(East of Havana, at Florida International University)
Back in February (the week Fidel Castro retired), I was invited to screen my documentary, East of Havana, at a Florida college and speak to some students on the state of affairs for Cuba today. By no means am I an expert. On the contrary, it seems that when you try to answer something on Cuba, it tends to beget more questions. We just traveled down to Cuba in early 2000-2004 and followed an intellectual youth movement through the vehicle of a rebellious hip hop scene. No bling. No gangster rap. Great poetry. Sony/BMG bought the film, so hopefully you’ll see it out on DVD soon. It is slated to play on the Sundance Film channel this summer.
(Information. Information. Information.)
In general, I found that Miami is now at least divided on the topic (roughly 50% split on opening the travel ban), which is different than the city’s usual monolithic right-wing approach on how to handle this transition. In short, the younger generation (on both sides of the Florida straits) are growing up, and are ready for a new line of dialogue to restore relations. All the documentation I saw at the University was pretty balanced and healthy coverage on the island today (a switch from the bitter and biased tone I witnessed growing up in Miami). In the same vein, the last 3 weeks in Cuba have been groundbreaking with talks of further “reforms”. Their economy is still a 2-tiered mess, and they need to address several human rights issues, but Raul Castro seems to be pacing himself and claiming to tackle these issues. For whatever reason, the government is loosening “the valve” on the people down there (i.e. Cubans can now walk into local hotels. Cubans can now own cell phones). These are all tiny steps, but small reforms are better than no reforms.
(The hot seat before the lecture)
If you’re curious about “word on the street” in Cuba today, read both posts on Yoani and Eliécer, 2 ballsy young Cubans stirring the pot down there.
Our new American president will play a major factor in determining the dismantling of this stubborn American Embargo. Read both Obama and Hilary’s stance on Cuba here. Watch out November 08!
J
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: badass, celia, centro, cruz, knight, pedro, vasco
Festival Recommendation
(Celia the Queen plays the Tribeca Film Festival on April 26, 2008)
Meet the “Queen of Salsa”, Celia Cruz. The trailer for the film is calm, reflective, and spans years of memories. It’s a nice ride. (Celia The Queen Trailer). Celia was a complicated woman. She spent a lifetime representing Cuba on every corner of the globe, yet she died before ever having a chance to see her homeland again. It’s deep.
Below is a sentimental pic from my childhood. It’s Celia at my fathers restaurant/supperclub in Miami where she jammed occasionally. Beside her is Pedro Knight, her husband, who was the coolest guy that hung out in our bar. Check out those lambchops!
(Celia & Pedro at Centro Vasco, Miami)
They had a great love story. They met, flirted, and hooked up while playing in the elegant big band era in 1940’s Cuba. He was a trumpet player with the orchestra La Sonora Matancera, and they made beautiful music for 15 years. They fled Cuba together and lived in exile for the rest of their lives. Total soul mates until their final days.
Celia The Queen, directed by Joe Cardona, plays Tribeca Film Fest on April 26, 2008. For tickets, go to Tribeca Film Fest site. There’s going to be lots of friends and family in the room (and in the air) that night celebrating her life.
RIP Celia Cruz
October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003
(Yoani’s “Carnet” card in Cuba)
The “Carnet” card is an ID card in Cuba. For example, it’s how you differentiate yourself to the cops, or when you pick up your monthly ration of eggs in a long line, or run errands in the formalities of socialism. If you forget the card at home, you risk being detained by the police in certain situations.
(Day in the Life. Taken with Yoani’s digital camera).
This post is mostly for the spanish speakers (sorry!)…. but Yoani has a very cool blog called Generacion Y based out of Cuba. She has gained an INCREDIBLE audience internationally on the internet. So much that the islands “powers-that-be” blocked her blog from Cuba’s readers. Locals see a message that reads “error downloading” when logging on. The rest of us however are free to read it as the government can’t mess with her server (which is presumably based in Europe). She lives in Havana.
How does she post? She used to sneak into Hotels or got “resourceful” in other ways to get on the internet (note: the internet is illegal to most Cubans). History is changing so fast that LITERALLY this week, Raul Castro, announced that Cubans can now walk into hotels (it was previously illegal for a resident to stroll into tourist spots). They can also own cell phones now. So maybe that means more diehard bloggers will emerge? It’s hard to tell. But it seems the government is loosening the valve of tension in some ways.
“I confess that I have been a bad girl” she posts about her blocked site. “So the anonymous censors of our famished cyberspace have tried to shut me in a room, turn off the light and not let my friends in”. She will however keep on living with “winking and severe scolding” (as she puts it) because she knows people out there are reading her. I’m sorta hooked myself.
The posts are mainly about daily activities — long socialist lines, who can buy a toaster, black market stuff, cool concerts, tourism thoughts. Some posts have up to 800 comments attached. Insane. But people are TALKING. Exciting.
She recently posted about the film The Lives of Others which screened at a festival in Havana, about the Stasi in 1984 (East German secret police) spying on an artist (The Lives of Others Trailer). It’s a story that is comparable to Cuba’s secret police called the CDR.
(The Lives of Others movie poster)
Her words: “The German film series, organized within the Festival del Nuevo Cine Latino Americano, brings us a story that might as well be a neighbor, or a friend or ours. We can confirm that this feeling of being observed is not a paranoid delusion in our minds, but the clear evidence of an espionage apparatus serving in the shadows.”
The Cuban government logo for the CDR is a 4 eyed Smurf that is painted all over the island as a reminder that the “Committee for the Defense of the Revolution” is always watching.
(Cuba’s CDR logo. Photographed by Angela Boatwright for East of Havana)
She then goes on: “Techniques such as intervening telephone lines, houses filled with microphones, or blackmailing someone with their darkest perversions, are tactics that the restless ones at the Interior Ministry have no copyright on.”
STRONG WORDS coming from a local Cuban…. Did I mention she’s an awesome writer too?
To read her blog, go to Generacion Y to keep up with “word on the street” in Cuba today if you are interested to see how this Revolution unfolds.
J
