WAR-HEROE (guajiro), 2021.

Drawing (colored pencil) on paper

This piece stands as a vivid, symbol-laden still life—one that is as political as it is poetic. At its center, a rooster emerges from a cauldron, surrounded by machetes, knives, and working tools. Its plumage is emblazoned with the colors and star of a Cuban national flag, evoking a layered identity shaped by history, violence, and endurance.

The hyperrealist precision of the composition heightens its allegorical charge. Resting on a blacksmith’s anvil, the entire scene suggests that what we witness has been forged—identity, nationhood, the body, and conflict become part of a single act of creation. The cauldron, a culinary and ritual symbol throughout the Caribbean, serves here as a crucible for culture and resistance: a vessel where tradition, struggle, and sacrifice are inseparably mixed.

The rooster, fixed at the composition’s core, gazes into an unseen horizon, as if anticipating sacrifice or summoning resistance. It is not a passive animal—it is a totem, a symbol of what must be preserved and what may be lost. The surrounding blades signal danger, yes, but also labor and resilience.

The medium—colored pencil on paper—intensifies the material presence of each object: the gleam of metal, the tension in the rooster’s feathers, the solid weight of the tools. With traditional means, the artist builds a compelling image that draws from popular iconography while delivering a sharp social critique.

More than a frozen moment, this drawing is a visual statement. It portrays what simmers at the core of our cultural foundations: the strength needed to sustain memory, the price of resistance, and the fragility of symbols when turned into instruments.

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