Carlos Manuel Soto

By JO-ANN JOHNSTON, The Tampa Tribune Published: November 7, 2007 YBOR CITY - Carlos Manuel Soto, a Cuban-born painter who sought political refuge in Tampa seven years ago, was found dead Monday at his home. The Tampa Police Department determined the 52-year-old's death was a suicide. Soto began his career in his native country, where he taught art and painting for more than 20 years. But his progress stalled because of Soto's opposition to Fidel Castro. "They the Cuban government fired me from my job as professor of art," Soto said in a 2005 interview with Centro Mi Diario, a Spanish-language weekly published in Tampa by Media General, which also owns The Tampa Tribune. "I couldn't exhibit my work for more than 10 years, so I held exhibits in the homes of my friends." In 2001, Soto and his then-wife, Magaly Soto, immigrated to the United States. They brought along only five of his paintings, she recalled Tuesday, and a passion to continue his work. "He came with a lot of energy and strength," she said. But the artist faced financial hardships - there is no money for a funeral, his family said - and other disappointments. In the 2005 Centro interview, Soto said his new work reflected criticism of American culture. "I want to highlight the excess of materialism, the lack of spirituality, the alienation," he said. Soto also wanted more for the arts world in Tampa, according to his stepson, Carlos Polo. Soto wanted Tampa to be recognized as an arts center. He wanted to see an art school that would educate students regardless of their financial means. He wanted the public to have a greater appreciation of the effort artists put into their work, his stepson said. That was what friend and fellow painter Favio Castan said he admired most about his contemporary. Soto "put his sensitivity on the canvas," Castan said. People still have the chance to experience Soto's work. His paintings are among those featured during Arte 2007, Tampa Bay's Festival of the Americas. Works from artists originally from South and Central America and the Caribbean are on display in 40 venues. One of those locations is Gallery Flight 19 at Tampa Union Station, 601 Nebraska Ave., where curators have gathered works - on exhibit through Nov. 17 - from 16 contemporary Latin American artists. A free public reception is set at the gallery from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday.