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Jan Sochor

50 Years

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Jan Sochor – 50 Years after the Revolution

 

About 50 years after the national rebellion, led by Fidel Castro, and adopting the communist ideology shortly after the victory, the Caribbean island of Cuba is the only country in Americas having the communist political system. Although the Cuban state-controlled economy has never been developed enough to allow Cubans living in social conditions similar to the US or to Europe, mostly middle-age and older Cubans still support the Castro Brothers’ regime and the idea of the Cuban Revolution.

During the decades of “Revolution” Cuba has increased its literacy rate to 97 percent (second place in Latin America). Education is free of charge in Cuba but highly qualified professionals earn 20 US dollars per month. There is total safety in Cuba, violence almost does not exist, but freedom of expression is prohibited and prisoners of conscious can be found there.

Cuba has been successfully resisting to all attempts of changing the system from outside. Since the 1990s Cuba struggles with chronic economic crisis and mainly young Cubans call for the economic changes.

 

Bio:

He was born in the Czech Republic but he is changing his base between South America and Europe frequently, he lived and worked in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain and the Czech Republic in the last five years. Latin America has become a major theme for him since then. He focuses on documentary projects trying to show and tell about the (Latin) American continent, its everyday life, social, political and cultural issues. His photographs and stories have appeared in numerous Czech and international magazines, newspapers and publications, including Sunday Times, National Geographic, Burn magazine, Foto8, PDN online, NACLA Report, Adbusters magazine, The Vienna Review, Reflex, Instinkt, Koktejl, Listy, Hospodarske noviny.

 

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Jan Sochor