media on an exhibit by Cuban-American artist Xavier Cortada |
Miami Herald article by Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist Liz Balmaseda on April 11th, 1998 |
Sun-Sentinel article by Deborah Ramirez on April 4th, 1998 |
Excerpts from April Witt's Jan. 18, 1998 Miami Herald article |
Press Release for CUBABA exhibit |
Excerpts from a Jan. 18, 1998 Miami Herald article: |
Photo by Jeffery A. Salter |
Varela could get sainthoodCubans eagerly await the pope's decision
Miami artist Xavier Cortada, 33, is painting a portrait of Varela for an exhibit exploring the artist's personal struggle for Cuban identity. Born in the United States, Cortada knows Cuba only through family stories and letters from relatives he has never met. His visceral, surreal portrait of Varela shows the priest with lion's paws instead of hands. In the tearing grip of one paw Varela holds a boy, Cortada as a child. In the other paw is a document, representing both Varela's exile writings and Cortada's family letters from Cuba. ``It's a very painful experience, missing someone you've never seen,'' Cortada said. ``What this painting is about is how this suffering is a Cuban right of passage. Varela is telling me, these writings, let them make you cry. To not do that is an affront to history and what's happened to your nation.''
STRONG IMAGERY: Xavier Cortada, born in the U.S., expresses the pain and struggle of the exile experience through his painting of Father Felix Varela, a Cuban patriot who died in exile |
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Click here to see The Varela Painting |