Re: Continuing the Cuba: re Guantanamera

["Jose G. Perez" <jgperez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Philip wrote:

>Given that this was made by one of the top Cuban directors, someone
>obviously quite close to the regime, I took it as a very clear indicator of
>the way things are going in Cuba and of the attitude of the powers-that-be.
>It was an extraordinarily cynical film, out with the old command economy
>and in with the market.
>
>I have seen a string of Cuban films, all of which were critical of things
>within Cuban society, but from a standpoint which was very much *within*
>the Cuban Revolution.  'Guantanamera' was completely different.  It was one
>of the most cynical films I have ever seen, of any type, from any country.
>In the place of the old command economy, personified by the hack left
>talking to himself on a gravestone in the rain, it romanticised and
>idealised the rugged young petty-bourgeois entrepreneur.  He was offered up
>as the way forward.


I think your interpretation of this film is strained; but even moreso your
attempt to say that the message of this film somehow embodies some sort of
programmatic statement by the Cuban leadership.

The anti-bureaucratic theme of the movie is not much different from "Death
of a bureaucrat" which was made in the mid-1960s. I think what you're seeing
in the film is what you bring to it, your prejudices against Cuba and its
leadership.

The position of Cuba on the question of whether the road forward is
socialism or capitalism is quite well known. Even before the collapse of
"really existing socialism," Fidel amended his traditional "Patria o Muerte"
closing to his speeches with an additional line:  "Socialismo o Muerte."

This is the line that Cuba has followed for a decade since the fall of the
Berlin Wall, and the top leaders of the revolution have made it absolutely
clear that this is the line they will continue to follow.

It is simply false to say that the Cuban government has reintroduced the
market as the guiding principle of the internal Cuban economy. The
priorities for economic activity, the allocation of resources, continue to
be set by political decisions.

José


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