Project
Cuba in Flux
Cuban communism is in flux. Citizens own businesses and property; some are even allowed to protest...
![Media file: cuba_paskova_029.jpg](/sites/default/files/08-31-15/cuba_paskova_029.jpg "A young student wearing the uniform of communist youth rests in front of an office for the CDR (Comité de Defensa de la Revolución, or Committee for the Defense of the Revolution,) which is a network of neighborhood watch organizations reporting on any "counter-revolutionary" or anti-communist activity, in Havana, Cuba. Photo by: Yana Paskova")
Most Americans who visit Cuba recall having a time machine moment. Mine came through discovering symbols tied to my childhood in Bulgaria, a formerly communist nation that turned to democracy after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Last year's 25th anniversary of this event awakened an urge to explore places of kindred circumstances, with Cuba as the natural extension. I have found the recent warming in Cuban-American relations of particular fascination, as well as the accompanying speculation over the future of Communism on the island.
But my project was not about political alignment: in both theory and practice, there are pros and cons to capitalism, as there are to communism. It was simply a childhood relived, and my future imagined had democracy been just a whispered-about but never-seen guest. I saw myself in the child in a red scarf saluting voters, my mind too young for politics, simply eager to belong. Memories of my grandfather, who gave five youthful years to a forced labor camp after failing to show proper enthusiasm for the party, flickered through my mind in front of photos held by the Ladies in White from the opposition movement—those who still protest political imprisonment despite beatings and detentions. One too many a family shared the familiar pain of separation via necessity—not an innate desire—for emigration.
All these parallels, while not sought out, are what a life straddling communism and democracy had fine-tuned me to openly receive and record.
![Media file: 20150812-lens-yana-slide-de57-superjumbo.jpg](/sites/default/files/08-13-15/20150812-lens-yana-slide-de57-superjumbo.jpg "Daniel Aleman, 20, and his girlfriend, Kaisa Garcia, 21, before a Buena Fe concert at Mella theater in Havana. Their moments of privacy are rare - like many people their age, they will live with their parents for many years before being able to afford their own place to live. "If you can just forget about the economy, the safety here is nice," Ms. Garcia, a dancer, said. "I just try to create a bubble in my mind away from anything that doesn't work in the country, and I am happy." Image by Yana Paskova. Cuba, 2015.")
![Media file: screen_shot_2014-11-07_at_4.26.59_pm.png](/sites/default/files/11-07-14/screen_shot_2014-11-07_at_4.26.59_pm.png "Hello, this is NYC-based photojournalist @yanapaskova posting from Bulgaria, my homeland until the age of 12, where I’ve returned each year for a visit. Follow me this week as I bridge Bulgaria’s communist past with photos gleaned from family albums, to its current state of democracy 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall (the anniversary being Nov. 9th.) The Communist party trained its youth early; membership was a requirement for every schoolboy and girl. None of my family members were communist by ideology, but abstaining from party activities pre-1989 meant heavy social stigma, marked dossiers, sharply diminished employment opportunities, and at worse, imprisonment. This is a picture from my elementary school years, showing my classmates and I (second from right) as “pionercheta," or pioneers, with red ties, and a younger "chavdarche" with a blue tie. The labels and tie colors signified the level of advancement through the children’s Communist Party.")