Fourteen years have passed since I last saw my homeland, the place that witnessed my parents growing up, as well as the generations that preceded me. I was 7 years old when I left Havana, bringing with me memories of things that now seem like a lifetime ago. Those memories continue to live on in the form of family photographs that my parents brought from Cuba. With this project I spent countless hours scanning each photograph individually. I ordered copies of the photographs at a 1-hour photo service at a pharmacy, like we would have done when we first moved to the states. Cutting out shapes and embroidering the photographs I am deconstructing and reconstructing the memory of a place I am no longer inhabiting, removing pieces of those memories. Memories which I cannot differentiate if they come from my mind or from these photographs. Then using colorful thread, I fill in those spaces and attach the circles back to the photograph to allow the memory to hold its ground. The patterns made by the embroidering create a visual map of memories. It was important to enlist the help of my family as well. My father helped me create a wooden box, this box holds photographs of my parents before my sisters and I were born. My mother embroidered the border of small baby blanket, something she would have done for my sisters and I at the time of our birth. Finally, my sisters helped in the process of embroidering the photographs. This will be an on-going project that will culminate when I return to Cuba and photograph the people and places that we left behind, but for now these memories will continue to live in my heart.
La Habana Vive En Mi Memoria Installation
