With an artistic presentation on the reality of Cuba at the Cuban embassy in France, Italian photographer Giovanni di Stefano seeks today to materialize a simple motivation: I want to help Cuba, where wonderful people live.

"I want to raise money to help the people in Cuba" was the central idea of his brief exchange with Prensa Latina, minutes before presenting at the diplomatic mission a window into the reality of the Caribbean nation, with the purpose of raising funds to help it.

If everything goes well and I manage to sell my photographs, because printing them is expensive, I will return to Cuba to continue helping people, commented the Italian artist residing in this nation.

For Stefano, the genocidal blockade of more than six decades exercised by the United States is a process he still needs to understand better, as he confesses.

What the Italian artist does not understand now is why U.S. President Donald Trump is doing this, referring to the strengthened economic siege on the island.

"But the people I know there (in Cuba) are wonderful and they are good friends, they are people who love music. That is why I do not understand why Cuba is treated so badly. It is madness," commented Stefano, who last traveled to the Caribbean nation in 2025.

By that time, Trump maintained a strengthened blockade, but had not yet imposed the energy siege, which began on January 29 of this year, along with the measures to prevent foreign companies from trading with Cuba, put into practice last May 1.

Stefano told Prensa Latina that he went to Cuba in 2002. Although he had been there before for work reasons, he said that at that time he could not get to know the country much because he was dedicated to another activity, not photography.

In 2002, after having worked as a photographer for some years, I rented a car and decided to take my family on vacation to Cuba. I fell in love with the country immediately: for its cars, its lifestyle, for everything that Cuba is, confessed the artist.

I met wonderful people. My family returned home, but I stayed because I wanted to take more photographs, he stated. I returned six times in four years to continue my photographic project. I met many people who are now my friends and who face enormous difficulties to get ahead and have no money, they lack almost everything. That is why I try to help them from here, he argued.

Then I thought: I am going to organize an exhibition for humanitarian purposes, said the photographer. The last time I went to Cuba was in December 2025, just before Trump changed everything. The situation worsened a lot and that gave me even more reasons to act, said the Italian artist.

A friend suggested I exhibit some of my photographs in his medical office, not far from here, and I exhibited nine photographs and sold one. I sent part of the money to Cuba, to the people I know, he confessed.

But I thought we had to do more and that is why I got in touch with the Cuban Embassy, they liked the project very much and suggested I organize a larger exhibition at their headquarters. And that is what we are doing now, he explained.

More than 20 enlarged photographs of Cuba opened a new window on the reality of that nation by a person who took it as obvious to contribute a sense of justice in the face of what is imposed on the island from the United States.