These images are part of the illustrations for my unpublished novel Opening Your Eyes (2013). My novel draws on the memories of Javier Antonio, a young student in a boarding art school during the early 90s. Last summer, Javier’s best friend, a ballet student named Otto, left Cuba with his family. After many years of intimate friendship and mutual support, Javier is alone. Otto’s departure will trigger his rebellious and indomitable character. With the help of a journal, he will fight against the school abuses, humiliations, and bullying. Meanwhile, he will evoke some of his childhood traumas and reaffirm his own sexual identity. His school notebooks become a space of freedom and self-realization, the only place where he can cry out his pain and defeat his worst nightmares. They are like a little stripe of blue sky in the middle of his boyhood storm.
(These pages are among my best-loved works. They are dedicated to all children and teenagers that face repression and biases towards their own sexual identity. With the profound hope that they may and will find a path of freedom, self-actualization, and happiness.)
A Little Strip of Blue
8th Grade 1990-1991 (2015)
Javier, Otto, and the Sea
Javier, Otto, the Sea, and the Moonlight
Otto and the Flock of Wild Planes
Blue is the Saddest Color
"I'm leaving, Javier" he said
"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."
So, He Left
Planes Are Like Sharks I
Planes Are Like Sharks II
Waking Up in the Boy's Dormitory
Men Don't Cry I
Men Don't Cry II
Men Don't Cry III
"You're crying like a little girl" Said the Psychologist
Portrait of a Psychologist
Portrait of the School Assistant Director
Portrait of the Assistant Director, and the General Director
The Red Hyena
The General Director and the Secretary Collude To Expel Javier from School
The General Director and the Assistant Director of Boarding School Affairs
Javieeeeeeeer!
A Psychologist and the Assistant Director Infected with Aliens
The General Director's Office
The Assistant Director
The Secretary
Otto!
What are you guys doing there?
A Letter To Otto (fragment)
Will you grow up someday, Javier Antonio? Never!
The Green Counselor
Rain
Peeing on the Blue Tunnel
Bullying
Bullies
Ariel
Trying to become a straight boy
Tears Never Fade
Memories of my first Psychologist I
Memories of my first Psychologist II
Boys Shall Not Sleep Together
A Catholic student preaches to Javier
The Catholic Formula
Refuge
The Perestroika, Cuba, and the USSR I
The Perestroika, Cuba, and the USSR II
The Old Magician Jotavich I
The Old Magician Jotavich II
A member of the Communist Youth League scolds Javier