20051007 - Juan Carlos Santana paints in the back of Tampa Cigar Inc.
in Ybor City. When Santana learned that his brother living in Tampa
had suffered a heart attack, he didn't think twice about crossing the
Mexican border to see him. Even if it meant leaving behind friends and
family, an art school he founded and a collection of his own works
that began almost half a century ago. He'd have to work in a factory
for a while, with no car to get him there. He'd have to go back to
school to learn how to speak English. He'd have no portfolios to show
for the works that won him 30 national and international prizes in
Cuba. He would have to start with a blank canvas at 52. Two years
later, his colorful canvases line the walls of Tampa Cigar Inc. in
Ybor City, where he paints every evening into the night, curly white
hair tucked casually into a baseball cap and light eyes focused on his
work through small spectacles. (Brian Cassella / St. Petersburg Times
