not easy to put into words. So I drew it.
Recently, I was invited to Cuba to be a member of the jury of an international humor festival in San Antonio del Banios. This celebration is a 40 years old, week-long wonderful, city-wide event. I have come to understand that Cubans take the opportunity to celebrate anything, anytime. San Antonio is the birthplace of numerous well-know editorial cartoonists, and as a cartoonist, I was thrilled to be a part of their celebration of humor. Our hosts treated me and my fellow international jurors very well; we had a blast. Music, generosity of spirit, and rum were served at just about every gathering. Of course I did drawings while there: how could I not?
The country has loomed large in my imagination since I was a child. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was the first political event in my young life; I remember my parents glued to our TV in a way that frightened me. We lived in Washington, DC, and we were required to wear dog tags with our names and addresses while we continued to go to school during the short crisis. I now know that Washington, DC was considered a target.
