The distance by air from Tampa International to José Martí International is just over 300 miles, but the psychological distance between our region and Cuba — given our overlapping histories, businesses, cultures, even street names — is narrow. And now, with flags being raised over embassies and travel restrictions fading, our neighbor to the south feels closer still.
Photographer and all-purpose connoisseur of life Leslie Joy Ickowitz was the inspiration for this issue, her proposal for a photo essay triggering the notion of an entire issue devoted to Cuba. There’s so much to talk about, not least the country’s inherent contradictions — a dictatorship founded on the promise of liberty, where the populace is both well-educated and poverty-stricken, where artists are both lionized and jailed. A country whose backwards economy has protected its natural beauties from development, and whose faded architectural beauty is both beloved and endangered by tourism. A country that U.S. politicians fight over and U.S. businesses salivate over.
These themes and more crop up in this issue. Kate Bradshaw looks at the evolving attitudes of local politicians toward Cuba and provides a how-to for would-be travelers. Tampa Bay History Center Curator Rodney Kite-Powell traces the historic symbiosis between Tampa and Cuba, while Megan Voeller and USF CAM curator Noel Smith share a look at the island's biennial arts festival and present-day interactions with Cuban artists, respectively. Leilani Polk catalogues another kind of cultural exchange — the sound of Afro-Cuban music — while Meaghan Habuda looks at a culinary commodity that has Cuba in its name but is actually Tampa all the way. And Leslie Joy’s photos begin the journey on an appropriately joyous yet bittersweet note.
“There’s something so seductive about that island,” says Smith. We’re inclined to agree.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2015.