8A (Practical Stage) 1989 oil on raw canvas, 38.5 x 38.5 centimeters (15.157 x 15.157 inches). Glexis Novoa Studio, Miami.
The acronym “8A” refers to the consecutive pronunciation of the number and letter in Spanish—‘ocho-a’—and emerged as a euphemism for Arnaldo Ochoa Sánchez, a Division General in the Revolutionary Armed Forces. He was sentenced to death by firing squad on July 13, 1989, following a nationally televised trial known as “Case No. 1 of 1989″—a judicial proceeding intended to set an example, orchestrated by the Communist Party of Cuba as a radical political purge.
The portrait, rendered in the style of a medal or coat of arms, commemorates an apocryphal figure. A close look reveals the hairstyle and uniform from well-known photographs of the Soviet revolutionary and former Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Joseph Stalin, while the facial profile is recognizable as that of the disgraced General Ochoa. The work was painted in Havana in the months following the execution; the use of coded symbolism enabled its exhibition and publication in prominent international media outlets shortly thereafter. This underscores how the survival of artistic practice required strategies to critique a system that scrutinized every step and every implication suggested by any work of art. The pragmatism embedded in the work’s structure ensured the effectiveness of its message and the subversive impact of the art during a dark period in the history of Cuban society.