(Cuba)

Wet steps, 2016
00:01:33, FHD, 16:09
MP4, Color, Stereo

“Wet Steps”, as a video performance, explores migration issues within the polemical relations between the governments of Cuba and the United States.

The piece consists of dedicating a minute of silence and peace to the Cuban citizens who perished at sea after emigrating to the United States.

A group of Cuban and American art students and professionals participated in making this mutual gesture of reconciliation and respect viable.

Wet Steps alludes to the U.S. immigration policy “Wet Feet, Dry Feet,” part of the Cuban Adjustment Act (1996), which encouraged the illegal entry of Cuban nationals into U.S. territory by land and sea, offering them special benefits not available to any other immigrant group.

This policy was abolished by the Obama administration on January 12, 2017. The Cuban Adjustment Act, however, remains in force.