In 2022, after two years of strict lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, Cuba’s precarious economy,
already damaged by decades of embargo and whose primary sector of activity derives from tourism,
had plunged into a desperate phase. The crisis hit worse due to Russia Ukraine war with the
consequent difficulty in finding primary necessities such as wheat. Since April, the Hostales, small
family-run hotels, had reopened and some of the staff had returned to work waiting for travellers to
come back, despite the big problem of finding good food to offer. I took this imagines while crossing
the country from La Habana to the western region of Santiago de Cuba. The cities and the long bumpy
streets were empty, the souvenir and art shops were mostly closed. People showed a sort of
resignation, a composed weariness. Only students, protected and funded by the state at all stages of
their education, seemed to look at the world with confidence.
With the drastically worsening of living conditions, in 2021 and early 2022 nearly 250.000 people,
2% of the entire population, left the island and migrated to USA. The diaspora continued in 2023.
This is the largest exodus since Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Sonia Costa
Born and grew up in nord-est Italy, graduated in Geography in Rome and based between Italy and France, she has been traveling the world for years.. She has long worked in Indian Sub-Continent, South East Asia and in the most isolated corners of the planet promoting a Sustainable Tourism with low environment impact since the ‘90. Free-lance documentary and street photographer, she focus mostly in ordinary life, cultural stories and contemporary issues, always attracted by people out of the spotlight.
Awarded in several international contests , her imagines have been published both printed and online in magazines and books and she exhibited her work in solo and collective shows in Italy and in collective shows in USA, Spain, Italy, Greece and Japan.
www.sonia-costa.com
@soniacosta_photography
