![\"Fuster\"](\"http:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Fuster.png\")
<\/a>Jaimanitas wasn\u2019t always a masterpiece, a tourist destination, or even a particularly notable community. Thirty years ago, it was a rundown fishing village like any other in Cuba. The quality of life was low and the scenery was glum at best. Then Jos\u00e9 Fuster, a local artist, started reviving the spirit of Jaimanitas, one structure at a time. He started with his own workshop, bedecking the exterior and interior alike with his surrealist creations, including a life-sized chess set in the yard. Once he spruced up his own workshop, fascinated neighbors started offering him their own homes to decorate. Nicknamed \u201cFusterlandia,\u201d Jaimanitas now holds over 80 houses covered in Fuster\u2019s murals. Due to his work at home and abroad, Fuster has become known as the paramount artist of Cuba.<\/p>\nJos\u00e9 Rodr\u00edguez Fuster was born in 1946 in Caibari\u00e9n, a fishing village on the north coast of Cuba. Fuster began his career at 14 years old as a teacher with Cuba\u2019s National Literacy Campaign in the Sierra Maestra. At 17, he attended Cuba\u2019s first school for art instructors, Escuela Nacional de Instructores de Arte. As his career progressed, Fuster visited Europe to see the works of Gaud\u00ed, Picasso and Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i. His travels and his homeland inspired his own unique artistic style, which combines the mosaic elements of Gaud\u00ed with the surrealistic style of Picasso\u2019s na\u00efve phase and the influences of Cuban culture, seen through his frequent portrayal of iconography inspired by Santer\u00eda, rural animals, Che Guevara, and the Cuban flag.\u00a0Fuster spends his supplemental income on artwork and repairs for his neighbor\u2019s homes, putting most of his money back into the community he loves.<\/p>\n
Today, when you visit Jaimanitas, you will see a community revolutionized and revitalized by Jos\u00e9 Fuster\u2019s art. You might even see Fuster himself, hanging around his workshop, painting tiles for less wealthy art lovers, or climbing a ladder to beautify a neighbor\u2019s home. Often casually dressed and covered in paint, it might be hard to believe that this is the grand artist known throughout the world. But Fuster considers himself a \u201cman of the sea\u201d and is modest about his work. That\u2019s why he spends every day giving back to Jaimanitas, the home he loves.<\/p>\n
Experience Fuster’s work first-hand. Havana Highlights<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is waiting for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Step just a few miles outside Havana and you\u2019ll find Jaimanitas, a seaside village full of fishermen, farmers and other working-class citizens. But this is no ordinary fishing village.\u00a0Visitors come from far and wide to witness this unique, living village of art and to meet the artist himself, Jos\u00e9 Fuster. Jaimanitas wasn\u2019t always a Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[411,345,58,128],"class_list":["post-5825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-explorica-news","tag-cuba","tag-educational-tours","tag-educational-travel","tag-student-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5825"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6216,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5825\/revisions\/6216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}