The Zoraida project, as a whole, is a multimedia performance that narrates Cuba's history and speculative future. After the death of both Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, a puppet government backed by large, multinational firms was installed and set out to rebuild Cuba as an entertainment playground for wealthy tourists. A biohazardous accident, however, forced most of the firms and inhabitants off the island. With the island deemed an economic failure, the industry-backed government dissolved and the majority of the island's businesses and residents, including most of the country's professional entertainers, abandoned Cuba in a mass exodus to other, more profitable countries.
Yet one performer stayed behind in attempt to forge a new sound and unique identity out of her deserted homeland.
Previously the youngest member of the Camerata Romeu all-woman orchestra, Zoraida is too stalwart to give up on the only thing she has ever known. Audience or not, she now travels the island as a one-woman dance and music performance, with a varying cast of collaborators. She's created her instruments out of the detritus left in the wake of the recently relocated tech and entertainment firms. Her instruments are based on traditional Cuban instruments, but technologically modified. Similarly, her music and dance evolved out of a traditionally Cuban vocabulary to become a distinct and idiosyncratic voice singing songs of politics and protest.
By Nancy Garcia and Nick Hasty