Pink-Haired GOLLUM:
A Photographer’s Encounter
“Within the first 24 hours of arriving in Cuba, I was low-key assaulted and had my camera held hostage briefly by a 4’10” old woman with pink hair. I’ll be honest; I didn’t see that coming.
I noticed a large Cuban flag hanging on the side of a building across the street from a Communist Revolution memorial and wanted to get a quick shot. The wind was blowing the flag away from the building so I waited for a bit hoping it would lie flat. Just as I raised my camera to get a few frames, a tiny, frail woman walking by on the sidewalk stopped, turned toward me, and smiled, completely blocking my shot. I figured that she mistook my attempted shot of the building behind her for a tourist trying to take her picture. I smiled and took a few sympathy shots not wanting to be rude. I mouthed a quick, “gracias,” hoping that she’d continue walking by so I could get the flag shot. Instead, she smiled sweetly and gestured that she wanted to see the back of my camera. I politely pulled up her picture as she leaned in close, put her hand on my arm, and stared at the screen.
As I pulled back and tried to resume shooting, she squeezed my arm tightly, grabbed my camera strap, and snapped her head towards me with the coldest, most terrifying gaze. Her eyes were black and hardened, the quiet old lady replaced by a tiny, crouching figure gripping me with both hands like a Latin version of Gollum. “DOLLAR!” she snarled in a low, guttural whisper. I tried to step back in shock, but one hand dug tightly into my arm and the other held my camera strap like a vice grip. “Yes … Si …” I stammered moving a hand to the money belt under my shirt; only then did one of her hands relax its grip. I blindly pulled out a single $1 dollar bill which Gollum snapped up quickly, shuffling away.
The strange thing is that I would have gladly paid her for her photo if she had simply asked for a dollar. Instead, she was apparently desperate enough for money that she was willing to physically take on an American twice her size rather than risk rejection.”
