Havana.

"Esta es mi entrada para el #monomad desafío"

Hello friends. I am sure this title will cause most people to stop and read the image of an exuberant mulata, rum, tobacco and salsa. For many years this has been the stereotype with which most associate a woman born in Havana and although it is not completely wrong, there is much more behind all this. Of course, this part of the culture is much older than my birth and I am surprised by the fact that the social impact that this idea still causes is so great. This became a source of inspiration for me and even though it provokes strong contradictions in me, I decided to show my perspective on the matter. I found it interesting to do it in a photography session trying to capture the faces and what they transmit to me. It was not an easy exercise for me, but it made it easier for me to understand.

Havana is a city that provokes a certain melancholy, the beautiful buildings that collapse, the empty stores, the music, the garbage in the streets, the sea air, tourism among other things are the elements that make up the scene where they are born, Many women grow and die who naturally capture the essence of their environment to forge their character.

There are little girls who dance both current and old rhythms and give off an easily contagious happiness. girls who smoke their youth in a cigar because that is what they saw from their mother and grandmother because they understand certain vices as something natural. I have seen girls between the ages of 11 and 14 smoking on the street normally and I find it somewhat worrying.

Young people who exploit their sexuality and use tobacco, red lipstick and rum as a banner of their femininity in formation. I saw many wide smiles and sad eyes in my search. I saw in many of them the sad hope of leaving the country and the determination to do so.
I walked through Cayo Hueso (a neighborhood in central Havana, with a lot of fame) and found faces of hopelessness among adult women who fight their lives admirably, some and others whose stories I preferred not to have heard because they seemed cruel to me from any point of view. Try to look.

Of course, this is not the only thing you can find walking through the streets of the city, there are a lot of women who escape this stereotype and cultivate talents in an admirable way. I have heard many times that adversity makes the character strong and the soul sweet and that is what is most abundant in this city, women who, despite the labels that society and prejudices give them, are able to exalt their name and become heroines of everyday life. Despite the rum, tobacco and red lips that inevitably form part of them as a cultural stigma, they deserve respect and admiration for the courage with which they face life. Almost all of them have the human wisdom to understand love and respect. I would love for the next time someone reads the word Havana to associate it with a woman who borders on the divine because for me that is what they are, women of high intelligence, wisdom, kindness, beauty and talent to face the reality in which they live with tremendous dignity.

I use my face, my essence, red lips, tobacco and rum because I am not ashamed of any of them; I am more ashamed that many people do not see that behind them there is a woman, a human being, and instead judge the personal process of each individual as ordinary and vulgar without understanding their environment and its complexity. I would love for certain realities to be different, for life to be a little less hard for those women who inspire me and whom I admire. Although I can't do anything to change their realities, I can contribute with my perspective so that at least someone thinks before judging Havana women with clichés.