This is a grasshopper woven from grass. I bought it at a bus rest stop while on a tour of Cuba in December 2016. A young man, and possibly his sister, was sitting at the rest stop with a collection of these freshly woven grasshoppers for sale to any tourist who might wander by.
My daughter and I were with Go Ahead Tours, and this trip was focused on art and music, with stops at a music school for children and with various artists. The rest stop may have been when we went from Havana to Cienfuegos. We got out of the bus to walk around, and when I saw these hand-woven grass grasshoppers, I had to have one. Even now that it’s dried, it’s still lovely.
This trip was just a month after our election, and on our last day, we had a chance to ask our tour guide about Cuba, but he wanted to know, what about Trump? What kind of president would he be? He was obviously wondering what Trump would mean for Cuba, since travel like ours was still linked to art and education. And Trump did ban individuals going to Cuba for these purposes in 2017 and group travel in 2019.
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What a unique object. Vendors sold similar ones, along with other little sculptures in Mexico. I like the stories these objects hold.
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