■ "The breath of life" (excerpt) by Claudia Gomez Haro

"Eduardo Roca Salazar a.k.a Choco, was born in Santiago de Cuba and graduated at the Escuela Nacional de Arte (Cubanacan) in 1970.

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The comings and goings of everyday life continue to enthrall Choco. Each one of his "collographies" is essentially determined by the use of color, an element that the painter handles with devilish kindness. The light emanating from the painting's interior is both surprising and sensual, and lays out the terrain on which figures will be moving. Granted, Choco's works are basically figutayive, but they all share an intimate abstractionist foundation.

As a practitioner of colography, a novel technique, Choco achieves fabulous textures that bring forth volumes, chiaroscuros and a sensous depht that tempts viewers to toutch them.
This series or works are widely representative of what is happening in contemporary Cuban visual arts. Through them we perceive the island's most intensive experiences: the sugarcane grower's hand, the magical world of religion, the intimacies of tropical fruits, the scents of love coming for embracing bodies. These pieces are busy with everyday dealings, and attract us because, being both effortless and witty, they are also imbued with the exoticism of Santiago, so effectively embodied by the artist.

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Poet Victor Casaus has said that Choco enters the new millenium carrying the certainties of Creole beauty, the magic of his culture's roots and the timely interrogations that shape the identity of his beloved island."