# Diago: The Pasts of this Afro-Cuban Present ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/coopergallery/files/diagotop.jpg) ## **Spring 2017** ![Diago Image](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_diago_exhibit_melissablackall_-40_preview.png?itok=S9658wBy) Juan Roberto Diago is a leading member of the new Afro-Cuban cultural movement, which has valiantly denounced the persistence of racism and discrimination in Cuban society. This exhibition of twenty-five mixed-media and installation artworks traced Diago’s vibrant career from the mid-1990s, when he began to construct a revisionist history of the Cuban nation from the experience of a person of African descent. It is a history of enslavement and cultural loss, but also of resilience and recovery, the kind of history that is required in this Afro-Cuban present. A leading member of the new Afro-Cuban cultural movement, visual artist Juan Roberto Diago (b. 1971) has produced a body of work that offers a revisionist history of the Cuban nation. His “history,” a term that he frequently inserts in his works using the visual language of graffiti, contradicts the official narrative of a racially harmonious nation, created through the selfless efforts of generous white patriots. Diago’s Cuba is a nation built on pain, rape, greed, and the enslavement of millions of displaced Africans, a nation still grappling with the long-term effects of slavery and colonialism. To him, slavery is not the past, but a daily experience of racism and discrimination. Africa is not a root, but a wellspring of cultural and personal affirmation, the ancestors that sustain him in his journey. This exhibition examined Diago’s creative work over the course of his entire career. It traced his singular efforts to construct new pasts, the pasts required to explain the racial tensions of contemporary Cuba, the pasts of this Afro-Cuban present. *Curated by Alejandro de la Fuente* *Director,* [Afro-Latin American Research Institute at the Hutchins Center](https://alari.fas.harvard.edu/) ## **Installation Views:** ![cooper_diago_exhibit_melissablackall_-4b.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_21_9__1920x825/public/coopergallery/files/cooper_diago_exhibit_melissablackall_-4b.jpg?itok=qQi8OK03) “It traces his \[Juan Roberto Diago’s\] singular efforts to construct new pasts, the pasts required to explain the racial tensions of contemporary Cuba, the pasts of this Afro-Cuban present.” ### Press expand\_more ## Press [### Africanah.org: 'Juan Roberto Diago' ](https://africanah.org/juan-roberto-diago/) March 02, 2017 ![My Race My History](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/AlejandroAutorretrato-768x513.jpg?itok=wqYCcbi-) [### ARC Magazine: 'Harvard University presents ‘Diago: The Pasts of this Afro-Cuban Present’' ](http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2017/02/harvard-university-presents-diago-the-pasts-of-this-afro-cuban-present/) February 10, 2017 ![Juan Roberto Diago, Untitled, 2013.](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/9780674977068-lg.jpg?itok=4inYC3nt) [### Art on Cuba: 'Los pasados de este presente afrocubano' ](https://artoncuba.com/blog-es/diago-los-pasados-de-este-presente-afrocubano/) January 20, 2017 ![Picture By: Alejandro de la Fuente](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Diago.-Alejandro-755x450_0.jpg?itok=qdcI4Eni) [### Bay State Banner: 'Diago exhibit at the Cooper Gallery rewrites Afro-Cuban history' ](https://www.baystatebanner.com/2017/02/08/diago-exhibit-at-the-cooper-gallery-rewrites-afro-cuban-history/) February 08, 2017 ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/sin-titulo-untitled-diago-icon-image.jpg?itok=LuZfDFsV) [### Big Red & Shiny: 'Issues of Power: Resilience and Healing' ](http://bigredandshiny.org/31158/issues-of-power-resilience-and-healing/) February 21, 2017 ![ISSUES OF POWER: Resilience and Healing](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Cooper_Diago_Exhibit_MelissaBlackall_-11-702x336_0.jpg?itok=lzwz9Om-) [### Cuban Art News: '2017 Preview: Cuban Art in US Museums' ](https://cubanartnews.org/2017/01/03/2017-preview-cuban-art-in-us-museums/5827/) January 03, 2017 ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/sin-titulo-untitled-diago-icon-image.jpg?itok=LuZfDFsV) [### Cuban Art News: 'Preview: Juan Roberto Diago at Harvard' ](https://cubanartnews.org/2017/01/31/preview-juan-roberto-diago-at-harvard/5885/) January 31, 2017 ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/visual_arts_013117b.jpg?itok=zSizc93d) [### Cuban Art News: 'Update: Capote in New York, Diago at Harvard, and Barroso’s Pinball Headed to the Armory Show' ](https://cubanartnews.org/2017/01/17/update-capote-in-new-york-diago-at-harvard-and-barrosos-pinball-headed-to-the-armory-show/5855/) January 17, 2017 ![Yoan Capote, Isla (Punto de Fuga), 2015 Courtesy yoan-capote.com](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/visual_arts_011717a.jpg?itok=WzDfim39) [### El Planeta: 'Exposición de arte contra el racismo y la discriminación' ](http://elplaneta.com/news/2017/mar/01/arteracismo/) March 01, 2017 ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/diago_t640x360.jpg?itok=ufVtCHyB) [### Harvard Gazette: 'Shadows of Cuba’s past' ](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/01/juan-robert-diago-artwork-shadows-of-cubas-past/) February 27, 2017 ![Diago](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/diago-photo-credit-alain-gutiecc81rrez_605.jpg?itok=bQMRlxbN) [### Improper Bostonian: 'Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present' ](https://www.improper.com/event/24885/) May 05, 2017 ![Yo soy monte](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/0201Art_Un-Pedrazo-de-Mi-Historia-copy-2_0.jpg?itok=L6pF8pbX) [### La Jiribilla: 'Roberto Diago expone en Harvard: un acontecimiento sobresaliente para la cultura cubana' ](http://www.lajiribilla.cu/articulo/roberto-diago-expone-en-harvard-un-acontecimiento-sobresaliente-para-la-cultura-cubana) November 08, 2017 ![Diago%20reducido%205.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/Diago%2520reducido%25205.jpg?itok=lO3TTfwG) [### On Cuba Magazine: 'Roberto Diago: «Yo soy mi raza, mi historia»' ](https://oncubanews.com/cultura/roberto-diago-yo-soy-mi-raza-mi-historia/) February 20, 2017 ![Roberto Diago: “Yo soy mi raza, mi historia”](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/unspecified-6.jpg?itok=7oqOpum2) [### Repeating Islands: 'Art Exhibition—“Diago: The Pasts of This Afro-Cuban Present”' ](https://repeatingislands.com/2017/02/06/art-exhibition-diago-the-pasts-of-this-afro-cuban-present/) February 06, 2017 ![Untitled](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/diago.jpg?itok=HdYYm7YD) [### WGBH: 'Arts This Week: 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane,' Juan Roberto Diago, 'Toni Erdmann'' ](https://www.wgbh.org/news/2017/02/16/arts/arts-week-beauty-queen-leenane-juan-roberto-diago-toni-erdmann) February 16, 2017 ![Black Chronicles II](/sites/g/files/omnuum11446/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/coopergallery/files/wgbh.brightspotcdn.com_.jpg?itok=jwQXpz5x)