The Illusion of Life: Artist Portrays Cuban Revolution as a Decaying Elder

Alejandro Daniel García, a young Cuban visual artist based in New Jersey, has once again stirred social media with a powerful new painting titled "The Disguise." This visual allegory boldly critiques the physical, symbolic, and moral decline of the Cuban revolution. Through a digital painting shared on Facebook, García presents a scene rich with symbolism: a frail, bald elderly woman sits before a vanity, being made up by three figures representing the Cuban regime: journalists Randy Alonso, Humberto López, and Arléen Rodríguez Derivet.

The elderly woman, a clear representation of the revolution, is "painted to appear alive," as the artist describes, accompanying the image with a poignant and devastating text: "The makeup artists disguise her every day: She, the advancing, the undefeated. They paint her with life to pretend she breathes. They always prevent her from looking out the window. She cannot see her reflection in the glass!"

The glass symbolizes a truth the makeup artists strive to hide: in the background, visible through a window, is an overflowing dumpster where a beggar scours for food, reflecting the daily misery in Cuba and dismantling the official narrative.

Visual Critique as a Medium

This new work aligns with Alejandro Daniel García's characteristic style, which centers on political satire and social criticism. In 2024, he made waves with his rendition of "The Last Supper," substituting Jesus and his apostles with key figures of the Castro regime, including Raúl Castro, depicted at the center, Miguel Díaz-Canel, Mariela Castro, her nephew "The Crab," Manuel Marrero, Esteban Lazo, and Bruno Rodríguez.

The piece was accompanied by a biblical quote from Matthew 23:15: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. Hypocrites!" Through this, García highlighted the hypocrisy of the power elite and their opulence amidst widespread poverty.

Like "The Disguise," this piece was crafted entirely using digital techniques without artificial intelligence, meticulously portraying the excess, gluttony, and decay that the artist believes reflects the revolutionary project.

From "Someraznava" to Opening Eyes

Before this, in October 2021, García released a series of seven illustrations called "Someraznava"—"Avanzaremos" (We Will Advance) spelled backward—visually narrating over six decades of Cuban history. The series began with Fidel Castro's rise to power and ended in 2021 with a devastated country, an empty house, an old TV repeating empty promises, and a central figure whose fate, between death or despair, was left open to interpretation.

Each scene depicted the deterioration of a typical Cuban home and its inhabitants' lives, while slogans from the regime—"Resist," "We Will Not Renounce," "Improve Ourselves"—contradicted the stark reality of poverty.

García explained to CiberCuba that the work was inspired by his family but also represented the story of thousands of Cuban households. "I want to get people reflecting on whether we need a definitive change in Cuba," he stated then.

Art as a Moral Statement

"The Disguise," his latest creation, continues this critical trajectory but with a more introspective and visually condensed approach. In a single image, García encapsulates the act of maintaining a façade—the "undefeated" Revolution—through the desperate efforts of those controlling the public narrative.

The elderly woman being made up is not only a symbol of what is aged and ineffective but also of the systematic denial of reality. The presence of the regime's makeup artists adds a direct element of critique: they are the ones tasked with constructing the illusion, avoiding any engagement with external reality, preventing the Revolution from "seeing itself in the glass."

This inability to self-reflect, the author suggests, is the true Cuban tragedy. In contrast, the scene of the beggar among the trash—visible yet irrelevant to the interior's protagonists—symbolizes the rift between propaganda and real life, between the country of discourse and the country lived.

An Artist Committed to Memory

Born in Cuba, Alejandro Daniel García studied Graphic Design in his home country and later specialized in Advertising with a focus on Multimedia Production at the Latin American University of Science and Technology in Costa Rica. His meticulous and narrative-driven approach avoids gratuitous sensationalism, targeting the emotional and historical core of his audience, whether they are Cubans on the island or abroad.

In his own words, his motivation is clear: "It terrifies me to look ahead and realize that in 30 years, I might repeat the same patterns as my parents and grandparents, with a TV that only talks about overproduction while the refrigerator remains empty."

With "The Disguise," García once again provokes, discomforts, and shakes consciences. He not only delivers a visually powerful work but continues to build a symbolic archive of Cuban disenchantment, where the revolution is now a made-up shadow that can neither see nor should see itself in the mirror.