Graphic humor against a cruel and long-lasting attack
Havana, May 30, 2025.- Carlos Fernández de Cossío, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, described the poster exhibition "Humor Cannot Be Blocked," which opened this Friday at the International Press Center in Havana, as an artistic expression that expresses the Cuban people's rejection of the United States' persistent war against the island.
The United States' aggression against Cuba is ruthless; it's not military, but it is destructive, and it has been for more than 60 years against the entire people, Fernández de Cossío emphasized. He added that, if there were any doubt, it would suffice to review the statements made in recent weeks by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which make it clear that there is one country that is an aggressor and persists in being so—the United States—and one country that is a victim of aggression—ours.
Regarding the exhibition, which brings together works by artists Arístides Hernández, Ismael Lema, Adán Iglesias, Enrique Lacoste, José Luis López, Osvaldo Gutiérrez, Alfredo Martirena, and José Alberto Rodríguez, the Deputy Director stated that the Cuban people, stoic and optimistic, have shown their humor in the most dramatic and heroic moments, and have used it to express the firmest repudiation of imperialism. Therefore, he believed, it should not be surprising that it should emerge in this way in the face of the blockade.
Ismael Lema, director of the humorous newspaper Palante, explained that the works on display have been part of the campaign to fight the blockade and represent the work they will continue to do: cultivating humor to reflect on and denounce such genocide.
For her part, Yaira Jiménez Roig, Director General of Press, Communications, and Image at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, added that the exhibition demonstrates how humor continues to be an emancipatory tool and a popular vehicle for channeling resistance. "This is an act of combat," she said.
