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BACK TO CUBA

Last Spring, twenty years after my first trip to the island, I traveled to Cuba to document the situation after the worldwide lockdown. The country had reacted well to the COVID-19 pandemic, over 90% of the population had been vaccinated and the restrictions were still very strong to keep the infections under control. Nevertheless the country, whose primary sector of activity derives from tourism, had thrown its precarious economy, already damaged by decades of embargo, into a desperate phase. The crisis hit worse due to Russia / Ukraine war with the difficulty in the supply of essential goods such as wheat. In February very few tourists had begun to return but the cities and streets were mostly deserted. Cuban people were joyful, poor and generous at the same time, as usual. However, years ago I could glimpse a veil of hope in their joy. Now, in their eyes I perceived a veil of resignation, a composed weariness. Only the students, protected and financed by the State at all stages of their school growth, seemed to look at the world with confidence.