“Solo quiero respirar”. There it is, the profession of faith, the secular prayer of Pedro -
“I just want to breathe” - that’s something of a luxury for one has been an opponent of Fidel Castro, when the latter was still the strong man of Cuba.

Incarcerated, tortured, Pedro the untouchable talks of his daily life, his family and his friends who must avoid him, lest they be suspected of collusion.

It is his story, in part also that of his compatriots, which these photographs relate. They speak of a people torn between a regime which suppresses freedom, but which protects certain rights - notably to education and to healthcare - and an American neighbour which casts its shadow ever further. And whose ultra-liberalism fascinates as much as it frightens, attracts and repels at the same time. From Santiago to Trinidad, from Barack’s to Havana, it is the Cuba of paradoxes which is depicted, an island in the course of change which rejects one part of its past, fears its present and fantasises about its future without losing touch entirely with a form of elegance which its music and its dances transcend.

Jean Berthelot de La Glétais