My paternal grandfather emigrated from Germany to Cuba when he was just 20 years old in the mid-1920s. He left his native country for the same reason most immigrants do—to seek out a better life. Sixty years later, my own life took a similar turn. My family emigrated from Cuba back to Germany, and later to the United States—making us part of the Cuban diaspora.
Impresiones or Imprints is the third phase of Porque el Conejo me Arañó. While Eco and Cartas e Iconos are about my grandfather's life journey as a German immigrant in Cuba, Impresiones is about the indelible marks that Germany left on me as a young Cuban immigrant during my formative years. Some of the images in this group were taken in the same places my grandfather inhabited as a young man, and others represent my own memories of a life that now feels distant. The images serve as an attempt to bridge these two worlds, and to create a discourse that crosses the barriers of time to reveal shared history and experience.
This work is essentially about personal history, and self-discovery. Even though the themes I am exploring are in many ways part of the universal human condition, I hope to understand how my grandfather’s decisions changed the course of his family’s future—and ultimately, my own life.
