Papito  Suarez  

EL MERTO

The tap tap tap of wood chisel and mallet in Gatosville was once a call to the neighbors to come and gossip.  Mario Sanchez and his friends and neighbors included Papito, born Faustino Suarez in Guanabacoa, Cuba, November 28th 1934. Papito came to visit Key West he fell in love with his wife Camelia and the neighborhood known as Gatoville. His Cuban passion and love for art and music was a natural bond.  He was part of a vibrant artistic community begun by his dear friend Mario Sanchez, the nationally acclaimed folk artist from Gatoville, the neighborhood surrounding the Gato Cigar Factory.  Papito joined Mario’s “school of intaglio” carvers and found his own niche in the waters and people surrounding the island. 

While Mario painted the history, people and streets of Key West, Papito was famous for its long maritime traditions. Papito was a commercial painter by trade.  Mario was a court stenographer.  Both men enjoyed depicting their delightful city through intaglios, carved painted wood.  Cedar from the cigar crated that the raw tabacco leaves were brought in was pletiful from the Gato Factory around the corner. Papito loved to make his art about the ocean; smugglers principaly, there were also Cuban rafters yearning to come for the Great American Dream, pelicans at Pelican Shoal another drug smuggler's paradise, sailing boats, power boats, rooster fights and images of old Key West and Cuba.  Smuggling marijuana was a short cut, a way to buy into the American Dream and have a stakehold.  Many a Key West business was started at sea.  El Muerto depicts one such smuggler in a desparate struggle with the law, jettisoning his square grouper cargo at sea with the Coasties tight on his tale.churning up the rough water trying to make its catch.

Papito passed in 1997 leaving a lasting memory of his time on the rock and the surrounding waters.