Juan Roberto Diago’s Untitled (from the Lágrimas Negras series, ca. 1996) resonates not only with the historical and material realities of the Período Especial, but also with the deeply emotional and cultural weight of the song Lágrimas Negras, a classic of Cuban music composed by Miguel Matamoros. The song, known for its melancholic lyrics about sorrow and resilience, serves as a poetic parallel to Diago’s exploration of the Afro-Cuban experience—marked by struggle, endurance, and the preservation of identity through adversity.

The visual language of the work—stitching together two pieces of canvas—echoes the song’s themes of loss and survival. Much like Lágrimas Negras blends the sadness of the lyrics with the rhythm of son cubano, creating a bittersweet harmony, Diago’s painting juxtaposes the rawness of material scarcity with the richness of cultural memory. The stitched canvas, evoking keloid scars, not only reflects the wounds of history but also the strength of mending and reconstructing identity, much like the song captures the resilience of the human spirit despite suffering.

In this way, Diago’s work is not just a product of its time but also a dialogue with the past—both personal and collective—where art and music intertwine as carriers of history, emotion, and resistance.