Cuban art in the time of COVID-19

Cuban wall art inspires courage amid pandemic anguish

HAVANA – Cuban artist, Yulier Rodriguez, displays a collection of murals called, “Ciudad Corona” or Corona Town in English in his friend’s backyard in Southern Havana. The artist is one of the many urban artists who have taken their sorrow to the walls of Cuba in hopes of uplifting spirits during the Coronavirus pandemic. 

“I felt compelled to express the energy of the moment, the way this illness drags along everyone in its path, be they rich or poor, military or civil,” Rodriguez explains in a report by Reuters. 

Cuba’s many abandoned buildings make for the perfect canvas of expression – with some artists working in public spaces, while others, like Yulier, in private for fear of running into trouble with Communist authorities. The flipside is that public spaces are tightly controlled, so artists have to be careful with the message or identity that they plan on portraying. 

For example, in a more upbeat mural in central Havana, “Courage” is emblazoned in capital letters above a multi-storey black-and-white mural of a child wearing a facemask on a rundown building.

“In Cuba, you need to live with courage all the time,” the author “Mr Myl” said, declining to disclose his real name and covering his face with a hat and face mask.

Another colorful mural art was made in Cojimar, a fishing village east of Havana, where a younger generation painted on ruins by the sea. One depicting a child holding a rainbow-colored pinwheel against a floral background is dedicated to healthcare workers fighting the virus.

Graffiti started to become more popular in Cuba in the mid-2010s due partly to the increasing influence of international culture as the country slowly opened its borders, allowing wider connection through Internet access and the chance to travel.

As stated in the same Reuters report, Cuba has reported 1, 947 cases and 82 deaths where as official data shows the Caribbean island registered less than 20 new cases per day over the last week compared to the 50 to 60 that were occurring daily last April.