One day Carlos Jaramillo ended up on a roof of a half-fallen down building in Old Havana noticing a guy across the street playing around with neon-colored pigeons in the sky and telling them where to go.

How did you even hear about the so-called pigeon race in Cuba?
I'd actually never heard of pigeon racing in Cuba till after I met pigeon racer, Erislandy, from Old Havana. He introduced me to a bunch of other pigeon racers and took me to some racing events where I ended up learning more about the sport.

Is it a national sport only?
It’s pretty much international. There’s also pigeon racers from Europe like Spain, Portugal and Germany, that come to Cuba to compete. They even help local pigeon racers with donating items for pigeon racing that don't exist in Cuba.But of course people from all over Cuba participate in the sport- theyeven take boats into the mainland from islands around Cuba to compete.

How did you meet Erislandy?
I ended up going to Cuba before Obama lifted the travel ban so the only way to get into Cuba from the US was to go with a some kind of organization. I ended up going with a group of artists and skateboarders to help the art and skate scene by bringing duffel bags full of skate gear and art supplies. I had this idea about doing a photo series on the skate scene in Cuba since it was so unique but I quickly realized that there was already so many photographers and people doing a video documentary on the same subject. Anytime a skater would show up they would get swarmed with a video team and a bunch of photographers, it was kinda whack... A day or two later I ended up breaking away from that group and decided I wanted to explore Cuba. I didn’t care to take the typical Cuba street photos we see all the time, so I had no expectations to work on a project while I explored around. One day I ended up on a roof of a half-fallen down building in Old Havana and noticed a guy across the street on a separate building playing around with his pigeons in the sky and telling them where to go. Luckily I know Spanish, and I hollered over at him and asked him if I could come over. He kindly waved his arm to come on by and once I got there I instantly knew I had stumbled into something very special.

Have you seen him actually putting the colors onto the birds - what was that like?
Yeah, I’ve seen him dye his pigeons a few times. It’s funny because I recently saw people commenting online how it’s animal cruelty and how terrible it is for the pigeon. These pigeons are loved, taken care of and fed so they don’t have to worry about hunting down their own food everyday. These are pigeon athletes so the last thing the pigeon racers want to do is harm them... The dye is also meant specifically for pigeons so it doesn’t actually do any harm to them. There’s a specific way to handle the pigeon with dying them and using a sponge is typically the best way to do it. You then cage it outside and let it dry out in the sun before letting the bird fly around.

When was the first moment you decided: "I want to go to Cuba and live a week with this manand his fluorescent pigeons“…
The first time I went to Cuba, I only spent 3 days with Erislandy and during those days it was grey and cloudy and didn’t capture those bright sunny and colorful images you see all the time from Cuba in the background. When I came back I knew I wanted to go back and spend a week with him again photographing him and his pigeons since there was so much more to explore. Unfortunately, I had lost contact with him for 2 years up until a videography student, who was doing a documentary piece on him, had contacted me telling me he had been also trying to get in contact with me. Once she had put me in contact with him, we coordinated dates to come out there during a pigeon racing event and I spent a whole week photographing every single day morning to night. After that trip I had learned that there are way more than one pigeon sporting event in Cuba and wanted to try to cover as much of it as possible. I’ve then gone back a few more times to expand the work even more.

What is your personal background: Where do you come from?
I was born in a border town called McAllen, TX but currently living in NYC. My mom is Mexican and dad Colombian which is where I learned Spanish.

Let’s talk about your south-american roots: which role do they play in your photographies?Growing up we where kinda raised by our parents to be more American to“fit in”within the culture. I think maybe there was some shame in me being Latino growing up and kind of never embraced it fully. People have butchered my last name my whole life and a lot of people now still can’t pronounce it properly. The older I got the more I wanted to connect with those roots and what led me to want to travel to all these Latin American countries to create work. At one point I was worried that I was only making photos in Latin America, but I kind of said fuck it and embraced it. It’s who I am I’m more proud than ever in having Latin roots!

Please just tell us randomly what you loved most about your experience shooting this story.
It’d probably have to be all the crazy situations and experiences I got into from just hanging out with locals everyday in Cuba. I was living and eating like a true local and living in Cuba is extremely rough and poor. During one of our expeditions we went a few hours outside of Havana to photograph a pigeon racing event. We had stayed a few days in tiny studio hotels rooms so it was 4 of us crammed into a room. They would heat up a bucket of water with the electricity in the wall to make hot water for showering. It was probably the poorest living conditions that I lived in but looking back there was something surreal about all of it.

What are we going to see next from you?
I’m currently working on my first photo book on a series I worked on in Lima, Peru. I explored two prisons and the towns they’re located in. I’ve only shown them through two separate art shows and haven’t had the work published anywhere so I’m pretty excited to release the photos via book form. I’m working with a publishing company called Discipline Press who is ran by the amazing artist, Tamara Santibañez. She’s worked on a few projects with incarcerated men and woman and also teaches/volunteers in prisons in her free time. Discipline Press was the perfect publishing company for this project and really excited to have this book released by end of 2019.

And just to close this on a personal note: What inspires you the most?
I think photo books have been inspiring me the most at the moment. There’s something special about seeing a body of work curated by the artist and seeing images that don’t exist in the digital world. The artist, Stephen Gill has also been aspiring me a lot lately. I love his approach to photo book making and his photos of animals are mind blowing.

What givesyou life at the moment?
Working on my personal photo projects is mainly what gives me purpose and life. I’ve also started surfing a couple years ago and that has been giving me a lot of life lately. There’s something nice being in the ocean and connecting with nature and also disconnecting from technology. This past year I got diagnosed with and beat cancer and then few weeks later injured my back and was out for 2 months. It was a pretty brutal beginning of this year but surfing has helped me with realizing that doing what makes you happy is way more important than working your life away.

What is your favorite food and why?
Burgers and Mexican food. Shake Shack in NYC is always a place I try to go to if I happen to be near one. I grew up eating home made Mexican food and also lived in Mexican neighborhoods. NYC has the worst Mexican food and people always tell me about taco spots that they swear by but in my opinion it’s just not that good. I love going to California because there’s a much bigger Mexican community there and I’m always stumbling on great and different types of Mexican food. Nothing beats moms home cooking, though.