Candida or freedom Print

Cándida Huelva was born as a slave in Angola in 1845, managed to escape from the ship that was carrying her to an ominous destiny when she was a teenager, and spent the rest of her life as a free woman in El Puerto de Santa Maria, in the south of Spain, where she died in 1951. The topic of slavery is of particular interest to me because I was born in Martinique, a former French colony whose inhabitants are descendants of slaves brought from Africa. Many slaves also arrived in Andalusia, a historical fact often overlooked today. To represent Cándida, I revisited the flag of the city of El Puerto de Santa María. I retained the background and shield's colors, but I replaced the Castle of San Marcos and the Virgin with a portrait of Cándida. She is dressed in a blouse with Samakaka motifs, typical of Angola. The waves serve as a reminder that Cándida arrived in Andalusia by sea. Above the shield, I transformed the original crown into a more modern one, borrowed from Jean-Michel Basquiat, a painter I admire who has Haitian slave ancestry. I preferred to portray Cándida as a queen rather than a slave.