IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 5 ENGLISH | Page 145

and pluralistic encounter and confrontation with a Cuban identity that is conditioned by its geographic situation. This
determining element is still present in
allegorical representations of popular
reality, even beyond than any conceptual problematizing of its content.

They were able to create work that deictically pointed directly at numerous
circumstances that resulted from an
accumulation of sociocultural problems,
with all their implications.
Whether or not their projection was
universal, regional or local, they are an
integral part of the difficult circumstances in which artists have to live and
express themselves, something through
which they communicated their feelings. Even so, this did not mean that
they broke away from their roots and
history.

Another event that would mark this new
rhetorical turn and become a topic about
which renowned and emerging artists
would become obsessed: “El éxodo de
los balseros en 1994” [The Rafter Exodus of 1994] and the Malecón. In their
images, they synthesized the problem;
they were christened “la mala yerba”
[Bad Seed] by critic Gerardo Mosquera,
due to their ability to subsist in adverse
conditions.

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