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Green Library, FIU Modesto Maidique Campus, Miami.
The Green Library at Florida International University (FIU) was the first venue for the exhibition At pen point, which showcases a selection of works published in Xel2 and Matraca in recent years. Both projects have been chroniclers (in the case of Matraca, it still is) of the Cuban reality not told by the official Cuban media, controlled by the Communist Party and therefore maintaining strong “censorship over creators and the topics addressed by graphic humor,” in the words of Wimar Verdecia. FIU helped bring this exhibition to life and allowed the voices of its participating artists to also honor so many others who cannot express themselves freely.
How do the exhibited works connect with the everyday life of Cuba and the experiences of its people? Mary Esther Lemus tells us: “I feel that my drawings can connect because they come from a personal and free experience; what I show is a little bit of my individual freedom when creating (…) and I think that is felt. When I was drawing for Xel2, the first thing I did was to (see) what that topic meant to me (…) it wasn’t a foreign topic (…) in which I didn’t feel involved.”
The expansion of access to digital technology and the Internet has also opened a ground for Cuban graphic humor to proliferate and articulate a community of creators who put their art and creativity at the service of the most pressing discussions of current Cuban society. transnational, but in constant interaction between those “inside” and those “outside”.
The role of graphic humor and satire is essential to the work of the press. The development of an ecosystem of independent Cuban digital media has also made it possible to rescue Cuban graphic humor from the creative confinement and isolation to which it was subjected for more than 60 years by the hegemonic control of communication by the Communist Party apparatus. Today the works can be seen in media such as Diario De Cuba, Cuban Newspaper, ADN Cuba, Árbol Invertido and El Toque, among others.
To the more individual and internationally renowned work of some of the best-known creators in exile, such as Omar Santana, Alen Lauzán, Garrincha, Edel Rodríguez and Ángel Boligán, lesser-known previously and younger creators have been added, such as Mary Esther, Iran , Brady, Fabián, Wimar and Ramsés, whose work begins to circulate sometimes in the form of a single caricature on social media but which embodies scenes and reflections that give voice to the increasingly politicized and radical demands of Cuban society.
An important contribution in the articulation of this movement was made since 2019 by a graphic humor supplement published by eltoque.com, called Xel2 (“for the two”) and which served to provide an exclusive and coherent space for these creators, while at the same time made visible new voices.
The works of these creators, due to their connection to the most urgent debates and their easy-to-distribute format on digital networks, frequently go viral, summarizing in their jokes and works political reflections that, verbalized, tend to reach far fewer people.
The caricatures of these artists allow hundreds of citizens who have an increasingly democratizing form of expression in the “shares” of social media to hear the echo of their own voice vibrating in drawings and illustrations. The strength they achieve with their messages has inevitably placed them at the target of the repressive machinery, which lacks the resources to counteract the visual strength of the satirical messages that these artists synthesize. That is why, in their general attack against all free expression, the repressive apparatus of the Cuban State persecutes graphic humorists.
The blackmail and threats of judicial prosecution led to the dismantling of the Xel2 project, but the humorist community is no longer alone in Cuba and today its voice is impossible to silence.
We believe that the works of these graphic humor artists have both expository value and discursive strength to talk about the struggle for freedom and democracy of the Cuban people to which the art of their children also serves.
But feel free to create your own opinion enjoying their art.
The role of graphic humor and satire is essential to the work of the press. The development of an ecosystem of independent Cuban digital media has also made it possible to rescue Cuban graphic humor from the creative confinement and isolation to which it was subjected for more than 60 years by the hegemonic control of the Communist Party apparatus.
From El Toque and the Fundación Colectivo Más Voces, we have wanted to create a propitious environment for this form of art to germinate, proliferate and integrate into the discussion of the Cuban reality, also lending its voice to all the citizens of the Island that resonate with your messages.
This idea materialized with the birth, in 2019 and in collaboration with Frikómic, of Xel2 (Por el dos), a Sunday supplement of graphic humor that was systematically published on the El Toque website and that served to provide an exclusive and coherent space for internationally known creators and new voices.
In 2022, blackmail and threats of judicial prosecution led to the dismantling of the Xel2 project, but now the humorist community is not alone in Cuba and its voice is impossible to silence.
In November of the year 2022, a new supplement, Matraca, was born, which, as the initial number of it says, intends that the works that are published are sharp like that irritating sound of the cauldrons that is increasingly heard in the protests of Cuban men and women; a sound that attracts attention and stirs up the atmosphere.
We believe that the works of these graphic humor artists have both expository value and discursive strength to talk about the struggle for freedom and democracy of the Cuban people to which the art of their children also serves.
May this exhibition serve as a way of recognizing the work of graphic humorists and denouncing the repression they suffer in Cuba.
