The focus of my work pertains to histories of colonial extraction in the Caribbean. I use Cuban
tobacco as a medium to reconstruct narratives of displacement on handmade paper. This material
becomes my entry-point to produce a discursive condition materially, theoretically, and formally.
In relation to the cultural and religious significance of tobacco throughout time, and space. I was
first introduced to its scent and physicality while running around cigar factories as a kid in Havana,
where my mother worked for decades. To later become a religious practitioner of Palo Monte– an
Afro Cuban religion developed in diaspora for hundred of years. Through paper-making
techniques, I imprint tobacco stain patterns directly into raw pulp slabs. A process informed by my
interest in African diasporic traditions, material symbolism, and spirituality. My work speaks to the
erasure of creolised devotional practices to decenter, resist, and challenge colonihttps://prizm.art/product/untitled-ocha/al conditions of
systemic binds.