I traveled to Cuba in March of 1998 to collect images and information for my next book tracing the life journey of Estevanico, the black Moroccan slave that accompanied the ill-fate Narvaez Expedition to Florida. While there, I discovered that, despite the relative poverty of the majority of Cuba's citizens, there is nevertheless an abundance of wealth available: a wealth of kindness and generosity found in the people of the country. My photographs from Cuba exhibit the range of personalities and images I encountered while on this journey.

By 1968, Cuba had virtually eliminated private property, and the socialist state was in full swin. Soviet aid flooded into the country. By 1975 the internal organization for management of the country was in place: The Organization of American States lifted their sanctions. Though there was still suppression of individual and personal freedom spurned by revolutionary ideals, and though the economic promise of socialism was a failure, for the first time in its history, Cuba seemed largely free of the corruption that had characterized earlier regimes, and there was a sense of national pride and honesty.

So here it is: Cuba as I have experienced it.