Jauretsi: Word On The Street

(The Economist’s article “Heroic Myth and Prosaic Failure” 12/30/08)

Very well researched piece written in the recent Economist on Fidel’s Revolution (the myth vs. the reality). An editorial like this is very tricky to write and my thoughts were, it was very balanced and well informed.

In fact, if you read my review on Che (Sodenberghs 5 hour epic), you’ll notice my biggest disappointment was the fact Soderbergh skipped 6 years of history between Part 1 film (The Triumph Cuban Revolution) and Part 2 (Che in Bolivia).

READ MY CHE REVIEW HERE.

The beginning of this article actually provides all the missing pieces left out of the film. The fact that 7 months into Fidel’s tenure as President of Cuba, that he revoked the promises of his July 26th Movement. Also mentioned is how Fidel promised to restore the 1940 Consititution of Cuba in his manifesto which Batista’s coup repudiated in 1952. Don’t forget Fidel’s Agrarian reform (to liberate Cuba from US corporations) that took a turn into nationalizing all Cuba property. And of course, then there was the alliance with Russia, which changed the nation into a Communist state. Che was a tremendous center figure in the implementation of all these twists and turns that confused and disappointed a homeland that was ripe for change. Instead of stepping away from corruption, the country turned into a police state overnight.

These are all things that Soderbergh’s Che epic conveniently left out after Part 1 ended. Only the romantic battle was shown. But after the emotional victory (of David & Goliath proportions), the audience is left wondering what became of the implementation of The Revolution, which personally, is what I find more intriguing to discuss and riddled with complicaitons.

The writer even points out:

“Communism in Cuba has had a better press than anywhere else. He has exploited the cult of Che in particular. Guevara’s myth—of the romantic rebel, not the murderous, militaristic Marxist of real life—burns as brightly as ever, recreated in hagiographical books and in a new Hollywood movie hitting American and British screens this month.”

The writer breaks down Fidel’s cryptic style when he explains…

“It was more because Mr Castro presented himself as a nationalist first and a communist second: the ‘intellectual author’ of the revolution, he always insisted, was not Marx but José Martí, a writer and political activist who perished fighting for independence in 1895. It was also because Mr Castro’s rule relied on his own charisma, his oratorical machismo and the regular mobilisation of vast crowds, as much as on the Communist Party machine or on repression.”

The chatboard after the article lights up like a Christmas tree with people arguing back and forth. Nothing polarizes people more that saying the word “Cuba” or “Che” in a room. Surprisingly, even intense Leftists are coming out of the woodworks online trying to decipher what went down 50 years later … A comment board message written by Leftist Sueco reads:

“He [Fidel] may be a great ruler in a Machiavellian sense, but his hunger for power and control trumped the ideal he once represented. Power is equally corrupting to both sides i guess. I am a leftist and yet I would never consider myself to be in the camp of a man like him. No political idea is worth the suffering of people.”

All in all. It’s worth the read so I’ll end this blog post so you can read the real thing. But I will end it with a final quote in the article, one that raps up the island in a nutshell.

“Mr Castro’s Cuba is a sad place. Although the population is now mainly black or mulatto and young, its rulers form a mainly white gerontocracy. The failure of collective farming means that it imports up to 80% of its food. The health and education systems struggle to maintain standards. Inequalities have risen. What matters for Cuban livelihoods is access to hard currency”

It is this access to hard currency (or lack thereof) that frustrates a young Entrepreneurial minded Cuban on the island today. It’s something that hopefully will change as close as 2009. For the first time ever as an American, I’m not embarassed or apologetic about my President. Obama’s tolerance, compassion, and respect towards different cultures coupled with his understanding of the dire need of democracy and access to information is reassuring. It’s restored my faith again at least in politics. I hope it serves as a beacon for my young counterparts in Cuba who have lost all faith in their future.

Just like the editorial ends, I echo the same sentiment in a positive way…

“But Mr Castro is in the late evening of his life. And what happens after him remains unclear.”

Read the Economists Heroic Myth and Prosaic Failure here.
J

The folks at Parlour Magazine pointed this video out to me. The new death rumors of Fidel have also been uttered in Miami — in whispers only — because of the last embarrassing display of parades and posters by Crazy looking Cuban-Americans on National Television in 2007.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela delivered his weekly speech in Venezuela recently and threw some loaded thoughts out to the public recently on their national television saying “The Fidel who walked the streets embracing the people will not return, and will only remain a memory.”

In an effort to not seem too conspiracy-theory-ish, I’ll just say — it doesn’t look good for the old man. He may not be dead, but he is out soon.
J

This past Christmas, I went home to Miami where one of my parents always schools me on an old Cuban flick. Here’s one worth searching out.

The Death of a Bureaucrat is directed by one of Cuba’s most famous Directors called Tomas Gutierrez Alea, the same guy who directed Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberries & Chocolate) in 1994, which was the first Cuban film ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language.

The Death of a Bureaucrat however is special to me. First off because it pokes at the nightmare bureaucratic system all Cubans go through, but this film does it in a way that makes you laugh out loud. I find this to be the shining virtue in all Cubans, how they can crack a joke during the worst of times.

The characters in DOB are something out of a Fellini or Antonioni film. After reading the Directors bio (born in 1928), I noticed he actually studied film directing in Rome during college — thus explaining his usage of Italian neorealism. After his studies, Alea returned to Cuba in 1953 (after the Revolution) and co-founded the ICAIC (Institute of Art & Cinematography) which is considered the GROUND ZERO institution for all cinema in Cuba.

Alea is an interesting filmmaker because although he developed his Director voice under the Castro administration, his films poked at the flawed Cuban system loaded with social commentary, satire, and not without controversy. The Death of a Bureaucrat was released in 1966 — 7 years deep into Fidel’s Revolution. Still, at the end of DOB, our beloved protagonist loses his mind in a bureaucratic system set up to fail him.

(The films Sculptor dedicates his life to making Jose Marti Busts)

PLOT:
When a well loved sculptor is accidentally killed by the machine he created to mass-produce busts of nineteenth-century revolutionary hero Jose Marti, his family decides he should be buried gripping his union work permit (Carnet card) as a symbol of his dedication to Castro’s cause. Unfortunately, when his wife goes to receive her pension, the paperwork cannot be completed without her dead husband’s work permit. Distraught, she enlists her nephew to exhume the body and so begins a maddening paper trail that ends in a hilarious climax exposing the insanity of bureaucracy.

It’s a tough film to find… officially an “obscure” find… there’s a few VHS tapes flying around on Amazon. All Internet searches lead to DVD’s (PAL) made in Europe. Netflix has no idea. So I suggest you go to your local geeked video spot and hope the neighborhood film enthusiast has it on their shelf.

Other classics to watch from this Director:

(Memorias del Subdesarrollo / Memories of Underdevelopment)

Las Doce Sillas (1962)
Memorias del Subdesarrollo (1968)
Los Sobrevivientes (1977)
Fresa y Chocolate (1993)
Guantanamera (1996)

RIP
Tomas Gutierrez Alea
(1928-1996)