[NYTr] Cuban 5: Antonio Guerrero's Portraits
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sent by Jane Franklin
Granma International - July 13, 2006
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/julio/juev13/30tony.html
ANTONIO GUERREROS PORTRAITS
An inspiring exhibition inaugurated in Old Havanas Carmen Montilla Gallery
President of Cuban Parliament details aspects of the Fives incarceration
and the new anti-Cuba document approved by the Bush administration
BY MIREYA CASTAQEDA
ONE'S prison cell is no workshop for an artist. It is not that unlimited
space in view, full of light and, centrally, of freedom. Antonio (Tony)
Guerrero, a man of exceptional will and sensibility, has overturned that
idea.
In his indefatigable intellectual restlessness (poems, letters and a plea to
the court of high-flying ethics and aesthetics)Tony, one of the five Cubans
incarcerated for nearly eight years now in U.S. jails, has initiated his
entry into the world of visual arts.
An inspiring exhibition
The result is an exhibition Mensaje de cubanma (An Essentially Cuban
Message), comprising 14 pastel portraits in the Carmen Montilla Gallery,
which came into the hands of Eusebio Leal, city historian, via Guerreros
family.
They are portraits of heroes and martyrs of Cuban struggles in the 19th and
20th centuries and Tony himself, in a beautiful letter to Leal (March 28,
2006), explains how he became interested in painting in the first place and
then was able to create them.
"Last year an inmate arrived at this prison with excellent skills in pastel
painting At one point he showed me one of his works and I was impressed by
what could be done with pastels. He offered to give classes I decided to
be part of the group the class never began."
That was not an obstacle. Tony tried by himself. Self-taught. Drawing and
"thanks to a book and a magazine that a dear friend from New York sent me."
In his letter to Leal, reproduced on the exhibition leaflet, he explains
that after managing to get hold of "a bit of paper" he decided to do a
portrait of Che Guevara. As a guideline, he took "a photo of a magnificent
painting that Aliucha (Ches daughter) had sent me it contained the color
contrasts that would make my initial attempt easier. Thus came this
portrait, which is the last, historically, of the series, the first one that
I did, for the first time in my life, using pastels."
After searches through magazines and in other ways " a postcard that a
friend from Cuba sent me with a painting of Josi Martm. That was my second
work"and his sister Maruchy sent him "the Cien Aqos de Lucha (One Hundred
Years of Struggle) series of stamps from 1968" concluded the series.
In a very detailed and organized way, Tony notes in his letter the order in
which he painted the portraits: Che, Martm, Ignacio Agramonte, Carlos Manuel
de Cispedes, Antonio Maceo, Maximo Gsmez, Frank Pams, Rubin Martmnez
Villena, Julio Antonio Mella, Antonio Guiteras, Abel Santamarma, Josi
Antonio, Calixto Garcma and Camilo (Cienfuegos).
Of great intellectual stature this young man, an engineer by profession,
writes: "Sincerely, I think that artistically speaking, this isnt about
meritorious quality. Just from the little that I have been able to see
however, with that, I can see that I have still many, many things to learn
in terms of pastel drawing But more, Eusebio, the greatest value of this
work is that it is another demonstration of the patriotic values of the 5
(because everything that we do represents us as five brothers and sons of a
heroic and worthy people)."
Painting in pastels is an innovation, never mind trying portraits and
drawing, as Marma Eugenia (Maruchy) confided to this publication in an aside
during the inauguration.
"Tony started in prison. He told us that one day they gave him a cellmate
who was a young guy of Puerto Rican-U.S. origin who painted portraits, and
he asked him to teach him the technique, using pencil, and the first thing
that he did, with a portrait of our mom, was to draw her face lightly in
back and white; then he did our grandmother, our dad. Then he got to know
another prisoner who did pastel paintings and that is the history of these
14 portraits."
Maruchy, who was allowed to visit her brother recently after more than six
years without seeing him added that, "before that, he did a series of Cubas
21 endemic birds; we have them at home because he wanted us to keep them."
BATTLE FOR THE TRUTH
The opening words of the exhibition were given by Ricardo Alarcsn, president
of Parliament, who emphasized that the struggle in the case of the five
Cubans imprisoned in the United States has five champions: "they themselves,
who are the fundamental nerve of the battle for the truth to prevail,
because they are known to U.S. Americans, which is the key to attaining
their release."
He reiterated that that battle is being waged in extremely difficult
conditions. "This visual work has been undertaken in exceptionally hostile
conditions.
"Tony is incarcerated in one of the worst prisons in the U.S. penitential
system. He is also subjected to the tremendous conditions that that system
is imposing on the Five in particular; however, all of them are writing,
thinking, communicating with the outside world; they are the principal
bearers of the essential messages for this battle."
Alarcsn recalled that in a few weeks, it will be one year since the
(Atlanta) Court of appeals declared them not guilty and they are still
detained in the same prisons.
Prior to that, another panel of five UN specialists had anticipated the
court finding and come to the same conclusion. What was stated in May and
August last year has not been sufficient for the U.S. government to comply
not only with international law but an elemental sense of decency."
He also referred to the appendix to the so-called Bush Plan which, this time
around, has three new things, the first being the secret measures. "With the
experience accumulated by our people and what we see daily in the world, we
can suspect that the secret is more terrorism, more killing, more crimes and
possibly even plans for the use of military force."
Another measure is to extend the genocidal objective of the blockade beyond
Cuba, by banning the use of medical equipment or parts of the same produced
in the United States for Cuban programs developed abroad; "they are talking
about Operation Miracle and the Henry Reeves Brigade," Alarcsn noted.
Finally, he condemned the fact that Washington "has just prohibited
humanitarian aid material that the Council of Churches of Cuba has
traditionally received from the Anglican Church, the diverse Protestant
denominations, the counterparts of African-origin religions, or the
international Jewish community to Cuban Jews. This is an affront to those
institutions, as the World Council of Churches has just condemned; it is an
unacceptable interference in normal, pastoral relations that are part of
very fabric of the modus operandi of all religions in this world."
As he wanted, Mensaje de cubanma, the first pastel portrait exhibition by
Tony Guerrero, is a lesson of history and in the conviction that justice
will prevail. "Perhaps sooner than we might think, one day, we will be
talking in front of those pictures"
) Copyright 2006. Granma International Online Edition. All rights reserved.
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