A Superficial Love stems from multiple bicycle trips to Cuba. During this time, the Cuban government was making incremental changes to open and expand the economy, and with each trip, I noticed subtle signs of a country tumbling towards a new kind of future.
Cycling from town to town, I knew my notion of the Caribbean utopia with a revolutionary past was overly romanticized. Although many Cubans expressed support for their society, many others longed for the freedom and opportunity of the outside world – a world I personified. I understood their desire for freedom, but simultaneously felt confined by my own society's materialism.
In a sense, we had fallen into a mutual, superficial love of what we believed the other represented.