'Have
no Fear'
Miami artist explores papal visit to Cuba three years ago this month
By Tom Tracy, West Palm Beach
Published in The Florida Catholic, Jan. 18, 2001
Xavier Cortada made a career change in 1993
when he left his teaching position at a Miami university to dedicate himself to art.
The 36-year-old Cuban-American underwent a
spiritual change three years ago when he joined a Florida pilgrimage to join Pope John
Paul II at his closing Mass in Havana. "I would not have visited the island
except because the pope was going, that was my ticket," said Cortada, who grew up in
Miami's Little Havana and attended Gesu School in downtown Miami.
The impact of the pope's visit was it gave me
a personal invitation to travel to Cuba, and it also gave Cubans (in Cuba) the invitation
to carry their flag in the plaza in what at that time was the `pope's plaza.'
The Latin American Art Museum in Miami is
featuring Cortada's impressions of the papal visit to Cuba in an exhibit, "No Tengan
Miedo" (Have No Fear), which runs through Jan. 27.
The exhibit -- which takes its name from the
pope's remarks about Cuba being a frightful place -- contains works created immediately
after the artist's first visit to the his parent's homeland during the 8-hour charter trip
with representatives of the Miami Archdiocese. It was organized for the closing of the
papal visit Jan. 21-25, 1998.
Have No Fear includes paintings -- Cortada's
traditional medium -- as well as conceptual pieces featuring objects which capture what
Cortada sees as the "tragedy of Cuba." They include course, raw, rusted, almost
dangerous items such as blades, scissors and metal wiring.
The former faculty member at the University
of Miami Department of Psychiatry and director of the Juvenile Violence and Delinquency
Prevention program there said he thought it was appropriate to look back on the papal
visit to Cuba and consider its impact -- on Cuba and Cubans in the diaspora.
"I think the pope created these small
places for people to be able to begin rebuilding Cuba and through a re-encounter with
God," said Cortada. "It used to be prior to the pope's visit, you would only
assemble (in Cuba) for state reasons, to go to the mandatory rallies of Fidel," he
said. "After the pope's visit, there was a spiritual reason to gather and you begin
to build a civil society and that is the legacy of the pope in Cuba."
Cortada was not just moved externally by the Cuba
pilgrimage. The trip facilitated a rediscovery of his religious roots. His own concept of
Cuba was already intertwined with Catholicism because of his upbringing, but through the
years, Cortada said, especially while a college student, he experienced a disconnect.
It was a beautiful experience in Havana in 1998 where
the pope gave me permission to be there. He gave (me) a connection, so I in Miami could
literally shake hands with the people I used to write letters to as a kid."
The pope's words, "Have No Fear," also had
an impact on Cortada artistically. They served as stepping stones for the artist to take a
chance and experiment with conceptual art.
Cortada's art work owes its roots to the need to
communicate across borders and cultures. After passing the bar, the Floridian joined the
University of Miami faculty and held a heavy schedule of speaking engagements in Latin
America and Africa on juvenile justice matters.
During a visit to children at a South African village
in 1994, Cortada found he couldn't speak their language."So I did a lot of drawing
for the kids and they started drawing back. I realized art was the universal language I
could use to communicate with others."
By 1997, Cortada was a full-time artists with
international artistic and humanitarian credentials. The U.S. State Department recently
presented him with their Millennium International Volunteer Award for his work with
children in Latin America in Africa.
In February, he was invited to attend the Jubilee Day
for Artists at the Vatican. He was one of only 600 artists and cultural figures invited
from around the world for that celebration.
Completing the circle, Cortada made a return visit to
Cuba last April. He accompanied his father to his hometown of Nuevitas, a fishing village.
It was there that father and son witnessed a Sunday Mass that was standing room only. It
was the only place he saw hope in Cuba.
"The church itself was in disrepair, it needed
help and an infusion of cash," he said. "But what was in those pews resonated
with energy. It gave me hope for an island that has been stripped of its morality for 40
years."
In his piece, "Libertad 53-Embargo One,"
Cortada puts the political question of the U.S. embargo against Cuba into some
perspective.
Describing himself as a kind of moderate on the
question of Cuba and foreign policy, Cortada points out some in Florida1s Cuban-American
community remain critical of the pope for calling for an end of the embargo.
"It is one of those hot-button topics that
completely precludes the discussion," he said. "For those people who want to
block out what the pope said with the embargo should remember this: He said the word
embargo once, and liberty 53 times."
Looking back, Cortada said he believes the pope's
visit to Cuba accomplished much. He blessed and validated the people in Cuba, and those
who wanted to visit.
"He said, 'If I can come to this island, so can
my flock.' After the kind of opening that has happened, it changed the paradigm. That is
what this exhibit tries to convey."
For more about Xavier Cortada visit: www.cortada.com.
Tom Tracy can be reached at
statepage@aol.com.