# Cuba Bids Farewell to Choco, the Renowned Cuban Painter and Printmaker Eduardo Roca Salazar

**Date:** 04/17/2026

Cuban culture is in mourning. On the morning of Thursday, April 16, 2026, Eduardo Roca Salazar, universally known by his artistic name Choco, passed away in Havana. One of the most celebrated painters and printmakers in Cuban history and a defining figure of Latin American visual art, his death represents an irreparable loss for the cultural heritage of the island and for art lovers around the world.

Born on October 13, 1949, in Santiago de Cuba, Choco was a pioneer of collagraphy in his homeland. He studied at the Instructors of Art School, the National Art School, and later earned a degree in Art History from the University of Havana. His work — deeply rooted in Afro-Cuban identity and in the faces of ordinary people — earned him Cuba's National Prize for Visual Arts in 2017, the National Order of Culture (1995), the Grand Prize at the IV Triennale of the Japan Graphic Arts Institute (1999), and first place at the Kochi Print Biennial (2000), among other awards in Bulgaria and Spain. He was a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), the Havana Experimental Printmaking Workshop, and the International Association of Plastic Artists.

Choco's works are part of the permanent collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana, the Estampa Museum in Mexico City, the Kochi Museum in Japan, and the Miró Foundation in Spain, as well as museums and galleries across the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Colombia, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. Cuba's head of state Miguel Díaz-Canel and former president Raúl Castro sent floral tributes to the state funeral held in Havana, paying tribute to the monumental legacy of one of Cuba's greatest cultural figures.