Photographer Ruber Osoria hails from Contramaestre in Santiago de Cuba on the east end of the fabled island, a town that gets its name from the river whose waters nourished three of the most influential men in Cuban history: Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, known as “Father of the Fatherland” for his actions during the Cuban War of Independence; revolutionary philosopher and political theorist José Martí; and Fidel Castro.
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Born in 1992, Osoria is the only child of a single mother and farmer. “I spend my entire childhood at my mother’s farm where she grew corn, potatoes, bins, cassava and pumpkin, and also raised chickens, ducks and one or two pigs occasionally,” he recalls. “My first toys were plants and animals. I had a happy childhood until one day a hurricane devastated our home.”
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Growing up, Osoria surrounding himself with poets, musicians, rockers, rappers, and muralists. He explains, “I’ve always been immersed in the constant search for an element that would allow me to express the feelings burning inside me: the fact that my father abandoned me when I was a baby, my grandpa and other family members emigrating to the United States, and the loss of my home.”
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