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This photo was taken in 2000, in Vi馻les, Cuba. I was there as part of a student exchange through my college. As it happened, we were in Cuba during the Elian Gonzalez affair, in which the Cuban and US governments were negotiating over the fate of a young Cuban boy who had been taken to Florida as a refugee; this event caused a great deal of tension between the two countries. While we were there, we saw some protests, though our guides tended to keep us away from the larger ones. Still, there were small reminders everywhere, including this one outside a tobacco farm in beautiful Vi馻les. The sign reads "Por La Libertad de Elian - Patria o Muerte!" or "For the Freedom of Elian - Our Land or Death!"

I snapped a shot of it with a disposable film camera I had with me; I've only recently scanned the image. Aside from some cropping and minor level adjustment, it is as I took it.

The students going into the building were those who were on the trip with me. By sheer coincidence, the day we returned to New York was the day the FBI raided the house in Miami where Elian Gonzalez was being kept, beginning his own journey back to Cuba.