Because there's such a long tradition of the arts being very prominent and very varied in Cuban culture and society, people do use the art world as a space for critical reflection and people look to it for that.

I feel like because black Cuban artists don't have the kind of pressure to thematize race in the way that African-American artists do, there's more space for them to do their art without having to discuss it in terms of racial identity.

US policy toward Cuba [at the time] had two tracks. Track 1 was to assassinate Fidel Castro. Track 2 was to subvert the regime through people-to-people contact.

I think the art world will continue to be a place where people have a certain freedom and creativity to think about what's happening in Cuba.

I'm incredibly enthusiastic about the normalization, I think it's very promising. But I do think there are some worrisome aspects.

There aren't that many galleries in Havana. There are a few state galleries and an ever-increasing but still limited number of independent galleries; there's no comparison with the number in New York.

Cuban artists had, for a while, a privileged position within Cuba that is probably going to become slightly less restricted to them. I think they'll continue to join the international art world, so those people who are extremely successful will become even more so and those who are struggling will continue to struggle.