Hola amigos,
My name is Marta. I was born in La Habana, Cuba where I lived for 10 year.
My reality is best described by writer & poet Tony Pichs poem, translated by Monica D.Rosales, the Executive Director of DocMiami International Film Festival at the City of Doral, in Florida.
Seeking My Identity
I have lived within two realities: communism and liberty and have spoken two languages, due to which I awake poorly each morning in Cuba with my most sincere friends.
I live with two identities.
I am from here and I am from there.
My wings have taken me toward origins of two distinct roots.
I feel one hundred percent Cuban and Exiled as my truth.
Sometimes I feel as though I am not from here nor from there.
They have robbed me of my right of choosing from where to live, and so I choose to live in a fantasy, in a memory never destined to return.
I have passed down to my daughter our customs, so that I may not forget our beautiful Cuba which shall never be again.
Should I die, I should do so, happily in the knowing that we have both been navigated toward being Cuban; she by heredity and I by birth.
I miss the noise of people shouting, the Cuban palms, the beautiful beaches.
I appreciate Miami, Eighth Street; just the same, I struggle with my identity.
Time, is lost down the drain, I forget that my blood has flowed to the sea and my youth as been lost in the hopes of returning some day.
Had my grandmother still been living, she’d say that she couldn’t recognize me, nor understand me.
I feel like a hero that had to fight against the most difficult battle, the battle of leaving everything behind, leaving everything that is known – just to seek liberty.
Tony Pichs /Cuban Poet
