Yuma
Yuma
Yuma/ˈjuːmə/noun
1. A city in southwestern Arizona, United States
2. A member of an indigenous people of the southwestern United States
3. (in Cuba) The United States; or a foreigner
About the project
Yuma chronicles a 20-year Cuban journey, featuring unpublished photographs, interviews and writing from two decades living and working in Cuba. Documenting local stories shared by people from all walks of life, this project offers an intimate and unfiltered portrayal of Cubans’ resilience amidst economic crises, migration and cultural shifts spanning two decades.
About the photographer
James Clifford Kent is a London-based photographer and lectures on visual culture at Royal Holloway, University of London. His socially engaged practice involves developing deep connections with communities. An award-winning artist and Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, James is the author of Aesthetics and the Revolutionary City (Palgrave, 2019). He has exhibited in the UK and Cuba, featuring in major shows at the Royal Academy of Art and National Portrait Gallery. His work has been selected for several awards and exhibitions, including Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize, Portrait of Britain & Portrait of Humanity, and he has published widely, featuring in The Times, BBC News, British Journal of Photography, The Independent, It’s Nice That, Huck Magazine and The Lancet.
After discovering iconic black-&-white images of the 1959 Revolution taken by photographers like Alberto Korda & Raúl Corrales, I found my way into photography. While living in Cuba and working at the Universidad de La Habana, I made a friend at the Terminal de Omnibus. Carlos Marcel and his family would welcome me like one of their own. They lived in Cabaiguán, a sleepy town in Santi Spíritus province, and it was there that Carlos’s cigar-loving grandfather Elisio dubbed me the family photographer and named me “Yuma” (Cuban slang for a foreigner). The nickname stuck.
I took pictures of birthdays, quinceañeras (15-year-old girls’ coming-of-age parties) & weddings. And it was at the Maternidad Obrera hospital in Marianao where Carlos Marcel’s first child—my goddaughter Amelia—was born. I travelled with him across the island following the death of Fidel Castro. And we later stayed in a beautiful colonial house in Cayo Hueso, patrolled by a rat terrier named Rambo.
But as making ends meet at home became increasingly impossible, members of the family began to leave the island one by one, seeking a better standard of living—the so-called American dream.
Cuba now faces its worst economic crisis in decades, with widespread shortages, power outages and soaring inflation exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia's war on Ukraine and U.S. sanctions. Growing hopelessness has fuelled a mass exodus, with an estimated one million Cubans leaving the island, while internal migration from poorer provinces has turned Havana into a departure lounge for those wanting to reach the United States. As Trump’s second presidency looms, the prospect of even harsher sanctions, deeper humanitarian crises and record deportations threatens to further restrict migration options and compound the struggles of those left behind.
Research-led projects involving Cuban artists, curators & writers—including Edmundo Desnoes (Memories of Underdevelopment, 1968) & Raúl Cañibano—inspired me to capture daily life and tell stories about Cuba in a way that goes beyond the surface. A 20-year creative journey, Yuma weaves together intimate, everyday stories, deep connections with community and cultural narratives that have shaped my connection to the Caribbean’s largest island.
James Clifford Kent, November 2024
