About the Artist
I have been to Cuba several times, visited several cities. I had heard Santiago was the place to see Afro Cuban art. Santiago was the port of entry for slaves.
In December 2018 I went to Santiago to see the African influence and the art. I was there for 3 days. Honestly didn’t see too much African influence. An employee of the casa I stayed in spent a day with me going to galleries. I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw until we stumbled upon German’s work. I loved the painting Solo Yo. I wanted to go back the next day to find the artist, but my guide wasn’t available. I told him I would wait until Saturday to go with him. Instead, Friday night I walked around Parque Cespedes, saw a few other paintings and concluded the evening by slipping in the street, fracturing my knee and ending up in a Cuban hospital.
I went home 3 days later in a wheel chair dreaming about this piece of art. In May 2019, I returned to Santiago to thank the people who had helped me during my accident. I was also determined to find this artist. A Cuban man, Alejandro, approached me as I was walking around just trying to find the gallery. Everything looked so different to me. He spoke English and I explained my mission. Fortunately I had taken photos of the paintings in December. After about an hour of walking, he finally found the gallery. Of course the paintings were no longer there. We then started searching for the artist. We were told he was out of town. We walked and walked gathering a little more information with each person we talked to, Then we got a taxi and drove around for quite a while. Finally we found German’s brother’s house . Lewis & his wife were very friendly , invited us in, served us coffee. As we were talking German walked in. 4 hours of walking and riding around finally paid off. We had found the artist!
