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.

Cuba was discovered by the western world when Christopher Columbus sighted the island on October 27, 1492. He named it "Juana," after an heir to the Spanish throne and described it as "the most beautiful land human eyes have ever seen." the Spanish established their capital in Santiago de Cuba in 1515 and later moved it to Havana in 1607. In 1762 the British captured Havana and one year later traded their holdings in Cuba for Spanish Florida. The United States attempted to purchase Cuba from Spain in 1848 and again in 1854. Some business leaders in Cuba called for annexation by the United States and there were several attempts for independence from Spain by Cubans unhappy with Spanish control. The leader of one of the attempts became the national hero of Cuba, Jose Marti, who was killed in 1895 in a battle with government troops. Trade with the United States during this period was substantial and larger than with all other Latin American countries combined.

In 1898, after the battleship Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, President McKinley offered to settle the matter with the Spanish peacefully by purchasing Cuba. The Spanish refused. The United States declared war on Spain which ended in a victory for the United States in 1898. The Spanish rule of Cuba was over while the era of America influence over Cuba was beginning.

The United States placed Cuba under a military government which finally ended with the imposition of the Platt amendment by the United States Congress and the forced leasing of Guantanamo for a United States naval base. In 1933, an army sergeant, Fulgencio Batista, took control of the country in a military coup with support from the United States. While initially a successful ruler, he and his cronies became corrupt themselves and were finally replaced by the revolutionary hero Fidel Castro in 1959.

After Cuba began supporting revolutionary activities in other Latin American countries in June 1961, the United States declared a full trade embargo, later getting Cuba expelled from the Organization of American States and having additional sanctions imposed.

By 1962, Cuba's relations with the United States reached a new low point with the nationalization of refineries and other foreign investments and with Cuba's developing relationship with the Soviet Union. Several unsuccessful attempts on Castro's life were organized by the CIA, culminating in the abortive Bay of Pigs disaster mounted by the CIA with authorization by President John F. Kennedy. In April 1962, Khrushchev installed missiles in Cuba that were capable of reaching the United States. This action resulted in the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis that characterized the entire era of Soviet adventures in Latin America.

By 1968, Cuba had virtually eliminated private property, ad 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.