The Surreal Images of Erick and Elliot Jiménez

In 1954, the Cuban ethnographer Lydia Cabrera published “ El Monte ,” a book that committed to paper the hitherto oral history of major Afro-Cuban religious traditions. Its title, which translates roughly to “The Wilderness,” refers not only to nature but to the separate, sacred space where, for those who practice Palo Monte and Lucumí—better known as Santería—spirits and deities reside. For decades, the book has informed the art of Cuban nationals and the Cuban diaspora. Among its readers was the artist Ana Mendieta, who was sent to the United States by her parents as a child, and for whom “El Monte” served as a lifeline to a homeland that haunted her work. Later, the Cuban collagrapher Belkis Ayón drew from Cabrera’s research to create the characters that populate her strange œuvre: on