In 1999, along the East coast of Cuba, I came upon a village called La Bruja. Trapped between the sea and the mountains in the foothills of the Sierra Maestra, it takes its name (“the witch”) and its reputation from a well-known local legend. Centuries of isolation and austere lifestyle have made their mark on the inhabitants’ culture.
Most people in La Bruja have no photographs, neither of themselves, nor of their ancestors. Little by little, the inhabitants came to accept me, as I had something precious to barter: attendance at a photo session in exchange for images of themselves. Each time, I would give them the pictures taken during the previous visit. In 2001, the Cuban authorities refused to renew my visa. I left the island and lost contact with the villagers. I will wait 23 years before returning to the village.
Despite these years of absence, the inhabitants welcomed me as if I had only left the day before. Time had passed, we had aged. Some were dead, others remained, a new generation was born and had grown up. Very few people have left the village that remains an isolated end of the world.
In this region, cradle of the revolution, the authorities had tried to make La Bruja a model village. They had encountered the passive resistance of these peasants. Today, as the island is going through the worst crisis in its history, they find themselves once again left to their own devices and try to survive like the inhabitants of a kingdom withdrawn into itself.
“(…) These images were made here, in this remote Cuban village, but could have been made somewhere else, Africa or the Pacific islands, e.g. the picture of the two cousins Lurdes and Reina under the blossoming tree. They capture raw human beings against the backdrop of their own light, turning the people of La Bruja into an epitome of the passing of time, or time that stands still – an “inner journey” of sorts, as Henri Michaux puts it. (…)”
Philippe Lançon, in La Bruja, Immovable Tropics, 2001
Full version of La Bruja, Immovable Tropics by Philippe Lançon
Project realized with the support of The Artists Fondation (Fr)