BY JESSICA POLAR
Guarapo (sugarcane juice). Colonial architecture. Classic cars. Street dogs. Cheeky humor. Domestic scenes. Barber shops. Saints. Yoruba. Music. Pink. Turquoise. Africa. Coral. Cuba libre. Communism. Lobster.
Everyone here has a key message of life.
After a year struggling with serious health issues, my girlfriend and I decided to go to a sunny place to relax and recover myself a little bit, but also to escape the tough Berlin winter. I’ve always dreamt about the idea of going to Cuba because of the similarities with my own roots, the Canary Islands (Spain). Canary islanders and Cubans speak almost the same Spanish even though we are more than 6,000 km away. This is due to Canarian emigration to the Caribbean and Hispanic America over the years. Canarian Spanish heavily influenced the development of Caribbean Spanish. So it wasn’t that weird that I felt at home because everyone had a relative from the Canary Islands.
I learnt a lot from locals, and although I’m sure most people looked at us thinking “Europeans”, we felt quite integrated after three days and some food scams. When you are a foreigner you have to be a loser first.
Guarapo（甘蔗汁）。殖民時期的建築。老爺車。流浪狗。冒失的幽默。國內的風景。理發店。聖徒。約魯巴人。音樂。粉紅色。青綠色。非洲。珊瑚。自由古巴調和酒。共產主義。龍蝦。
這裏的每個人，都擁有一個生活的核心。
與嚴重的健康問題經歷了一年的抗爭後，我和女友決定去一個充滿陽光的地方放松和自我療愈一下，同時也為逃離柏林的寒冬。我一直夢想著去古巴，因為那裏和我的根有所相似，我的根在加那利群島（西班牙）。加那利群島島民和古巴人說著近乎相同的西班牙語，即使他們之間相隔超過6000公裏。原因就在於這些年來，加那利島島民向加勒比海和美洲的移民。加勒比海西班牙語深深地受到加那利群島西班牙語的影響，因此，我如同回到家一樣的感覺也不足為怪，這裏的每個人都有一個來自加那利群島的親戚。
我從當地人那裏學到了很多，盡管我相信他們中的大部分都視我們為“歐洲人”。經過三天的時間和在食物上遭受的騙局，我們完全融入了當地。作為一個外國人，你首先得吃點虧。
Jessica López (aka Jessica Polar) raised on the Tenerife island by the Atlantic Ocean. She is based in Berlin since 2008. She has worked as Photo Editor for Rolling Stone, Musikexpress, ME.Style and VICE. At the moment she is the photo editor of The Impossible Project. She loves islands and classic house music.
Jessica López（又名 Jessica Polar）在大西洋的特內裏費島長大，從2008年起，她搬到了柏林居住。她是 Rolling Stone, Musikexpress, ME.Style 以及 VICE 的攝影編輯，與此同時也是 The Impossible Project 的攝影編輯。她熱愛島嶼和經典house音樂。
www.jessicapolar.com
Chinese translation by Aiyu Zhang.
