About Jerry A. Sierra

I WAS BORN IN HAVANA, TWO YEARS BEFORE THE REVOLUTION marched triumphant on my home city. My mother says it was a Sunday. We immigrated to the U.S. in 1969, just before Neil Armstrong took that small step for mankind, and settled in Los Angeles.

This web site is a labor of love, made without any connection to any political or historical organization, and free of their politics. My purpose is to encourage and facilitate an honest exploration of Cuban history, to present a balanced work that achieves something rarely seen today - an honest look at a brave, courageous and creative people with a unique identity and a seldom-shared point of view.

This web site is a labor of love, made without a connection to any political or historical organization, and free of their politics.

My interest in Cuban history goes back to my late teens and early twenties, when I realized that most of the Latino culture available to me in Los Angeles had a much more Mexican and Latin American flavor… stimulating and mysterious, but not Cuban. This realization sparked a life-long journey of books, tapes, letters, conversations, arguments, images and interviews that eventually became historyofcuba.com.

I realized that most of the information we hear about Cuba is stilted and inaccurate, having to mold itself into the common pro or con scenario and the prevailing winds. I also noticed that most history text-books used in schools do not present a clear, truthful picture of the island's long and complex history.

I became a book hound. There isn't a library book on Cuba available in LA, Santa Monica or San Francisco that I haven't borrowed at some time. The many used-book stores in the Bay Area, and the emergence of online book shopping, allowed me to build a modest library of Cuban history books. Some of these books are not easy to find. Try finding a copy of Foner's "Maceo" or Carlos Franqui's The Twelve. Like I said, a labor of love.

I love the idea that through this media, any one with a computer and a modem can learn about Maceo, Martí, and the rebel invasion of Havana and the Western provinces in 1896, two full years before U.S. intervention!

It may be obvious that the segment of Cuban history most fascinating to me is the STRUGGLE for independence and identity that began shortly after the British captured Havana in 1762 - all the way up to the end of the third and final war for Cuban independence, known to some as the Spanish-American War. This is where the Cuban identity began to be forged by many who gave their lives, and many more who dedicated every second of their existence to the ideal that became Cuba; a country in which blacks and whites can be considered equal and can expect truth and righteousness from society in equal doses. Cuba remains one of the few places on our hemisphere where such an ideal is even remotely possible.

But enough philosophizing and more about me.

I had well over a decade in experience as a freelance writer and photographer before I began to work on the site. My articles appeared in publications such as PUBLISH, POST, PRODUCER'S QUARTERLY, FILM/TAPE WORLD, PETERSEN'S PHOTOGRAPHIC, CUE, LAN and others. I also served as Contributing Editor at PRESENTATION PRODUCTS MAGAZINE long before webs were something other than the natural by-product of busy arachnids.

Throughout the 1980's you could find my photographs in LA galleries such as THE CANNON GALLERY, LA GRANGE AUX CREPES PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY, LAPC, CAMERAVISION and others. In 1989 I was part of the "Assemblage LA" exhibition at the BRAND LIBRARY ART GALLERY. It included eight additional artists from Los Angeles and marked my formal retirement from the exhibition circuit.

Peace.

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