The contemporary ceramics in Cuba encompasses history, tradition, technology, creativeness, all this linked to the process of creation of this kind of art. It is also the result of the analysis of pieces, new shapes, and trends. They are transgressive characteristic that have facilitated the path towards contemporaneity passing through different crucial moments. Looking for the ceramics history and its movements in Cuba, we made contact with Julia González who is one of the representatives of ceramics in Cuba. She dedicated some part of her life to the creation and artistic teaching of ceramics. We will approach to her imprint and her point of view on this kind of art in Cuba.

Can you tell me about your family and how did they influence on your vocation for art?

My family backgrounds are related to music. My mother studied piano and then my older sister did it, so we used listened to music at home all the time.

Personally, I was very interested in nature. My father had a small plot in the Jaronú sugar cane plantation where I was born, which is located in Camaguey central province; hence those red fruits and the little tomatoes sprigs that the girls put on their hair as ornaments when I was younger. I used to draw them on my notebooks and illustrated them according to the subject.

After my father died, I began to work on the television. There,

 I met two painters, Silia Sánchez and Julio Matilla. Thanks to them, approached myself to the plastic arts. I also collaborated with Berta Martínez, Vicente Revuelta and other artists who became outstanding figures in terms of performing arts. Then, I began to study drawing, painting and representative technique at school where I met Rolando Villaverde, a designer, José Manuel Villa Castillo or Villita, a  designer) and other artists who live abroad or left the country since they applied some scholarships after the Revolution triumphed in 1959.

Why did you choose ceramics as artistic expression?

I wanted to learn about ceramics. There were several workshops on ceramics and I was very interested in all of them because I had the possibility to learn how to make three-dimensional works.

What did José Antonio Díaz Peláez mean for you and your work?

I met Diaz Peláez and I fell in love with his sculptures; then I fell in love with him. As I had no direct link with any government institution, I thought about going to the United States to learn on ceramics. So, Peláez and I got married and went to New York.

There, my first ordeal began because he was a famous and renowned sculptor and I was just making my first steps. He had many professional commitments and I helped him to work. The knowledge and work alternatives and I acquired while helping him was the basis for my professional career. Finally, I started learning ceramics and took an English course for foreign students at the University of Washington.

Later, you worked as an official of the Cuban government to the United States and Canada. Did you stop making ceramics during that time?

Well, the Revolution triumphed in 1959 and they call me to work at the Cuba`s embassy to the United States as cultural attaché; I accepted.

I started to work there, so I could not learn anymore on ceramics or work. You know, I have a tight agenda. They asked me to give many lectures and talks about Cuba at the universities. I had to fight a battle against wild animals, but the struggle was worth it. Then I returned to my country and I was 6 months pregnant. Then, they appointed me cultural attaché at the Cuba`s embassy to Canada. I could barely go to the art exhibitions or be updated on ceramics of my country at that time.

When I returned to Cuba, I worked at the Ministry of Culture for a while. Then there was a reduction of payrolls and I was excess, but it was a good thing for me because this way I could take ceramics up again and I (Julia) could continue to be the artist I always was.

How did you begin to work at Cubanacán Workshop and then how did you manage the Amelia Peláez's workshop?

After taking my professional career up, I approached the Cubanacan ceramics workshop. There, I met Cuban artists such as Sosabravo, Reinaldo Calvo, Velázquez Virgil, Fuster among others who joined this project to work at the decoration department. They made many functional pieces in series.

The government had begun to sponsor crafts, but almost in an idealistic manner. They had to work hard and train the staff in Cuba, a country where there was no tradition on this kind of artistic expression. Crafts in Cuba was only based on fibers and some leather, but ceramics was rustic. They just made tiles, roof strips and vessels with spout, but they were not well-elaborated pieces.

By that time, I began to work with Manuel Remis Jiménez, a Cubanacán technologist who had studied at the Industrial Technique School. With his help, we began to experiment the glossy enamels, which they used regularly, to turn them into mattes or semi-mattes enamels. We did it! We also tested different kind of soils and the pieces we obtained they were on exhibition for a while.

After Amelia Peláez died, they asked me to work at Amelia's workshop and I accepted. I was in charge of the management of the workshop and created my works. It was a good stage for working; since the artists created starting from some image defined by themselves. They were able to have their own identity. In addition, we managed to have an identity as workshop. The people were able to identify any piece created by Amelia’s workshop as well as the artist who created such piece. We were the reference point to teach ceramics. I spent almost 10 years in that beautiful project, but then I decided to leave due to some issues and many contradictions.

In the 70s, many artists like you made murals. Can you tell us about such experience?

By that time, murals were made in Cuba, even the large one that is located at Revolution Palace.

In 80s, I had managed to have my own workshop with a large oven, and little by little, I began to make my murals. I made a few ones, which were located in some places such as the Latin American School of Medicine, the Varadero hotel coffee shop and others. I also made many pieces for decoration of hotels and others for the Cultural Assets Fund.

How did you get involve in the artistic teaching?

When I left Amelia's workshop, they called me to work for the artistic teaching at middle level. I was in charge of creating the national teaching program for painting, sculpture, engraving, then, I also created a program for ceramics.

Due to my experience of having lived in the capitalist system, I knew that it was very difficult for the artists just to live from what they were doing. I also realized that they needed to learn about other ways of creation, so I organized other workshops of photography, jewelry and ceramics to be taught by the best artists at that time such Raúl Martínez, Antonia Eiriz, Díaz Peláez, Sergio Martínez, Mario García Goya y otros. Just a few understood what I was trying to do.

By the 80s, there was some evolution in the Ceramic Industry in Cuba and with it, some development related to the utilitarian work. By the 90s, we had to face some worsening of the Cuba´s economic situation that we called special period. What do you remember about  it?

I lived a difficult experience at that time. There was no oil in the country due to the worsening of the economic situation we were facing. It was such a terrible thing! They could not start the ovens, because they consumed a lot and it became a big problem. No one was able to design for the industry; no one was able to manage that economic situation and bring it our reality. We had to face many absurd struggles. There was such an imbalance that most of the factories closed and little by little and we loosed what we had been achieved with great effort.

Now in 2000s, do you think that the creation of the artistic and utilitarian ceramics in Cuba have the place as is proper?

What happens to the ceramics in Cuba is that there have been many difficulties with fuel, the cost of electricity; there have been limitations with mud, enamels, and also, factories and large workshops have been closed. Anyway, creativity is the only thing that we have always had.

In developed countries, they sell products anywhere and you only have to use them. Here, you have to go out looking for what you need and not always find it. We have to live our reality based on scarcity and try to grow ourselves to face such limitations.

Anyway, I think that state institutions should pay more attention to this kind of artistic expression and do more in favor of promotion and visualization of it. There are many artists from all over the country working on ceramics. On the other part, it is necessary to train people in technical matters as a manner to improve the industry issue. It would result in a great contribution to the national economy.

Certainly, shortage related to the industry issue made the artists had fewer possibilities to acquire materials and the access to technology. Anyway, we have been able to move forward in some way and I think we can do much more if we are well intentioned. Ceramists have developed themselves in an interesting way. Now, each artist has his or her own style.

In my opinion, the greatest value of the artistic ceramics in Cuba lies on authenticity and the fact of creating despite the difficulties, which we are dealing with that, gives it more value.

There are many artists who are using use mud as a base. For instance, Marta Jiménez, a multi-awarded sculptor, is a woman of great talent, who has focused on and she achieved it despite of living in Camaguey central province (not the capital). What is done about it in Cuba is a lot and very good.

What about your work?

At first, my work was based upon nature, but then many artists began to do the same, so I needed to change my style. I started to connect my work to music, in which I have always been interested. I tried to take music to the clay, not as a shape as I did before, but as a decorative element or as an element on the surface of the object.

I intend to focus myself once again and continuing working on pieces that I have not finished since 5 or 6 years ago. Now I have a new vision because I see those pieces like dancers and I have named them Yambú, a rumba genre. I am following this path.

Ceramics has been very enriching for me. I have worked hard, I have just made a solo exhibition, and I have joined other collective ones. Now, it is not the same thing because I`m older, but I hope to continue working as long as I can. Sometimes I feel that sometimes I have more ideas than time to create.