Cuba Sketchbook: SEK & Snoopy Part II
February 17, 2010, filed under: SEK & Fika, Sketchbook, by Lex
SEK’s travels in Cuba continued with a visit to the home of the famous Cuban cubist, Jose Fuster! Fuster’s home is a wonder to behold, as every square inch of it is covered in art: paintings, mosaics, and sculpture is everywhere and took him over 15 years to complete! But Fuster didn’t stop there, as his mosaics bled into the surrounding neighborhood.
Decorating neighborhoods must be contagious in Cuba, as the next stop SEK and Snoopy made was to a small neighborhood just outside Havana, dubbed “Muraleando” for all the murals that adorn the buildings.
Once a squalid place filled with garbage, the people of Muraleando slowly transformed their home into a work of art through community activism; now artists from all over come to Muraleando to add some of their own color (real estate to paint on is becoming scarce).
As the days wore on SEK’s cigar supply was running low, so he took a tour of the Partagas cigar factory. A five story building just across from the capitol building in Havana, each floor of the factory is dedicated to one specific cigar making task: separating and categorizing tobacco leaves, rolling the cigars, adding the cigar rings, creating the boxes, etc.
Roughly 25,000 cigars are made in a day (some of the individual rollers can average upwards of 100 cigars in a day!). Some of the most famous Cuban cigars like “Romeo y Julieta,” “Montecristo,” “Sancho Panza,” are named after the books that the rollers are read while they work!
After his resupply trip, SEK wandered out to Finca Vigia to visit his old friend Ernest Hemingway. As much as SEK enjoys Hemingway’s writing, he’s less a fan of his decorating…
Finally, SEK made his way back to Havana where he met up with Snoopy for one last round of mojitos.
It was a terrific trip and SEK would do it all over again if he could. The people of Cuba are wonderful: full of warmth and hospitality and they carry a genuine affection for America (just not her policies). And despite one awful encounter with a Cuban buffet and a grouchy US customs official, SEK’s trip went without a hitch.
But you’ll have to read Tom’s blog for that story…
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A wonderful blend of memories and comic interpretation. The cartoons are more “real” than the photos.
Comment by Brian Narelle — February 17, 2010 @