Cuban Photographer Roberto Chile Presents Digital Edition of "Somos" at Havana Book Fair

August 16, 2026

Cuban photographer and documentary filmmaker Roberto Chile presented a digital edition of his book "Somos" during the 34th Havana International Book Fair, held August 10-16, 2026. The presentation took place as part of the fair, one of the most significant events on Cuba's cultural and publishing calendar.

"Somos" brings together a selection of color and black-and-white photographs Chile took between 2010 and 2016, focused on memory, culture and popular religiosity in Cuban communities with strong Afro-descendant heritage, including the Havana municipality of Guanabacoa. The project was originally published in 2017 by Collage Ediciones, with essays by Herman van Hooff, Rafael Acosta de Arriba, Jesús Guanche, Francisco López Sacha and Marcos Alonso, and has been exhibited at venues including Cuba's Fototeca, Casa de América in Madrid and the Cuban Art Space gallery in New York.

Born in Havana on September 29, 1954, Chile has directed more than 80 documentaries and reports on contemporary Cuban culture, including "Desafío," "Sencillamente Korda" and "Esencias." He has received honors including the Replica of Máximo Gómez's Machete and Cuba's National Culture Distinction.

The new digital version of "Somos" aims to broaden access to a body of work the author has described as a journey through spirituality and African roots in Cuban daily life, adding to the book fair's programming dedicated to documentary photography and the island's cultural heritage.