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Nicola Lo Calzo / L’Agence à Paris

The building is called Combate Uvero in honor of the battle of El Uvero, between the troops of General Batista and revolutionary guerrilla Fidel Castro in 1957. All community buildings in Cuba have names associated with the history of the Cuban Revolution and struggles against the Batista regime. The rhetoric of nation / revolution is present at all levels of social life, including that of school: every morning, students go to school in their red uniform, swearing loyalty to Che Guevara, high school students in their gold-colored uniform. «La Cubania is an invention of the state for the image of Cuba abroad. The Cuban predicament is exactly the opposite: there is no true identity; there is a lack of identity. That is the one-track thinking. Everyone conforms. Everyone listens to the same music, has the same kind of tattoos, talks and dresses alike. People don’t give themselves a way to choose something other than conformity. No! Everybody aspires to the same elitist, consumerist model. Individual identity has no place in this system. In any case today, young people need to conform. Before, it was the communist model. Now, it is the capitalist model. The new generation doesn’t get a real education. The national school does not develop a critical awareness in people. When I talk about identity in my songs, some take me for a fool. In their view it is a waste of time.» Barbaro

The building is called Combate Uvero in honor of the battle of El Uvero, between the troops of General Batista and revolutionary guerrilla Fidel Castro in 1957. All community buildings in Cuba have names associated with the history of the Cuban Revolution and struggles against the Batista regime. The rhetoric of nation / revolution is present at all levels of social life, including that of school: every morning, students go to school in their red uniform, swearing loyalty to Che Guevara, high school students in their gold-colored uniform.
«La Cubania is an invention of the state for the image of Cuba abroad. The Cuban predicament is exactly the opposite: there is no true identity; there is a lack of identity. That is the one-track thinking. Everyone conforms. Everyone listens to the same music, has the same kind of tattoos, talks and dresses alike. People don’t give themselves a way to choose something other than conformity. No! Everybody aspires to the same elitist, consumerist model. Individual identity has no place in this system. In any case today, young people need to conform. Before, it was the communist model. Now, it is the capitalist model. The new generation doesn’t get a real education. The national school does not develop a critical awareness in people. When I talk about identity in my songs, some take me for a fool. In their view it is a waste of time.» Barbaro

Regla
Italy   www.nicolalocalzo.com

Beyond the contradictions and discontinuities unique to each of these platforms of expression, the REGLA project examines existing links between areas of self-expression in contemporary Cuba and the resistance and survival strategies employed by freed and enslaved Africans during the colonial era. It is the first time such a photographic angle has been explored. REGLA also seeks to highlight a historical perspective on the fundamental role played by Afro-descendants in the establishment of these marginal expressions of freedom, which continue to impact significantly on the definition of the contemporary Cuban society.