E-Mail This Article to a Friend Picture this (continued)

Q: You returned to Cuba in 1996, after 36 years. What was that like?

A: I remember Havana as a beautiful city and it still is, a wonderful place on the planet. For a very long time I had been wanting to go back to Cuba, where I was born. So on one level it was a personal journey to a place where once I was very happy. I was also extremely curious about how Cubans on the island relate to their government, and how they manage their daily lives. Basically I went there on a fact-finding mission. I made it a point to hear what they told me. I also found it very easy to talk to Cubans, to photograph and to move around the island. I spoke to about 200 people from all walks of life, and was quite amazed by what they told me. Life in Cuba is very difficult, but somehow everyone manages. In my book [Cuba — Going Back], I think I made a good case for ending the embargo from the point of view of the self-employed workers, who will make socialism irrelevant if their numbers increase. Cubans are short of everything except humor.

Q: What artistic projects are you involved in now?

A: Trying to write without photos. I’ve finished my first novel, called A Cuban Summer. It’s a coming-of-age story set in Havana in 1955, based on a lot of my memories of being a young boy in Havana, exploring a lot of stuff he shouldn’t. A lot to do with the city, how perverse it was, dealing with sex very early, mostly humorous. Basically, Cuban boys lose their virginity at about 13. There’s a very formalistic way of doing it: the upper-middle-class family chauffeur took you to a brothel; the lower classes went on foot. Basically it was a comedy of errors.

Q: Ask any Cuban on the island what they think of Americans, and they all respond, "Do you mean the people or the government?" What are your thoughts on America’s love-hate relationship with Cuba?

A: The history of Cuba and America is amazing. Throughout it, Americans have always been crazy about and adopted Cuban popular culture: the rumba in the ’30s, the mambo craze in the late ’40s and ’50s. The "idea" of Cuba as steamy, hot ... was always exported and adopted with a lot of enthusiasm. And Cubans, in turn, adopted American popular culture, especially baseball. Everybody who considered themselves progressive were into things American.

Q: One of the contradictions that I found most interesting in Cuba, given Fidel’s total control of the media, is that American films are regularly shown on TV and at the cinema. I know that he’s a film aficionado, but how do you account for his allowing such a powerful medium of American values and culture to potentially pervert "The Revolution"?

A: One of his favorite movies is Jaws. He sees it as a parable of capitalism’s lack of conscience, wherein the capitalists wanted to keep the beach open to make money. Fidel sees it as a great example of how capitalism failed.

Q: And the embargo?

A: It’s a crazy idea that it’s going to hasten the demise of Fidel. Can you imagine an American corporation that had an idea to sell a product and in 40 years, they didn’t sell anything? This embargo is absolutely nuts when you put it in any other life context.

Q: How would you sell this "idea"?

A: Doing the opposite is more likely to change Cuba. A lot of tourists, trade, the outside world [are] more likely to change the Communist world. It makes no sense.

Another thing — [John] Kerry is missing a golden opportunity to get a lot of Cuban votes by taking a position to open up trade. There’s a whole generation of younger Cubans, the second wave of immigrants. With that message, he would get a hunk of the vote away from the Republicans.

"Stories" is on display at the Schoolhouse Galleries, in Provincetown, from August 20 through September 1. Call (508) 487-4800. Eileen Kennedy can be reached at brendastarr54@ekit.com