Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Sometimes a playing card is just a playing card. That gal has a cigar and a playing card.
The description for the picture {Article: Meet the Madama - the worldly and the mystical powers of Caribbean women} reads:
"One key image, with provocative aspects of it's own, portrays an iconic Madama with a cigar. The painting comes from Cuba, but [the show curator] describes it as a multicultural mix in which 'everything means something.' The white dress means purity. The red kerchief and colorful beaded jewelry represent different dieties relating to the West African origins and New World religious practices of Santeria.
The Madama holds up a card from the Spanish game of Brisca, indicating the long shadow of European colonialism. The cigar connects to the indigenous Taino and Carib people's cultivation of tobacco, and the flower in her head tie is traditionally associated with rituals for fertility, love, money, and luck. 'Cultural blend is what she represents,' says the show curator, noting that centuries of mixing and mingling created the various cultures of the Caribbean.
Given all this cultural mingling, it is important to consider the context. That cigar, for example, is not a challenge to gender stereotyping, but as tobacco, symbolizes a link in the slave trade between Africa and America. Also, the curator says, the cigar is a tribute to the gods and cigar smoke is a ritual offering, suggesting possible kindship with the northern Native American ceremonial peace pipe. Thus the cigar emphasizes the religious role of this particular Madama."