Isleño

I explore the deep bond between Havana's sea, motherhood, and origin. The ocean has been my childhood refuge, mirroring a mother's embrace. My photographs capture children on the Malecón, an ancestral ritual linking birth, land, and love, with the sea as.

Isleño

In this series, I reflect on the connection between birth, motherhood, and the sea that surrounds my hometown: Havana. Since childhood, the ocean has been a space of freedom and belonging. I remember escaping my mother's watchful eye with friends to plunge into the "pocetas" of the Malecón, those natural pools formed by the rocks.

Unknowingly, I was perhaps seeking to symbolically return to her womb, to that primary refuge. Today, as an adult and an islander, I see my bond with the sea as the relationship of a child with its mother: protective, vast, sometimes tempestuous, but always present. I photograph the children who, like my past self, bathe in the Malecón, capturing that instant of innocence and connection with the ancestral. The sea, like motherhood, is origin and destination, a space that welcomes and defines us.

Through these images, I seek to explore how saltwater weaves memories and roots identities. Havana, surrounded by sea, is also a metaphor for the womb that contains us and launches us into the world. These children, playing among the waves, repeat a ritual that transcends generations, uniting birth, territory, and the unconditional love of that which sustains us.

To my mother; where I always return.