Eduardo Roca Salazar, known to the world as Choco, a prominent figure in Cuban culture passed away on 16 April 2026 in Havana.
He was a master of printmaking and collage, and his work was characterized by its expressive power and connection to Afro-Cuban cultural roots. At the age of 75, he was one of the most genuine and beloved contemporary artists on the island.
Choco was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1949 in humble circumstances, the son of a Haitian father and a Spanish mother. He said became an artist thanks to the Cuban Revolution. He graduated in 1965 from the School for Art Instructors, in 1970 from the National School of Art (ENA) and later studied Art History at the University of Havana.
He dedicated his entire life to creating and teaching. He influenced generations of artists both inside and outside of Cuba. Incorporating the textures of found objects into his printmaking and painting, he constructed his own unique universe. There, Afro-Cuban heritage, religious syncretism, and the pulse of the neighbourhood coexist.
He taught in Havana and offered printmaking courses at institutions in Spain and the United States. He was a member of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC) and had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Cuba and abroad. His work is held in many international collections.
When it was announced that Choco had been awarded the 2017 National Visual Arts Prize in Cuba, Abel Prieto recounted that the news provoked a “wave of joy.” The musicians gathered at the Ministry of Culture erupted in applause. That was Choco: an artist capable of uniting many people.
In an interview in 2024 Choco confessed to being an admirer of the work of Nicolás Guillén, Cuba’s National Poet, whom he described as “the chronicler of Black poetry, the sage of Cuban and Caribbean mestizo culture.”
When asked about the inspiration for the imagery in his work Choco explained: “I don’t practice any African-derived beliefs, but it’s part of my upbringing. My family is very involved with religion, and I can’t be completely atheist. It’s also part of my daily life in Old Havana, where I have my studio.”
Choco described how he came to use collography to make his work: “After finishing my studies at the National School of Art (ENA) and returning to Santiago de Cuba, I began to experiment with collagraphy. I think it’s been the most interesting technique I’ve developed… When I won First Prize at the Kochi Print Biennial in Japan in 2000, that technique began to gain wider recognition because before then it wasn’t included among the techniques exhibited at the event. It’s a technique full of thematic contrasts. I’ve experimented with recycled materials, cans, fragments of walls, wood… Some people credit me with having discovered it, but I always deny it. Many people call me to teach courses in Japan, Spain, and Mexico.”
Taken from cubaahora.cu and other Cuban media
BEYOND THE FRAME and Choco
In 2012, Choco was invited to participate in an art exhibition ‘Beyond the Frame’ in London and Glasgow, to help raise funds for the case of the Cuban Five, then imprisoned in the US for fighting terrorism. Choco not only fulfilled the brief and generously donated a collographic piece, but also a number of hand screenprints and his work featured on the poster above. He came to London for the opening in April 2012 and spoke at Essex University.
About the work used in the poster Choco said: “This is part of a series I have been working on dedicated to silence, to loneliness. And always with the human figure, as you see it is made in a closed place. Every one of us has been feeling these conditions at a specific moment in our life.“
MUSIC and Choco
Watch this video for a glimpse of Choco at work. Cuban musician José Luis Cortés (El Tosco) improvised a 14-minute musical piece as a gift to Eduardo Roca (Choco) in 2025. This is a fragment, edited with images, mostly from the 2016 documentary about Choco “The Man with the Broad Smile and the Sad Gaze,” Directed by Pablo Massip.
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