The Black Picassos of Cuba
“I chose to use light painting as a technique for that portrait, because it was an art form that Pablo Picasso himself had exploited.”
Sometime in 2001, I was on assignment for Swiss magazine Cigar to photograph a story based on a documentary that Cuban TV had aired the previous year. Towards the end of the screening, the voice of its maker, Cuban journalist Julia Mirabal, was heard saying, “To all the incredible stories that are there in Cuba, now add this one about the black Picassos in Cuba.”
The historical context of that story starts with a Spaniard, who arrived in Cuba in 1868. Like many of his fellow compatriots back then, he had left his country in the quest for his personal “El Dorado.” He came to Cuba and settled in the province of Cienfuegos, an economically booming region on the back of its sugarcane plantations. Over time, he became well-established in the company of white business men, but ended up violating the so-called ‘Codigo Negro,’ (the black code) and married a black woman — Cristina Serra, a former slave with whom he eventually had four children.
There is a twist, however. The Spaniard who married Cristina, did already have a family. When he left his hometown of Malaga in Spain at the age of 43, not only did he leave behind a country in turmoil and poverty, but also his first wife Ines Lopez and their six children.
All images in this gallery © Sven Creutzmann
Fast forward to 2001, over 130 years later, Ramon was walking amongst the graves of the Reina cemetery in Cienfuegos, looking for the tomb of his great grandfather. Ramon was a radiologist from Havana but ever since he learned that he was a direct descendant of the Spaniard, he would not rest until he unearthed all the evidence that he could find. His great grandfather — the Spaniard — was Don Francisco Picasso y Guardeño. One of Don Francisco’s six children whom he had left behind in Spain was Maria. Many years later, on the 15th of October 1881, Maria would give birth to Pablo Picasso, which made Ramon Picasso, a radiologist from Havana, a direct relation to one of the most well-known artists the world had ever seen.
© Sven Creutzmann. Ramon Picasso, great-grandchild of Francisco Picasso Guardeño (photo) , with his grandchild Samil Elisbet Picasso Cordero.
Ramon was not the only one. There were, and still are, dozens of black Picassos living in Cuba. As part of my work in 2001, I managed to bring together all the then sixteen Picasso members that were living in Havana, for a photo shoot. In a homage to Picasso, I chose to use light painting as a technique for that portrait, because it was an art form that Pablo Picasso himself had exploited. To do that, I placed the camera on a tripod and fired a flash, leaving the shutter open for some 30 seconds. During that exposure, I rushed behind the group and painted with a flashlight, the word “Picasso.”
All images in this gallery © Sven Creutzmann
