The sight of an obese person suggests extreme disease and ill health; here a disabled man is seen in competition with a tortoise representing the cuban government each one inches along in a mockery of the "Tortoise and the hare" story.The decaying city of havana sits on the turtle's back,while the farmlands of cuba sprout from the obese man's pale distended skin. In pantoja's paintings, symbolic images convey the complex and tense relationship between cuba's leadership and its people.both symbols often suffer similar maladies: exhaustion, the sprouting of tendrils malnourishment, starvation.skulls and skeletons often lay strewn across the bleak landscape as a reminder of the innocent people who have died as a result of political oppression there. in observing these complex relationship,the viewer gets a glimpse into the transmogrifying effect of power on both the victim and wielder