Reina Ledon Perez was born in 1927 in the town of Guira de Melena, in La Habana province, Cuba. “ Since I was 10 or 11 years old, I had many occupations in different companies. I worked selecting potatoes and collecting peanuts and beans for the Americans. They paid me a daily wage, but it was very low.” Since 1952, when she was divorced and her children grown, she has lived in the province of Pinar del Rio, at the far western end of Cuba.

Reina Ledon is a self-taught painter who proudly calls her work “primitive”. “I began painting in 1985, after I retired. I never attended art school, I am self-taught.” Reina Ledon focuses her work on the rural life and lush landscape of her region, particularly the idyllic valley of Vinales, with its striking “mogote” land formations. “I was born and raised in the country; that is why I paint landscapes and birds.”
Reina Ledon has had several one-woman shows, as well as many group exhibits in Cuba. Her work has been exhibited internationally – in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Nicaragua, Venezuela and the United States.
“I was born surrounded by songs and dialogues of birds and the murmurs of palm trees.”

(Quotations and some of the biographical information courtesy of author Gerald Mouial in his book Magic Art in Cuba).