Roberto Salas Cuban, 1940

Salas is widely considered one of Cuba’s most influential photographers. His work is captures scene’s and rituals of Cuba’s rich history. Through his photographic series, El Último Cabildo de Yemayá, Salas captured the ceremonial rites of the last of Cuba’s remaining Cabildos in Yemayá. A cabildo was, in colonial times, a reunion of slaves. This procession and these photographs are thus an archive of the rich history and ceremony brought to Cuba from the African diaspora, a symbol of enduring community and a bedrock of Afro-Cuban culture and religion.