UC Berkeley Lucero

Title A Lesson in Synthesis: Nation Building and Images of a "New Cuba" in Fresa y chocolaté

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56v5c22m

Journal Lucero, 7(1)

ISSN 1098-2892

Author A'ness, Francine

Publication Date 1996

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Lucero Vol. 7,1996

A Lesson in Synthesis: Nation Building and Images of a "New Cuba" inFresa y chocolaté

Francine A'ness, University of California, Berkeley Introduction I. What is a nation? Fresa y chocolate, written by Senel Paz, filmed under the direction of veteran Cu­ The nation ... is an abstraction, an al­ ban film-maker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and legory, a myth that does not correspond released by the Instituto Cubano de Arte e to a reality that can be scientifically Industria Cinematográfico in 1993, is an defined. innovative Cuban film that makes use of (José Carlos Mariâtegui)1 old conventions. The mildly melodramatic plot of "boy meets girl" is polemidzed by A nation is much more than a geo­ the addition of a homosexual protagonist, graphical location occupying a place of so that in Fresa y chocolate "boy meets boy greater or lesser prominence on a map. It (meets girl)." As the equation indicates, this is moreover a consensual idea, a cultural simple and potentially volatile plot is made and political construct, an abstraction that palatable to mainstream audiences and is given form, unity, and meaning in the official censors through a good dose of hu­ realm of discourse.2 As Mariâtegui indi­ mor and a heterosexual frame of reference. cates in the opening quotation, the idea of Yet Fresa y chocolate is far from reactionary. the nation is often formulated and sus­ The film is better understood when it is tained by means of allegory or fictions that seen as part of an allegorical convention incarnate and dramatize the conflicting that forms a fundamental part of the post- forces at play in the construction of nation­ revolutionary Cuban film industry. Such hood. allegories are used to dramatize the vari­ To begin with, these fictions are politi­ ous forces at work in contemporary Cuba cal. Whoever leads a nation is under con­ and theorize on what it means to be Cu­ stant pressure to define it from within and ban. I will argue that the simple plot of differentiate it from what lies outside its Alea's film is actually an allegory of the established borders. These borders are both nation—not only as it is now, but as it was physical and ideological in nature, and and as it could be, with some effort, in the provide the initial form in which the idea future. I will study the nation as a theo­ of the nation is contained. The next stage retical construct and proceed by highlight­ in the nation-building process unites all ing the role of Cuban film in the nation­ those who lie within these borders, no building process. The article will conclude matter how heterogeneous, with some with a detailed analysis of the film so as to common bonds. Timothy Brennan asserts render the above process explicit. that "the idea of nationhood is...a formal

86 Nation Building and Images of a ’’New Cuba” binding together of disparate elements" the fragments that fell when the old nation (62). This is achieved by insisting on and was forced apart. finding ways to demonstrate the common­ The Cuban film industry was to play a ality amongst nationals, as well as supply­ principal role in this process by generat­ ing them with a sense of belonging. The ing films that could provide positive im­ process is then completed by establishing ages of both the new nation and all those a series of myths and symbols that in some who formed a part of the revolutionary way ratify and preserve the national es­ process. Less than three months after the sence, such as a flag, an anthem, or a hero.3 Rebel Army—led by Fidel Castro, Che National culture, in turn, plays a cen­ Guevara, and Camilo Cienfuegos—entered tral role in the construction and preserva­ Havana on January 1, 1959, the Instituto tion of the idea of the nation. It provides Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinema­ the various discourses that speak on be­ tográfico was established. Tomás Gutiérrez half of the people. It is also responsible for Alea, one of ICAIC's best known film-mak­ the allegories in which the people (that ers, succinctly captured the philosophy homogenous and equally fictive receptor behind the creation of the Institute when of the national discourses) see themselves he asserted that "el sentido de la reflected or represented, and from which Revolución se encama en la cultura, que they can derive a sense of belonging and es donde se evidencia el proceso de develop a degree of pride.4 AsHomi transformación del hombre."5 Bhabha points out, "The people are not In his book The Cuban Image: Cinema and simply historical events or parts of a patri­ Cultural Politics in Cuba, Michael Chanan otic body politic. They are also a complex studies in detail the integral and integrat­ rhetorical strategy of social reference” (297). ing role of ICAIC in post-revolutionary Cuba. He concludes that: II. Allegories of a New Nation—The Role of Cuban Film The Cuban film-makers who cre­ The idea that the nation is a construct ated ICAIC set out to provide the bound together by consensual fictions, has Revolution with a new way of see­ been explicit in post-revolutionary Cuba ing, of looking and watching. They where, for more than three decades, the were not interested in using cinema government has endeavored to assure that simply to reflect a given world, but both political and cultural discourses at­ wanted to be able to intervene with tempt to define and give form to the new their projected images and help re­ nation and the new nationals spawned by shape it. (297) the Revolution of 1959. After the Revolu­ tion, Cuba's physical borders did not re­ The result is that most of the early films ally change, but its ideological ones did. produced by ICAIC were documentaries, The idea of the nation underwent a radical docu-dramas or histories that dealt specifi­ overhaul and new fictions, myths, and al­ cally with the Revolution or the historical legories were required to help consolidate forces that had deemed it necessary. This

87 Lucero Vol. 7,1996 was only interesting for a while; before III. Who is Cuba?—Fresa y chocolate's long audiences were demanding a broader "Hymn to Tolerance" range of fiction and film-makers were rec­ While resorting to a convention in cin­ ognizing the need for variety (Chanan 276). ematic form, Fresa y chocolate is nonethe­ Once again Tomás Gutiérrez Alea was less still revolutionary in content. This can one of those filmmakers. In a 1986 inter­ be seen by the way in which the film was view he claimed that "our role is to be received by Cuban audiences. Diego united with the revolutionary process" but Rottman describes a common scene at Ha­ immediately added that "if it doesn't reach vana cinemas: the people, it is of no use" (Burton 125). The people at ICAIC were therefore faced La película termina y para salir se with the challenge of creating audience­ abre un portón lateral que facilita pleasing films that were still ideologically la desconcentración. Pero la gente sound and beneficial to the nation-build­ se queda en la calle debatiendo. ing process. The result produced by ICAIC Nadie queda indiferente a los tó­ during the 1980's was a series of human picos fuertes de Fresa y chocolate, las interest stories or fictions that not only de­ críticas a la Revolución y la homo­ lighted, but could be read as allegories of sexualidad, dos temas nunca tra­ the nation as well. tados antes en un film de Cuba. (12) In the article "Transparent Women," Marvin D'Lugo analyzes a set of films The theme of gender struggle is still main­ made in the late 1970's and early 1980's that tained as the pretense under which the al­ have at the heart of the narration, strong legory functions, but the protagonist is female protagonists.6 He concludes that now replaced by the figure of the homo­ their struggles for recognition and accep­ sexual and his skirmishes with the Revo­ tance within a chauvinistic society are re­ lution. Like all allegories the surface story ally allegories that address the question of is straightforward, the characters are rep­ national integrity. "The female figure, resentative, and the space they occupy is rather than functioning simply as a mi­ limited and symbolically defined. metic representation of gender class David, a young militant member of the struggle, thus became the 'site' in which Communist Youth League, meets Diego, a the audience participated metaphorically homosexual art-lover ánd, although it in the process of national self-realization" seems unlikely at first, a friendship devel­ (D'Lugo 280). This allegorizing process ops between them. David is an unquestion­ was used so consistently through the 1980's ing supporter of the Revolution and at the that it has today become a convention eas­ university where he studies he receives a ily recognized by contemporary Cuban solid grounding in the ideology it es­ audiences, who have grown accustomed pouses. Diego, on the other hand, has not to reading narratives of the nation in their faired so well. Although he supported the national cinema (287). Revolution in its early years, he has since been forced to withdraw his allegiances as

88 Nation Building and Images of a "New Cuba" a result of an unmitigated homophobia that of the film. Diego, like the big, bad wolf of has prevented him from fully integrating Little Red Riding Hood, entices David to his into Cuban life as he would like. Unable to apartment with the aim of seducing him. pursue his dream of becoming a teacher The forest, that dark and forbidding place, and feeling ostracized at every turn, he has is transposed to Diego's apartment. sought solace in art and literature. On the As characters, therefore, David and day that their paths cross at Coppelia's ice Diego are set up to be diametrically op­ cream parlor, two worlds, both Cuban, posed, and the dramatic tension created by come into contact. Through an eventual their initial encounter is the conduit of the series of conversations, debates, argu­ narrative. Yet, more than this, they are ments, and lessons, these two embodied meant to be read as symbols. David, is "spaces" begin to mutually influence each pure, ideologically sound, and sexually other. straight. He incarnates post-revolutionary Under the pretense that he has some Cuba.9 Diego, on the other hand, is deca­ photographs of David from a school play dent, politically critical, and flamingly gay. (and a stack of banned books for the bor­ He incarnates all that was anathema to the rowing), Diego entices David back to his Revolution and subsequently excluded apartment. There he introduces David into from it. a world of which the latter has only heard, Likewise, the space that David occu­ half-imagined, and been taught to reject as pies, the university, metonymically evokes anti-revolutionary. Banned books, foreign the official space and is meant to be read magazines, religious iconography, homo­ as Cuba's post-revolutionary nation-state. sexual imagery, black-market goods, and It is peopled with a community of like- china tea sets that hint at the bourgeois minded individuals, who have come to­ decadence of pre-Revolutionary days, gether from different backgrounds to cram into Diego's small apartment. For achieve a common goal. This disciplined David it is as foreign as a distant land filled community has acquired a sense of belong­ with exotic otherness, a land that instantly ing by being taught to see itself as repre­ repels him, yet leaves him spellbound. sentative of the nation and the guardian of "¿De donde es?" David keeps asking. It is its well-being. This space is also exclusive. this obsession with origin and nationality Diego is not only unwelcome but regarded that hints at how threatened he feels by the as a "national" threat. When David's room­ idea of difference and change.7 mate, Miguel, hears of Diego he orders Up to this point in the film, the narra­ David to find out more about him so that tive structure appears to conform to that he can be removed. "Ésto es una misión— of a classical fairy tale. The original story ¿tú crees que se puede confiar de un tipo on which the film was based certainly que no le defiende a su propio sexo?" evoked this idea —El lobo, el bosque y el David, therefore, is forced to return to hombre nuevo.8 Like every hero of every Diego's apartment. The "guarida," as Di­ fairy story, David is all innocence. His vir­ ego calls his home, is also a symbolic space. ginity is highlighted in the opening scene Guarida means "lair" and evokes the idea

89 Lucero Vol. 7,1996 of "wolf/' but is also suggests the notion ing of a penis serves to endorse the "na­ of both shelter and refuge. It is thus both tional" ideal. home and the space of exile. Excluded, This "little, personalized Cuba" Diego marginalized and misrepresented in his constructs in his apartment has been de­ own country, Diego has constructed his signed to be a more accepting place than own space within the nation proper. the "hegemonic or Official Cuba." Lezama Through a process of territorialization as Lima, we are told, is "un cubano univer­ the one outlined above, Diego has firstly sal." The rule seems to be that anything defined his space with physical boundaries goes. His "space" is filled with books, and established an exclusive community music, and artifacts from all over the within it. When David first goes there, Di­ world, and his walls boast a giant collage ego tells him that it is "un lugar donde no of different images. The past and the se redbe a todo el mundo." He has then present, Cuban and foreign, the straight sought a common bond for the disparate and the gay, male and female, all seem to elements he wishes to maintain within his have a place in Diego's world. It is for this space. This bond is art and, whether the reason that with humorous allusions, Di­ elements are Cuban or foreign, if Diego ego criticizes the Revolution for being so regards them as art they are accepted into exclusive, dogmatic, and inflexible. Listen­ the community. For this reason, David's ing to Maria Callas and making obvious interest in literature becomes his valid reference to Fidel, he comments on the passport into Diego's alternative "nation". stagnant state of Cuban music: "¿Porque As the symbols and myths that speak nuestra isla no da una voz asi? ¡Con la falta the official nation say nothing to or of que nos hace otra voz!" He bemoans the Diegos which he regards as valid, he has fact that David can only read the books the had to invent alternative fictions and fig­ Communist Youth League authorizes and ureheads to ratify his world. Beyond the is scandalized to hear David ask if John guarida, in the street and at the university Donne is a pen-pal, wonder whether the images and words of Fidel Castro, Che Lezama Lima is his father, and assert that Guevara, and José Marti fill the walls. They it was Truman Capote who dropped the are the heroes that embody the common atomic bomb. As for David's theories on history and ideals of the nation. They pro­ homosexuality and its "causes," Diego is vide the necessary sense of unity and soli­ absolutely dumbfounded.10 For him, darity among the people. Diego, however David is living proof that the Revolution, has chosen alternative figures. The Cuban in which he once fervently believed, has homosexual author, José Lezama Lima, failed. supplants Fidel as the leader of this alter­ Yet Diego's broad-minded acceptance native nation, while the poetry of John is only apparent. Like all those who invent Donne and Constantine Kavafis replace the nations, Diego must assure its unique iden­ revolutionary axioms of Che and Marti. No tity by differentiating it, and all that lies tricolored national flag is erected in Diego's within it, from the other space that lies be­ space; instead, a giant, multicolored paint­ yond its borders. In this sense it falls prey

90 Nation Building and Images of a "New Cuba" to similar reductiveness, "¿No te parece spects Diego's homosexuality. In much the maravilloso? Allá afuera la gente empu­ same manner, Diego learns to respect jándose en las guaguas; los negros gritando David's open-minded but zealous faith in y tú y yo aquí, escuchando a María Callas the ideals of the Revolution. y tomando té de la India en tazas de Art in all its manifestations is seen in porcelana de Sevres." For all his humanist the film as the privileged space of dialogue ideals and good intentions, Diego is a snob, and debate, and it becomes the border ter­ a racist—and where the Revolution is con­ ritory where ideas are trafficked. Diego and cerned—an absolute cynic. Alea is eager to David have different concepts of art at the show that, although the grass may appear outset. David has been taught that art greener, sweeter, and more accommodat­ should be a monologic and normalizing ing on Diego's side, it also has many short­ vehicle, as well as a mouthpiece for state comings. In fact, the two images of Cuba, politics. Diego immediately criticizes this one from the point of view of the Revolu­ idea, affirming that art should be above any tion and the other from the point of view one ideology. For him, art is a dialogic and of "exile," reflect very similar traits. Both universalizing medium that can assist in are exclusive, intolerant and convinced that the communion of difference. Yet this no­ they are right. Yet, Senel Paz and Tomás tion of art does not escape the critical eye Gutierrez Alea do not pitch the two points of Alea. The cultural artifacts Diego so ad­ of view against each other in order to show mires—such as Lezama Lima's neobaroque any one view to be better . Instead, they writing, John Donne's metaphysical poetry address the merits of both arguments and María Callas' arias—are in effect equally respond to the "Cubanness" inherent in monologic, since they are all "high" art, each. Both voices are right, both figures are predominantly bourgeois and available to Cuban, and the spaces they inhabit together few. Initially, therefore, art is the excuse that give form and meaning to "that-nation- brings Diego and David together. Over that-is-Cuba." time, it becomes a multivocal and trans­ Through successive encounters, both formative space for them both. men begin to learn about and respect the Co-director, Carlos Tabio, has clarified: other's world. As a result, they start to see their own world with different eyes. David Fresa y chocolate represents a hymn soon stops referring to Diego at the uni­ to tolerance, to the possibility of versity as "el maricón," but as "Diego," and mutual comprehension and to the going over to his apartment is no longer a mutual enrichment of two persons political "mission," but a welcome respite who are profoundly different. The from the rigidity of the university and the difference between Diego and poverty of the street. Through art, litera­ David is not only homosexuality; ture, and conversation, Diego opens the difference is also their ways of David's mind to the possibilities of alter­ seeing the world, and their mutual natives. Additionally, albeit with reluc­ understanding and respect lead to tance, David gradually accepts and re­

91 Lucero Vol. 7,1996 the enrichment of both of them . example revolves around the exhibition of (West 20) sculptures that Diego organizes for his art­ ist friend, Germán. Knowing that the reli­ This learning to accept the other is not gious figures would be rejected if he tried shown to be easy and does not come with­ to get them exhibited via official channels, out a fight. On the first three occasions that Diego incessantly negotiates with a foreign David visits Diego, their two worlds col­ embassy to give him support. In spite of lide, they rarely agree and when they fi­ the support finally given, the cultural or­ nally broach the subject of homosexuality ganization interested in the sculptures only their emergent friendship appears deems some of them worthy of exhibition, doomed. David just cannot equate homo­ explaining that "no es el momento para sexuality with the Revolution, "pero tú no algunas piezas." Germán is happy to have eres revolucionario." To this accusation only part of his exhibition shown and fails Diego loses his temper and shouts, "Formo to understand why Diego reacts so strongly parte de este país aunque no le guste y against the idea. Germán keeps insisting tengo derecho de hacer cosas por él. Sin that "lo importante es el todo, no una mí, coño, faltaría un pedazo." With this, he parte... .Nosotros luchamos mucho, mucho asks David to leave his space, an act that por esta exhibición, la exhibición va suggests that the two worlds, the two vi­ completa." Yet Diego's violent reaction to sions of Cuba, can only exist apart and oc­ this decision can only be understood in cupy separate ideological domains. relation to the overall allegory of the nar­ However, this outburst is the turning rative. For Diego, the exhibition is not just point in the film and the key to understand­ a collection of artifacts, it symbolizes the ing the allegory it enacts. The Revolution Revolution itself. If it is not complete it is tried to make Cuba a unified and uniform not worth exhibiting. The on-going saga of whole, but this image of the nation was a the exhibition and Diego's relationship fiction as it excluded integral parts and with it evoke his continued problems with people from its totality. Diego argues that and about the Revolution. For both, Diego the nation is incomplete without his partici­ fought hard to see them realized, criticizes pation. It must be understood that the un­ them for being incomplete and selective, derlying structure of the film operates and is consequently censured and driven around the ambiguity of the notion of be­ from the public space as a result of his con­ ing "a part" of something (as in belong­ tentious involvement with each. Germán ing), as opposed to being "apart" (as in ends up destroying a piece of the exhibi­ being separated or removed from). Diego tion to prove his point, only to realize that wants to be "a part" of the Revolution but Diego was right: by destroying a part, he the Revolution has kept him "apart," and undermined the integrity of the whole. removed him from this process. While Germán disappears from the The relation of the part to the whole is scene leaving behind chalky fragments, a question that is consistently alluded to David chooses to apologize and make throughout the film. The most sustained amends. From this moment onwards the

92 Nation Building and Images of a "New Cuba" idea of synthesis and union of parts be­ se derrumbe y se la trague la comes the central motifs of the film. David mierda. ¡La están dejando caer! adds a photo of Che, another of Fidel, and David: Somos un país pequeño, the national flag to Diego's collage, insist­ con todo en contra. ing that "forman parte de Cuba." This act Diego: Sí, pero es como si no les and the words that accompany it are a cru­ importara. ¿No sufren cuando cial turning point for David's character laven? since he is able to recognize that the Revo­ David: A algunos nos importa. A lution, while foundational, is still only a ti y a mí nos importa... part of Cuba. Later, when Diego tries to reject the Revolution (ironically an integral This dialogue underscores the need there part of Cuba too) based on its treatment of is to renovate and rebuild the nation, to homosexuals, David reminds him that "los preserve the past and prepare for the fu­ errores no son la Revolución, son una ture. What it also highlights is that while parte" and it cannot be judged on that ba­ both men have differences, their mutual sis alone. David transforms Diego's space love of Cuba and concern for its future with iconography and ideology of the preservation unites them above and be­ Revolution, and in doing so initiates a pro­ yond all else. cess that will turn the guarida momentarily The closest the guarida gets to project­ into a utopian space of synthesis. This is ing an ideal image of a cohesive Cuba is in the exact site, however, where the audience the dinner scene. Diego, David, and their is able to rethink, by means of an allegory, friend Nancy come together and ritually the future possibilities of the nation. The enact a scene from Lezama Lima's master­ use of a collage to symbolize the process piece Paradiso. The loneliness and disap­ of fusion is important since it represents a pointments of their respective lives, iso­ whole made of independent as well as in­ lated in scenes that occur beyond the terdependent parts. guarida, are momentarily forgotten. David The nation-building process therefore and Nancy are in love despite the age dif­ continues, but now with input from both ference. A novel that was banned is resur­ sides. Diego begins to teach David about rected along with Cuban music from the art and architecture, to fill in the gaps left past; and as they toast friendship and love, by his "revolutionary" education. In turn, the photos of Che, Fidel, Marti, and David reminds Diego of all the good that Lezama hint at quiet acquiescence in the has come from the Revolution. As the two shadows. As a scene from Lezama Lima's stand and survey the beautiful but crum­ book, the moment is a fiction—but it none­ bling streets of Old Havana they reflect on theless gives form to and contains an im­ what is happening to their dty. It is falling age of an alternative Cuba. into ruin, disintegrating before their eyes. However this image, this projection, does not and cannot last. It is an ideal, an Diego: Todavía estás a tiempo de experiment in tolerance, and this is also ver algunas cosas antes de que underscored. The magic of the moment is

93 Lucero Vol. 7,1996 created by candles and soft music, but sev­ wards its conclusion. Miguel's suspicions eral less than perfect conditions intrude that David is being co-opted by a homo­ into this scene. The meal, for example, is sexual are aroused when his friend brings actually quite humble. Vegetables are ab­ his lessons in tolerance back to the univer­ sent and chicken makes do for lobster, a sity. Beyond the four walls of the guarida detail that remits to actual economic scar­ such ideals not only fall on deaf ears, but city. Diego leaves the space, his little na­ sound counter-revolutionary. Miguel de­ tion, reminding us that "in reality" he is cides to find out for himself where David preparing for exile, and the romance be­ is spending all his time and invades tween Nancy and David, a heterosexual Diego's space. The outside world comes union, suggests that at present there is still rushing in and destroys the dreams Diego no social space for homosexual expression. and David had created. Diego has to finally This issue has been studied m great admit he is leaving the country, forced into detail by Paul Julian Smith in an article absolute exile by the rigidity of the system. published by the British journal Sight and Disappointed, David takes back his flag Sound-11 Smith contends that the subject of and the images of Che and Fidel which had homosexuality is carefully framed "within formed such an integral part of the utopian a hetero narrative which safely contains it vision within the guarida. The collage is dis­ for nervous straights, it also displaces, in mantled, the walls are left bare, and Diego's classic misogynistic fashion, the belongings are packed up or given away. homophobic contempt for the supposed Yet in spite of the fact that this ideal of fu­ femininity of gay men on to a woman sion and synthesis appears doomed, the (Nancy)" (31). It must be noted that the film ends with one of its most enduring sexual union between David and Nancy images—David and Diego finally hug. If occurs not only in the guarida, but in their friendship and the site it occupies are Diego's bed. Diego, the homosexual sub­ an allegory in nation-building, then their ject, is at best a mere intermediary for het­ hug is a symbol of hope that it will come erosexual love. He brings David and to pass. Nancy together and provides the space for This notion of hope is also woven in to their union by absenting himself. What is the idea of time; with this, the idea of fu­ more, if there were any doubt about sion extends to this element of the film as David's masculinity at the beginning of the well. The action of the film takes place in film, it is eradicated by the end. David's 1979, a date that marks the culmination of sexuality is ultimately confirmed and, as a over a decade of oppressive measures in result, the male, revolutionary subject re­ Cuba against homosexuals and anyone mains safely defined in exclusively hetero­ associated with them. In 1980 the Mariel sexual terms. Masculinity, like nationality, boat-lift occurred in which thousands of is thus constructed by a similar process of Cubans, many homosexual, fled to the exclusion, inclusion, and hierarchization. United States It was a dark moment for From the moment Diego is made to Cuba, a period of crisis for the Revolution, leave the guarida, the film accelerates to­ and a time to redefine the nation. Since

94 Nation Building and Images of a "New Cuba"

then, there is a general consensus that therein, is to undermine the integrity of the things have improved and that the Estab­ film as a whole. This is precisely the les­ lishment has become progressively more son that the film is trying teach. Diego, it tolerant to both sexual and cultural alter­ must be remembered, is an allegorical fig­ native forms of expression (West 17). Sim­ ure, occupying an allegorical space and as ply the fact that the film, Fresa y chocolate, such he is an amalgam of many traits as­ has been made and allowed to be distrib­ sociated with a marginal figure in Cuba— uted in Cuba, proves this point. homosexual, artist, bourgeois, exile. Parallel to this are the numerous allu­ Through the cultural medium of film, sions within the film to present-day Cu­ Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Senel Paz have ban dilemmas and debates, such as homo­ been able to project a multi-dimensional sexuality, economic scarcity and the black- image of Cuba. In doing so, they have market trade which subsequently arises, as raised questions about fire idea of "nation" well as general frustration with the status as an absolute. However, they reveal it to quo. Added to these two time periods is a be a highly contingent notion. It can be of­ third—glimpsed in theguarida —which is ficially or "unofficially" defined, viewed the future of the country and the direction from within or without and reified from it must take to become a cohesive and fully the center or the margins. InFresa y choco­ representative nation. Homi Bhabha, in late we learn to see and understand Cuba reference to images of the nation (any na­ as a construct, an uncertain idea that is re­ tion) has pointed out that "[tjhere is, how­ fracted through time and resists definition. ever, always the distracting presence of an­ It is made up of disparate parts, easily frag­ other temporality that disturbs the mented but not so easily pieced together contemporaneity of the national present" When it is deemed "whole," what parts it (295). This is no more apparent than in the contains are deemed valid areas of debate. various images and ideas of the nation cap­ Therefore, from the vantage point of tured by Fresa y chocolate, where the past Diego'sguarida, a symbolic space, the au­ and the future give meaning and form to dience can take time to exorcise the past, the present. reflect on the present, and consider the fu­ ture of their nation. By highlighting the Ac­ IV. Conclusion tive quality of the nation, the many forms While it is true that the camera medi­ it may take, and the ways it is built, the ates the point of view of the straight male film reveals the processes at work in its (David), and much of the film's humor is definition—as well as the possibilities at derived from Diego's "campy" histrionics, play for its redefinition. Fresa y chocolate I believe that critics are overlooking many may be a fiction, but its allegorical struc­ of the films merits and divorcing it too ture effectively serves to capture, contain, much from the environment in which it has and communicate an abstract, evolving been made. What is more, to isolate the idea of Cuba and what it means to be Cu­ question of homosexuality and concentrate ban. What is more, the film's lesson in syn­ solely on the contradictions inherent thesis provide a conceivable direction for

95 Lucero Vol. 7,1996

the nation-building rhetoric of the future. nation through female figures (D'Lugo For this reason, the film is entitled "Fresa y 287). chocolate" and not "fresa o chocolate." A 7A11 citations are based on my own combination of flavors seems to be the or­ transcription of the movie Fresa y chocolate. der of the day. ®The screenplay Fresa y chocolate was written by Senel Paz with the collaboration of director, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea. It is based on the cohesion of ideas from two short stories written by Paz: Diego and NOTES David appear in "El lobo, el bosque y el hombre nuevo", and Vivian (David's ex- *Cited in Timothy Brennan, 49. girlfriend) and "David" appear in "No le 7In his book Imagined Communities. Re­ digas que la quieras." The character, Nancy flections on the Origin and Spread of Nation­ was lifted directly from another screenplay alism. Benedict Anderson defines the na­ by Paz, Adorable Lies. The film was tion as an "imagined community." The codirected by Carlos Tabio due to Alea be­ term concisely underscores the inherent ing taken sick. (See interviews by Denis Active quality of the concept of nation as West in Cíñeoste.) well as nationhood. ^A popular revolutionary film of the 3 According to Hans Kohn, modern sixties was Pineda Barnet's David (1967). nationalism, which in a sense replaced re­ It tells the life of a revolutionary hero. The ligion, took three concepts from Old Tes­ name "David" therefore personifies the fig­ tament mythology: "the idea of a chosen ure of a specifically Cuban revolutionary. people, the emphasis on a common stock l^Some of these reasons humorously of memory of the past and hopes for the include that he obviously had no father or future, and finally national messianism" strong male figure at home, that his family (Brennan 59). regrettably did not take him to a doctor to ^It is the mark of the ambivalence of have it sorted out when he was young, that the nation as a narrative strategy—and an it is a problem found in the glands, etc. apparatus of power—that it produces a l^In spite of the fact that the film has continual slippage into analogous, even been a box-office success and a prize-win­ metonimic, categories, like the people, mi­ ner on the national and International film norities, or 'cultural difference' that con­ circuit, it has nevertheless been the target tinually overlap the writing of the nation of heated debate. The two main criticisms (Homi Bhabha 292). against the film are its conventional and ^See Cine y Revolución en Cuba (107). somewhat melodramatic form and its ste­ "Films such as Lucía, De cierta manera, reotypical treatment of homosexuals. For Retrato de Teresa, Hasta cierto punto, Lejanía, a less than positive review of the film see Hello Hemingaway and the collective film Paul Julian Smith's article "The Language Mujer transparente. The film ¡Plaff! is an in­ of Stawberry." tentional parody of the allegorizing of the

96 Nation Building and Images of a MNew Cuba"

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97 Lucero Yol. 7,1996 David William Foster. Wfestpoint, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.305-308. West, Denis. "Strawberry and Chocolate, Ice Cream and Tolerance: Interviews with Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío." Cíñeoste. (Oct. 1994): 16- 22.

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