Fall 2024 – Fall 2025
Roberto C. Goizueta Pavilion, Otto G. Richter Library, Floor 2

“The Art of Propaganda: Poster Art and Political Satire from Cuba and its Diaspora” is an exhibition that showcases the history of Cuban poster art and political satire as visual and discursive tools for the promotion and dissemination of information. Through the lens of visual culture, the items on display reveal the development of Cuba as a modern society and the political narratives that defined that process from the mid-19th to the late 20th century. Iconic posters from the early Cuban Revolution, renowned for their aesthetic and artistic value, are featured alongside posters and flyers from various civic and political groups within the Cuban exile community since the 1960s. Complementing these are a selection of journals and rare periodicals, dating from the 1860s to the present, which emphasize political humor and satire, underscoring the instrumental role of propaganda in society.

A central theme of the exhibition is the American influence in the shaping and development of Cuban political, socio-cultural, and economic history. From the mid-19th century wars of independence through the Republican era at the turn of the 20th century, to the 1959 Cuban Revolution that forced a community into exile, the political thought expressed in these materials illustrates the tensions between ideologies central to the relations of Cuba and the United States since the Cold War: communism versus democratic capitalism. These dueling perspectives—or worldviews—are vividly represented in political posters from Cuba’s early revolutionary period, promoting solidarity with anti-colonial struggles as part of the government’s internationalist campaign, and in film posters from that same era that established Cuba as a leader in the graphic arts. Conversely, anti-communist sentiments are broadcast in several examples of posters and pamphlets from the early Cuban exile of the 1960s through the 1980s, from communities across the United States, including Puerto Rico.

Curated from the extensive holdings of the Cuban Heritage Collection, this exhibition explores the role and function of graphic arts in narrating Cuban and Cuban diasporic social, cultural, and political histories.