Unveiling the Sweet Thing: A Photographer's Journey Through Cuban Slavery Heritage
In the pursuit of self-discovery, many embark on a quest to uncover their roots, piecing together a family history. But for millions worldwide, this journey is fraught with challenges, akin to nurturing a tree with severed roots. This is the story of one such photographer's personal exploration of their Cuban ancestry, a journey that delves into the shadows of a painful past.
A few years ago, during a family reunion in Belgium, a relative proudly displayed the entire family tree. Amidst the celebration, an elder's question struck me: 'Have you ever traced your Cuban roots?' I responded with a mix of irony and the harsh reality of my situation. Reconstructing my genealogy felt like assembling a puzzle, missing most of its crucial pieces. My ancestors, unfortunately, were part of the slave trade, a dark chapter in history where millions were trafficked and disconnected from their roots.
This brief exchange ignited my project, 'Sweet Thing,' a multidisciplinary endeavor to reconstruct a fragmented past. I use sugar as a symbolic motif, adding it to a family album, blending archival photographs, contemporary images from my visits to my parents' birthplaces, and conceptual self-portraits created in my studio. The visuals often appear blurred, not due to technical flaws but to mirror the hazy and fading nature of memories.
My approach to genealogy is non-linear, shaped by missing documents and eroded narratives. I construct memory through place and imagery, exploring two remote Cuban communities linked to the sugar industry. These places, once thriving, now suffer from population decline due to economic struggles and industry collapse. Through this series, I delve into themes of displacement, survival, and the fragile nature of inherited memory.
This project aims to reflect on the impact of mass social phenomena like slavery, wars, the Holocaust, and meteorological disasters on historical memory loss. It questions selective amnesia, lack of references, and omission. The title, inspired by Nina Simone's song 'Four Women,' is a clever play on words, addressing the difficulty in drawing a coherent line to our origins for many, including myself.
'Sweet Thing' is a glimpse into a painful chapter of human history, where each image attempts to translate absence into presence. Remembering, I argue, is an ethical act, a refusal to silence these lives. This work is a testament to the power of remembrance and its ability to bridge the past and present.
