JUAN SI GONZALEZ

1-Nautical Rose View / Site-specific Installation (display built with military camouflage fabric cover of sea salt, platform with mirrors mosaic and video document of the massive exodus of Cuban rafters in 1994.)

2-Memories – Constructed with photo documents of the massive exodus of Cuban rafters in 1994.)

NAUTICAL ROSE / ROSA NAUTICA

These rafts are alternative nautical inventions, created clandestinely and without the possibility of material or technological resources. They are inner tubes adrift, inflated with faith, anguish, and dreams; embarkations with arms and legs as oars, heavy with isolation, fear, and severed roots; constructed to withstand heat, hunger, and thirst. They are vessels launched into the ocean, into the unknown, buffeted by hallucinations as they forge their own destiny, trusting in the miracle of arriving, alive, on the other shore.

Between August and September of 1994, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro took away the guards from the Cuban coasts, prompting an exodus of thousands of Cubans on rafts in search of Florida’s shores. During that time, some 32,300 Cuban rafters were intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard. No one knows how many were lost at sea. In a reversal of previous policy, President Clinton sent all those caught to camps at Guantánamo Naval Base, camps that were already housing some 21,600 Haitian refugees, likewise caught at sea.

During the time of this massive exodus, I was newly arrived in Miami and decided to volunteer with the group Brothers to the Rescue, which flew out each day over the Florida Straits—between Key West and Havana—in small planes trying to locate rafts and give their coordinates to the U.S. Coast Guard. The images for this video were taken during that period.

This installation is dedicated to the Cuban people, my people, and their dreams of change. It is an homage to all those who for different reasons have seen themselves obliged to emigrate, carrying with them all of their history, culture, and language to begin a new life in a new country. It is dedicated to those who survived and especially to all those who died trying.

Juan-Si González, Yellow Springs, Ohio 2013