Guillermo Cassola "Rigo"

Born on January 9, 1961. From his early childhood he felt strongly inclined to drawing. He started copying illustrations from magazines and newspapers and gradually he developed his self-taught skills.

Except for a workshop he attended in his childhood at the National Library of Cuba (that ended in the completion of a book that included three of his drawings), he never had any specific artistic training. In the following years he continued drawing although he never intended to become an artist; he simply liked to draw.

In high school, Rigo worked at a Restoration Unit focused on repairing and decorating hairdressers and barbers’ shops in Havana. Throughout his youth he was employed in various jobs although none of them linked to the visual arts. In his thirties, under the influenced of a friend, he developed a serious approach to drawing but only as a means of personal satisfaction.

He first started working on canvas with printing ink, but following a family problem he lost all works of this period. When he started drawing again, Rigo made cartoons on recycled paper mostly recovered from the waste of his current workplace, where he is employed asa keeper, but he also resorts to other waste deposits. He is equally engaged in collecting jars, cans and any items found in the periphery of these garbage dumps, an occupation colloquially designated as “tanquero”.

The stories of his comics usually reflect characters adopted from the Cuban reality he has known. He is also interested in alien characters from outer space every time he feels the need to escape this world that, in his opinion, has become hostile.

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