DescriptionA small gilt metal pin cast in the shape of a burlap sack—the universal symbol of bulk commodity trade—embossed with the phrase: SIN CUOTA PERO SIN AMO. Without quota. But without a master. The slogan refers directly to the US sugar quota, cancelled by the Eisenhower administration in 1960 as economic retaliation against the revolutionary government. Sugar had been the backbone of the Cuban economy for over a century, and the quota guaranteed a preferential market in the United States. Its cancellation was meant to destabilize and starve the revolution into collapse. The pin turns that act of economic aggression into a badge of pride. Cuba lost the quota, and with it, guaranteed income and stability. But the loss is reframed as liberation from dependency, from the asymmetric relationship that had tied the island’s economy to Washington for decades. Sin amo. No master. The sack as form is precise: the very vessel of sugar export becomes the surface for the message.