/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/CULTURE-CUBA: Picasso’s Afro-Caribbean Cousins

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 12 2002 (IPS) - Spanish artist Pablo Picasso may have made a secret journey to Cuba in the 1950s in a failed attempt to find members of his extended family, descendants of his grandfather, who lived on this Caribbean island in the late 19th century.

“Someone called us to tell us that Picasso had been in the town of Sagua la Grande, but we haven’t been able to confirm it,” Jorge Garrido, journalist and co-author with Ramón Picasso Alfonso of the book “The Secret History of the Black Picassos”, told IPS.

The biographers reckon that Cuban painter Wifredo Lam, who knew Picasso when the two both lived in Paris, might have told the Spanish artist about some Afro-Cuban women with the surname Picasso who he had met in his hometown of Sagua la Grande.

The investigations continue for the book-in-progress. The two authors have confirmed that before his death in 1973, Picasso had requested help from the Cuban government to locate his relatives on the Caribbean island.

The search was entrusted at the time to Orlando Martínez, historian of the city of Cienfuegos, one of the many places Picasso’s grandfather lived after reaching Cuba in 1865 until his death in 1888.

But evidence of the connection between the Picassos did not begin to emerge until late 1999, when Cuban television broadcast images of a Cuban family, Afro-Cuban and mulattos, who have the surname Picasso and, some would say, physical characteristics very similar to those of the painter.

“It all came about gradually. There were many things that were not known, there was just speculation. Now we can say that many family secrets will come to light,” says Ramón Picasso Alfonso, great-grandson of Francisco Picasso Guardeño, grandfather of Pablo Picasso.

The imminent publication of the book and the production of a film are being negotiated in Spain by Pontas Literary & Film Agency, based in Barcelona.

The story is told in first-person by Picasso Alfonso and features numerous documents that the authors found in the archives of the civil registry offices and church parishes of five Cuban cities.

The evidence indicates that Picasso’s grandfather arrived in Cuba three years earlier than was previously believed, had eight children – not four – with an Afro-Cuban woman, worked as a customs agent, was pursued by justice and, apparently, suffered a violent death.

Francisco Picasso Guardeño had been accused of stealing papers of monetary value, but was not tried or punished for the crime. That may be why he frequently moved from town to town.

In his wanderings he met Cristina Serra, in Sagua la Grande, a black woman with whom he had a long romance and eight Cuban children.

“He never legally recognised his children or her. To hide his role, but to ensure that his children carried his surname, he married Cristina to a black man named Antonio Picasso, who was apparently the son of an uncle of his who had arrived in Cuba much earlier,” says Garrido.

The authors of the book assert that the marriage existed on paper only, and point to the fact that Antonio Picasso never reappears in the family history, and was not even present as a witness before the law to his wife’s death.

Picasso Guardeño sought to give his surname to his children in Cuba while also protecting himself and his family from the strict laws of the era, which punished the intermarriage of Spaniards and Africans.

“When I saw his tomb next to a common grave where the Spaniards buried people who were shot for collaborating with the independence movement, I was convinced that his death could not have been from natural causes,” says Picasso Alfonso.

“How is it possible that a Spaniard, a customs official of the era, who had just willed his goods to his family in Spain, dies of a prolonged illness, according to the death certificate, in a charity hospital?” wonders the author and apparent descendant of the man.

Picasso Alfonso and Garrido believe that the famous painter’s grandfather may have been the victim of a slave-trade conspiracy, due to his work in the ports and his proven ties with Britain, a country in conflict with Spain over the treatment of slaves.

Like his father and siblings, Picasso Guardeño had studied his trade in Britain and, in spite of his Spanish nationality, upon his arrival in Cuba was registered with the British consulate. The possibility that he was engaged in espionage has not been ruled out.

“After Francisco’s death, his story and the fate of his descendants remained hidden. They reached an agreement on silence. Nobody would say a thing and nobody would relate the surnames to those of the painter,” said Garrido.

The letters and photographs of Picasso’s grandfather were put away in a lock-box that is now in the custody of a granddaughter, who is now 80 years old and refuses to reveal them.

“When she is asked if she knows anything about the family ties, she responds: ‘I don’t know anything, never knew anything. Don’t ask me any more. Why would you want to know? If my parents didn’t speak of it, why should I?'” says Garrido.