COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio artist David Griesmyer said the colorful, resilient Cuba he’s frequented looked different his most recent trip as the island nation continues under a U.S.-induced blackout.

“To see the whole nation just plunge into darkness, it was odd,” Griesmyer said. “But then to see all the grandmas holding up battery powered lights in the dark and seeing children kicking a makeshift ball down the streets through the city, everybody was outside talking … It didn’t stop them. They’re there. There’s a fire inside of that. But it was dark. It was dark.”

The darkness was brought on by an American fuel blockade that has created a nationwide blackout and brought the tourism industry to a screeching halt. President Donald Trump has commented about a possible takeover of Cuba, where residents are living without power, heat or clean water.

The issue is front of mind for 60 Ohio artists, business and government leaders who traveled to the Havana Bienal last year, a prestigious international art festival. Ohio artists with close ties to the Cuban art scene want Ohioans to think about Cuba’s people, not its politics, as the blackout goes on.

“They are so resilient,” Michael Reese, Columbus art consultant, said. “And I just believe tomorrow’s going to be better because if they don’t go down the rabbit hole, they’ll never get out. So they just push on.”

The U.S. has maintained an economic embargo on Cuba since the 1960s, when Cuba became the center of a Cold War confrontation between two superpowers. In 1962, the Soviet Union attempted to deploy nuclear weapons to Cuba, which sits 90 miles away from the southern tip of the U.S. The attempt led to the 16-day Cuban Missile Crisis, considered the closest the Cold War came to using nuclear arms.

Cuba has been under U.S. embargo since, but the situation turned dire in January when the U.S. cut off access to Venezuela, Cuba’s main oil supplier. The U.S. has also blocked fuel and product deliveries from trading partners like Mexico.

In capital city Havana, home to 2 million people, residents are living without ways to keep food cold or operate water treatment plants. Residents can only cook using charcoal grills and have no internet access. Ohio documentarian Tariq Tarey is making a film about the Cuban people and said outside Havana, resources are scarcer.

“It is literally dark ages. Water scarce, internet is gone for weeks on end. Horse and buggy is the only thing that’s moving,” Tarey said. “It is dire. It’s absolutely dire.”

It had already been difficult to get items before the blackout. The coalition who attended the Bienal each brought a second suitcase stuffed with necessities to give away. Tarey recalled visiting a Cuban clinic and noting medical equipment that read “Made in East Germany,” a nation that has not existed for 36 years.

Columbus City Councilmember Lourdes Barrosa de Padilla was among those who traveled to the Bienal last year, accompanied by her mother and daughters. Barrosa de Padilla’s parents fled Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, and she showed her daughters the small village her parents grew up in. Now, family tells her conditions are difficult.

“The challenge is that there’s not petroleum, there’s not cash. You cannot run a generator either,” Barrosa de Padilla said, adding a cousin had just three hours of power for a week due to the blockade.

Griesmyer was in Havana in mid-March and said the streets were empty of the thousands of tourists he’d grown used to seeing. While there, he watched the city go dark. He also witnessed an afternoon where Elon Musk used StarLink technology to temporarily give everyone in Cuba free Internet.

“This was history,” Griesmyer said. “And one of the people said to me, ‘Yes, we want electricity, but we want the freedom to be able to communicate and to to talk to people and know what’s going on.’ Because that’s scarier than not having electricity, just to not know.”

Starlink is not officially permitted to be used in Cuba, and Cuban officials allege Musk is breaking U.S. trade restrictions by providing free internet. Cuban officials are also worried about possible aggression from the U.S. as Trump threatens military intervention.

“I do believe I’ll be … having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump said in mid-March. “Whether I free it, take it – think I could do anything I want with it. You want to know the truth. They’re a very weakened nation right now.”

Barrosa de Padilla said Trump’s threats to take over Cuba are complicated. She said the people of Cuba know their current government isn’t working, but feels American intervention in other countries’ governments is not putting America First.

While visiting Cuba, Barrosa de Padilla’s mother died from a heart attack. Barrosa de Padilla said her mother took her final breath in the homeland she loved, surrounded by the poverty she fled.

“It was a beautiful end to my mother’s story because she died in her hometown with her sister, her last living sibling,” Barrosa de Padilla said. “And the place where she first opened her eyes, she closed.”

Reese and Griesmyer said despite the darkness, lack of resources and uncertainty, the people of Cuba believe things will get better. Griesmyer said neighbors share the food he brings to the island so everyone can eat. He said people are dancing through the darkness.

There is much more to the story of Ohio, art, life and Cuba. See the full story on Sunday Briefing at 10 a.m.