Cubans and Haitians have flooded into Florida for generations, creating in Miami their eponymous neighborhoods: Little Havana and Little Haiti. Unfortunately, Cubans and Haitians haven’t often come together harmoniously. Photojournalist Carl-Philipe Juste, born in Haiti to parents with Cuban roots, has always known that Haitian and Cuban cultures have more in common than most people understand. Havana, Haiti: Two Cultures, One Community brings together dozens of photographs and essays to find not just the places where Cubans and Haitians chafe against each other and American immigration and foreign policy, but where they layer each upon the other, transcending differences. The works cover 14 themes, including religion, labor, love, hope, joy and hunger, and together tell one story — how Cubans and Haitians are the same.
From the Introduction to
Havana, Haiti: Two Cultures, One Community
“I was only in Havana once, for a week, in the late 1990s, to attend an international women’s conference. And all I can say is that I felt the place. I felt it in ways that surprised me. It seemed familiar yet so different. The walls of political slogans, backdrops to spotless streets in one corner, yet over in the next neighborhood, crumbling marvels — gorgeous buildings eroded by neglect and sea air. We too in Haiti had a revolution that some of us idealize and are still fighting.”
— Edwidge Danticat, “On Cuba”
“The first time I landed on the island of Hispaniola, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much like Cuba it seemed. Part of it came from the natural tendency to seek the familiar within the new, a way of soothing anxiety about the unknown. But part of the sisterly recognition was due to the fact that the islands of the Caribbean share more than just a history of conquest and tyranny; they divide a topographical heritage that records all the upheaval and violence of the land itself.”
— Ana Menendez, “On Haiti”
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CALENDARWhat Others Are Saying
“A photojournalism and essay project by the Miami photojournalist Carl Juste portrays the complex connections between Haiti and her neighbor Cuba…” - The Takeaway, WNYC
PRESSHelp Fund Havana, Haiti
Winner of a 2016 Knight Arts Challenge. The project will include an exhibition, a book, and events with our photographers and writers. The Knight Arts Challenge requires a match to fund projects. Please help support Havana, Haiti by making a tax-deductible contribution in any amount. Give a little, get a lot.
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