I always enjoy events at the Johnson, but I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into with this one. It proved to be a very interesting talk, dealing with art in Cuba and the differences in expression between artists that live on the island and artists who are part of the diaspora in America. I found the implicit contradiction of artists to be fascinating: artists are one of the only occupations in Cuba that can sell products to foreigners, giving them more freedom and monetary power than most, but they are also some of the most heavily controlled by the government. The ultimate struggle between different artists is how they are choosing to remember and interpret the revolution. Some celebrate the government and remember Castro as a young hero, while others oppose the regime and view Castro as an aging dictator. I thought the art by those who oppose the revolution was particularly moving, especially the “Children of Peter Pan” piece.

My one complaint is that I do not know much about Cuban artists and film makers, so it seemed like the presenters were going very quickly and it was a little difficult to keep up at first. However, they did a pretty good job of explaining things, so I still enjoyed the experience.