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Christina Soto

Visiting Cuba in 1997 and 1998 was a spiritual journey. In the past, I was not allowed to go there. This trip fulfilled my longing to return to a place I visited as a child in the year 1959. Years later, I took these images and words in the countryside of my step-father, Tomas, in the province of Matanza. Some images are from the towns of Calimete and Amarillas. I would like to invite the viewers into the veiled world unseen by many. It's a collection of the unspoken personal feelings as I have seen them. I look through my camera and it makes my spirit wander. No origin. No destiny. The sound of salsa awakens memories, visions of Cuba. Homeland, but where is home? My words are participatory interpretations of my life as a Hispanic-American Woman in Diaspora. The work serves as an invitation into my personal reality, a reality shaped by influences that are cultural, personal and written. Because of my upbringing in Manhattan, New York, I approach Cuba as somewhat of an outsider. Albeit, I am an outsider, I feel nostalgia of my homeland. The words and photographs are a time warp, taking me back so that they can be lived over and over again. My current work brings together my Hispanic culture and my future in the United States. Writing about the Hispanic culture in this country, I have accepted the displacement from my culture includes a feeling of loss. The images and words explore sights and sounds that I miss from Cuba, the country I identify with. Through these words, I am finding my own little Cuba in the United States consisting of gestures, sights and sounds, with the people serving as symbols, not personalities. For me, my images and words are like the melody of danza in Cuban music, where the notes are delicate and complex at the same time, blending to form a poignant, haunting melody that will transport the viewer back to my homeland, "Cuba."