Jorge Wunch
Cuban-American / Polish-American
Yiri Yiri Bon
The walled island away from me
The walled island that calls me
A yearning sensation for/ this place
I fear
This place
I love
More than anywhere in my heart
This walled island I see suffer
That my family cried(s) tears in
This walled island that hates me
That spits at me
That evicts me
This walled island that embraces me
In her nutrients
In her song
This walled island that wraps me in rhythm
Covers me in chords
In melodies of suffering
In melodies of victory
This walled island where/ I am
Her jailer
This walled island where my
Relatives hold the key
This walled island
Where my Heart lives
Where boxes of memories reside
Unknown to me.
The walled island away from me
The walled island that calls me
A yearning sensation for/ this place
I fear
This place
I love
More than anywhere in my heart
This walled island I see suffer
That my family cried(s) tears in
This walled island that hates me
That spits at me
That evicts me
This walled island that embraces me
In her nutrients
In her song
This walled island that wraps me in rhythm
Covers me in chords
In melodies of suffering
In melodies of victory
This walled island where/ I am
Her jailer
This walled island where my
Relatives hold the key
This walled island
Where my Heart lives
Where boxes of memories reside
Unknown to me.
This walled island that is absolutely
Silent.
This walled island that is
Screaming.
This free land that hates me
This free land that’s embraced me
Left me covered in
Confusion
In suffering and
In prosperity
This free land that holds her
Back
Keeps lists of her history
Keeps records of her resistance
Of her exploitation
Of her conviction
This free land that plays us
like Chess
This free land that collects
Blood
For payment
This free land
Is the true facilitator
Of Terror.
This free land is
Life’s prison
Estas palabras me asustan.
Silent.
This walled island that is
Screaming.
This free land that hates me
This free land that’s embraced me
Left me covered in
Confusion
In suffering and
In prosperity
This free land that holds her
Back
Keeps lists of her history
Keeps records of her resistance
Of her exploitation
Of her conviction
This free land that plays us
like Chess
This free land that collects
Blood
For payment
This free land
Is the true facilitator
Of Terror.
This free land is
Life’s prison
Estas palabras me asustan.
the
art
Yiri Yiri Bon, inspired by the song (by Eliades Ochoa), laments towards a home that is no longer made suitable for its inhabitants, due to external forces.
Wunch’s own personal relationship to the geopolitical situation of Cuba and the United States is expressed as an ineluctable duality, sentiments where “in suffering and in prosperity” go hand in hand, in a land that both offers and takes from him simultaneously.
The piece goes on to describe the lasting effects of colonialism, more so, the ways that it has affected their own relationships to their culture and family. This tension has created an unquenchable yearning for a place that he and many others are unsure if they can call home.
“I think this piece communicates a very specific and yet universal feeling within myself that I have never quite expressed through art before, and have been hesitant to express to friends or family. It is indicative of my own personal relationship to Cuba and to its culture, that has not been told second hand to me through family or what I ‘should’ think about its history, but through my own personal thoughts and experiences.” —J.W.
about
the
artist
the
artist
Jorge Wunch is a multimedia artist from the Gulf South. Growing up in a culturally and environmentally rich part of the world, in a Cuban-American family, opened them up to the complex web of history, politics, and geography that exist in the land and in their family. Jorge uses words, music, photography, and film to untangle this web and weave new connections.