From the Artist

Something that inspired me in my work was my time as a student, when we went to school in the countryside. There we saw the country people working the land, sugar cane cutters and fruit pickers. Also, the Afro-Cuban religion has heavily influenced my creations, the people "on foot."the neighbors, the people who pass down the street, their way of walking, all that is reflected in my work.
_{—Excerptedfromhttps://www.cubaplusmagazine.com/en/culture/visual-arts/eduardo-roca-choco-painterpoet-crazy.html, accessed 7-5-2021}

When I paint, I don't think in terms of white, mulatto, black or Chinese. The person I portray has body, limbs, soul, heart, grey matter.
_{—Adapted fromhttps://maa.missouri.edu/sites/default/files/exhibit/choco_interactive_pages.pdf, accessed 7-5-2021}

Choco's familiarity with rural and urban life, identification with physical labor and the arts, and status as Afro-Cuban within a racial hierarchy that privileges white skin give him both an insider and outsider's perspective on Cuban life. His works, in turn, embrace both the particular and the universal. Furthermore,Choco's depictions of "biological, universal" humanity are nonetheless rooted in his personal experience as an Afro-Cuban man and conveyed through the materiality of his works. He consistently recycles discarded remnants of mass culture in his collagraphs, bringing them historical specificity and continued relevance.
_{—Adapted from https://maa.missouri.edu/sites/default/files/exhibit/choco_interactive_pages.pdf, accessed 7-5-2021}