Un pedacito de mar/ A little piece of the sea

These images are a work in progress where I reflect on my family history of place and consider the human impact of migration and national borders. During a trip to Cuba in 2016 to visit family I noticed that almost anywhere I went in Havana I could see at least a little bit of the sea. I thought of the steady stream of Cubans and Haitians that risk everything to get to the other side knowing that the majority of deaths during migration happen at sea. In an island, the ocean is an ever-present border. In these images from my family archive from the 1930’s to 1959 Cuba, I focus on the ever-present ocean border. I juxtapose these personal images with the official identity presented in stamped documents required to safely and legally move across borders.