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Photographer Chronicles 2 Women On 8,000-Mile Journey Migrating From Cuba To U.S.

In 2015, Cubans began leaving in droves when the fate of a decades-old U.S. immigration policy hung in the balance. Photographer Lisette Poole went with two of them to document their journey north.
Marta Amaro and Liset Barrios take a minute to rest after crossing a river in the Darien Gap, the untamed jungle that engulfs the Colombia-Panama border. Photographer Lisette Poole went with them to document their journey north.

Photojournalist Lisette Poole's new book of photographs was born out of a simple observation: Cuba was in the middle of a mass exodus, and it seemed to her that no one in Havana could keep their minds off it.

La paloma y la ley — which translates to "The dove and the law" — is a book of photographs and essays that documents the arduous migration journey of two Cuban women, Marta Amaro and Liset Barrios, from Havana to the U.S.

Poole shot photographs and tookthey hoped would guide them north. The book — Poole's first — is a collection of images that captures Marta and Liset on the move: on endless bus rides; in thick, wild jungles; and floating down rivers in rafts. In many of the photographs, the two women are pictured traveling alongside other migrants who hailed from countries that dot the globe: Somalia, Haiti, Nepal and Bangladesh, among others.

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