El montenero de El Cobre (The Mountaineer From El Cobre)

Cuba Series - Painting #3
February 2016
Acrylic on canvas - 36" x 48" 

Another of the incredible faces I encountered while visiting El Cobre, a small town about 12 miles west of the city of Santiago de Cuba. We met shortly after I toured the Basilica and was making my way into the town.
 
Mounted atop a wiry burro, and wearing the typical straw hat of the rural workers of Cuba, he was a gregarious gentleman and was an eager conversationalist, although I had a bit of a tough time with his Spanish - he had a thicker accent than I was used to. Despite that, I was able to gather that he had come down from the mountains specifically to meet someone in town who owed him money. He seemed to put a humorous spin on it, as if he almost accepted that the money wouldn’t arrive, but he was going to wait it out anyway.