THE THREADS OF FAME WOVEN THROUGH MY PAST

Micah Carpentier, 1972

In 1973 my uncle, the great Cuban visionary Micah Carpentier was killed under mysterious circumstances. I was nineteen at the time and I petitioned the United States Department of the Treasury for an embargo waiver in order to travel to Havana and set my uncle's affairs in order. (And to attempt to rescue as much of his work as I could from the indifferent clutches of the Castro cultural claque).

Roberto Carpentier-Katz at the Malecón, 1979

To my great astonishment, permission was granted and reciprocated in Cuba (with the proviso that I bring hard currency and agree to spend at least one-hundred dollars in cash a day - no small feat for a nineteen year-old college drop-out).

Emboldened with righteous consanguineal zeal the probity of the mission all but quashed my well-founded fears.

In my uncle's studio, Havana 1979

Micah Carpentier's studio was a vast (by Cuban Communist standards) airy space a few blocks south of Avenida de Maceo. A fastidious man, his work was stacked neatly in racks and rows built to his precise specifications. I was totally unprepared for both the quantity and the range of what I found.

Para Llevar a Cabo IV, Micah Carpentier, 1967

The family in North America, like the rest of the world, knew my uncle exclusively for his paper bag and Chinese take-out drawings. I had no idea that in addition to this he made large paintings, massive sculptures, elaborate theatrical sets and subliminally ironic propaganda posters. 

Sofia Abulafia-Carpentier

Carpentier's ex-wife, Sofia Abulafia, was the biggest surprise of my trip. After my uncle's death she promptly claimed his Miramar apartment (where she lives to this day). Over fresh minty mojitos and purple onion plantains she regaled me with stories of their storied courtship and their dramatically acrimonious rupture. 

Tutu Daddah

Her published memoirs (De las Bolsas a la Riqueza, Libros Andrajos, Madrid) has recently been made into a twelve-part docudrama for Spanish cable TV with the role of Carpentier played by  the famous Mauritanian hearthrob Tutu Daddah. 

My dear, glorious uncle Micah Carpentier lives on!