Abandoned Havana
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Dissident Cuban writer, photographer, and pioneering blogger Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo presents a collection of surreal, irony-laden photos and texts from his native city. His тАЬdiary of dystopiaтАЭтАФan unexpected fusion of images and wordsтАФbrings us closer to HavanaтАЩs scaffolded and crumbling facades, ramshackle waterfronts, and teeming human bodies. In this book, as beautiful and bleak as Havana itself, Pardo guides us through the relics and fables of an exhausted Revolution in the waning days of CastroтАЩs Cuba.
Praise for Abandoned Havana
тАЬIt is difficult to capture in images the soul of a landscape or a city, perhaps because they donтАЩt have one alone but many. Orlando Luis Pardo LazoтАЩs photographs, and the commentaries they are accompanied with, capture whirlwinds of souls and offer them to us in such way that our own soul is transformed. They teach us how to see inside out and toward the depth of things, without slipping on the surface of things.тАЭтАФFernando Savater, author of Amador and winner of the Octavio Paz Prize
тАЬSome [photographs] have a sly humor, others an abstract beauty...Mr. Pardo Lazo resists any easy categorization.тАЭтАФDavid Gonz├бlez, The New York Times Lens Blog
тАЬHe is giving us the poetics of the city that is not touristy, nostalgic, or exotic...He is giving people a way to read the politics of daily occurrences...He juxtaposes the eternal beauty of the city and the real political urgencies of the moment.тАЭтАФAna M. Dopico, New York University
Photographer and writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1971. Trained as a molecular biochemist, he is the webmaster for the blogs Lunes de Post-Revoluci├│n and Boring Home Utopics. His writing has appeared in Sampsonia Way Magazine, Diario De Cuba, CubaEncuentro, Pen├║ltimos D├нas, All Voices, In These Times, Qu├й Pasa, and many other international publications. As an editor, he has compiled two anthologies of contemporary Cuban fiction translated into English and worked for the cultural magazine Extramuros as well as several independent Cuban digital magazines, including Cacharro(s), The Revolution Evening Post, and Voces. In 2012, he organized Pa├нs de P├нxeles, the first independent photodocumentary festival in Cuba. In 2013 his photographic work was profiled by David Gonz├бlez of The New York Times. A resident of Havana, he visits the United States to give university lectures about social activism and Cuban civic society using new media.
Mary Jo Porter is an American who lives in Seattle devoted to helping Cuban dissidents on the island, especially the independent bloggers. Mary Jo, or тАЬMariaтАЭ as her Cuban friends know her, is responsible for the English translation of Yoani SanchezтАЩs world renowned blog, Generation Y. She also translates for Claudia CadeloтАЩs Octavo Cerco, Reinaldo EscobarтАЩs Desde Aqui, and many others. Together with friends and volunteers, Maria has help set up Hemos Oido, a website that posts the blogs of members of the alternative Cuban blogosphere and allows anyone who wishes to volunteer to translate these bloggers into other languages.
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Photographer and writer Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1971. Trained as a molecular biochemist, he is the webmaster for the blogs Lunes de Post-Revoluci├│n and Boring Home Utopics. His writing has appeared in Sampsonia Way Magazine, Diario De Cuba, CubaEncuentro, Pen├║ltimos D├нas, All Voices, In These Times, Qu├й Pasa, and many other international publications. As an editor, he has compiled two anthologies of contemporary Cuban fiction translated into English and worked for the cultural magazine Extramuros as well as several independent Cuban digital magazines, including Cacharro(s), The Revolution Evening Post, and Voces. In 2012, he organized Pa├нs de P├нxeles, the first independent photodocumentary festival in Cuba. In 2013 his photographic work was profiled by David Gonz├бlez of The New York Times. A resident of Havana, he visits the United States to give university lectures about social activism and Cuban civic society using new media.
Mary Jo Porter is an American who lives in Seattle devoted to helping Cuban dissidents on the island, especially the independent bloggers. Mary Jo, or тАЬMariaтАЭ as her Cuban friends know her, is responsible for the English translation of Yoani SanchezтАЩs world renowned blog, Generation Y. She also translates for Claudia CadeloтАЩs Octavo Cerco, Reinaldo EscobarтАЩs Desde Aqui, and many others. Together with friends and volunteers, Maria has help set up Hemos Oido, a website that posts the blogs of members of the alternative Cuban blogosphere and allows anyone who wishes to volunteer to translate these bloggers into other languages.
