Guantanamo.- From the privacy of home to public spaces, from leisurely conversations to intense dialogues, from the dignified bearing of a venerable elder to the imposing silhouette of a leader, from unmistakable hands to the rank of Commander-in-Chief… each of these aspects, from a close-up perspective, is featured in the photographic exhibition Toda la gloria del mundo (All the Glory in the World) by Alex Castro Soto del Valle, which opened yesterday afternoon at the José Martí Memorial.
The exhibition, which will be open until October and was attended by Roberto Morales Ojeda, Member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, features 50 snapshots and invites the viewer—in the words of the catalog—to debunk myths: “Through his son’s lens, the figure of Fidel is humanized, complexified, and made accessible from new perspectives.”
When presenting All the Glory…, Elier Ramírez Cañedo, Member of the Central Committee and the Council of State, and Deputy Director of the Fidel Castro Ruz Center, said that it captures the profound truth of Fidel: his rejection of personal glory and his identification with the collective glory of the people and the value of ideas.
He added that Alex “not only pays tribute to his father; he bequeaths us an intimate vision of the leader who forged Cuba’s destiny. Each image is a window into Fidel’s soul, reminding us that his true strength lay in the authentic, the human, the unyieldingly honest.”
The photos are accompanied by the 2017 series Yo cuido (I Care), in which several visual artists intervened in Alex’s photos, including Adigio Benítez, Pedro de Oraá, Flora Fong, Zaida del Río, and Ernesto Rancaño.
With this exhibition, whose opening was also attended by Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso; President of UNEAC, Marta Bonet; authorities, national award winners, and relatives of the Commander-in-Chief, the workers of the Central Committee, the Memorial, and the National Council of Plastic Arts began their program of activities for the centenary of Fidel’s birth.
