Alonso Brito left Cuba, but it never left him

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‘The publicity photos for the new album by Alonso Brito have that air of Havana hipness that has cloaked many contemporary artists coming from the island. It’s a chic mystique derived from that incongruous juxtaposition of stylish fashion against drab communist gray. There’s Alonso, sporting a leather jacket with a dashing red scarf and thick, horn-rimmed glasses, gazing out a window onto a Havana street frozen in time,’ writes The Times’ Agustin Gurza.

‘The image, however, is a digital illusion. Alonso left Havana in 1960 when he was 10, a year after Fidel Castro took power, and he’s never been back. But while the photo was faked, the sense of sorrow and nostalgia it projects is very real for this artist-in-exile who, on the eve of his 60th birthday, has reconnected with his roots and released the debut album that has eluded him his entire career.’

To read the full report on Alonso Brito, go here.

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City