Cuban treasures lost, found a strange journey of artistic freedom
by George Diaz
COMMENTARY
December 16, 2007
DAYTONA BEACH
Imagine if someone obliterated you from history.
Wiped you out, without a trace.
Esteban Valderrama and Oscar Garcia-Rivera, among others, know what it's like to become The Invisible Man.
Once prominent artists in pre-revolution Cuba, they became social and political outcasts, simply because their beliefs didn't jibe with a certain bearded fellow who was on a dictatorial power trip.
They would still be lost souls if not for the fortuitous perseverance of two brothers, Roberto and Carlos Ramos. When they were teenagers living in Cuba, Carlos got a painting from an artist named Carlos Sobrino. But when they tried to research Sobrino's history, they found only blank pages. Sobrino wasn't in any archives, and none of his paintings was in any museum. The brothers eventually found out why:
"In 1959, he had left Cuba so they had taken his works out of museums and erased his story permanently," Roberto Ramos said.
And so their journey of discovery began. Many artists were erased through deceit. The brothers decided that their stories should not be lost in the disingenuous version of Fidel Castro's Cuba.
It took them to some strange places. The brothers found one painting that was used as a canopy outside a home. They agreed to buy it, on the condition that they replace the painting with a piece of nylon to give the seller shelter from the sun. They found another one that had been kept under wraps for 50 years, taken away clandestinely from the presidential palace.
They eventually left Cuba in 1992, in the cover of night on a small boat. Carlos, Roberto and another brother joined 11 others. A storm took them off course and they were lost at sea for three days without food and water. A Coast Guard cutter eventually rescued them, 20 miles off Islamorada.
"We had no family here," Roberto said. "Our only plan was to live in liberty."
Collecting art remained a vital part of that plan. The brothers opened a small gallery in Miami. Their private collection eventually grew to almost 400 pieces.
Many of those lost souls now come to life at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach. An exhibition featuring 93 works titled Great Masters of Cuban Art 1800 to 1958 will be on display through April 27.
It's a logical road trip for the brothers. Former Cuban President Fulgencio Batista and his wife, Marta, were avid collectors and frequent visitors to Daytona in the 1940s and '50s. Batista would eventually give the city the collection, now on permanent display in the museum.
Through the brothers' passionate dedication, they are now joined by pieces that include six works by Garcia-Rivera. He bears special significance to Carlos and Roberto.
As he stood in front of La Evolution de la Conga, a sensual work from 1945 that features African slaves and nude voodoo worshipers, Roberto explained that after the revolution, Garcia-Rivera continued to paint without regard to political correctness.
He would display some of his post-revolutionary works in an exhibition. But Castro's henchmen subsequently trashed the exhibit and destroyed the paintings.
But they didn't stop there.
They asked Garcia-Rivera which hand he used to paint. Then they smashed the tendons on that hand. Despondent, Garcia-Rivera died in 1971.
Moving through the museum, Roberto came upon an overwhelming piece called El Triunfo de Finlay (Finlay's Triumph) by Esteban Valderrama Pena.
The oil canvas, more than 12 feet tall, towers over everything else in the museum. It depicts a historic moment when a group of Americans led by Dr. Walter Reed visited Carlos Finlay in Cuba. An epidemiologist, Finlay discovered that yellow fever was transmitted from infected to healthy humans by a mosquito. Although he published his discovery in 1886, his ideas were ignored for many years. In 1901, Reed led a four-man team to Cuba, and his subsequent research confirmed Finlay's theory.
The piece was supposed to have disappeared a long time ago. Castro's goons had ordered it cut to pieces. But the worker assigned to the detail thought it was a shame to trash a fine work of art. So he took it home.
That was the piece the brothers found 50 years later.
Life, as we all know, is all about the journey. For those lost souls like Garcia-Rivera and Valderrama Pena, it took a strange turn into darkness in the late '50s.
Finally, they see the light, through the eyes of those who refuse to forget.
OrlandoSentinel.com
OPINION
George Diaz can be reached at 407-420-5533 or gdiaz@orlandosentinel.com.
