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Strawberry and Chocolate flavoured cuban culture

BY REYNALDO GONZÁLEZ

A recent cuban film, Strawberry and Chocolate, directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tavío, took all the

leading prizes at the XVth Festival of New Latin American Cinema, held in La Habana, Cuba, and has become an

unmatched sucess story in the island, also winning the Berlin Festival's Silver Bear along with other awards. The writer

and essayist Reynaldo González maintains that the film is more fhan just a happy ennumeration of unpleasant situations, that he has suffered also, and that it is part of a project of renewal that cuban culture must necessarily undergo, in order to understand better what intolerance elevated to political culture meant. This essay cuts into the essence of the hardest years

that cuban artists experienced during the euphemistically termed "grey quinquennium", that was really a very long

nightmare, a wound still open because burocratic acknowledgements and incentives can't simply heal it.

1. ASUBJECTFORAN Ha told US about tha bourgeois man

EXCEPTIONAL FILMMAKER. perturbed by tha impact of revolution in Memorias del subdesairollo, a T. Gutiérrez Alea and Che Guevara. representation of the upper and middla Many believe God is oii iheir side, Historias de la Revolución. others beg him to let them be at classes that wera facing the emargent

his side... Island saying. His work was part of a movement that social phenomanom that would bring

cama to be callad New latin Amarican them toppling down, and of tha

Tomás Gutiérrez Alea is one of the cinema, and it was new indaed because aristocrat slavar of the ninetaenth cuban cinema directors that has its directors refused to continué cantury in La última cena, (Tha Last

International standing. Yet not because churning out fatalistic formulas and trita Supper), prona to raligious santimants he has pandered to popular tastes or to ranchar cinema tliames, or stories of that maka him turn a group of serfs into distributors' demands, but due to his seamstresses battered by the wavas of "apostles of Christ" during ona evaning ability for narrating significant stories. virtua and vice. only to bahaad them naxt morning. Ha

CÍNKOAÍlANTKrODt *ftt MOOfíMO narrated the regressive decadent process the great masters of cuban cinema, Paz. They started with a critical work of the cuban national middle class in together with Humberto Solas in fiction, and remained faithful to its literary Los Sobrevivientes, (The Survivors), and and Santiago Álvarez in documentary. condition, El lobo, el bosque y el hombre the ironic puteóme that the imposition of He has often come up with polemics nuevo, (The Wolf, the Forest and the an ideal during the sixteenth century because he has lived Ufe intensely. His New Man), written by the script writer brought about when it tumed resources, those of contemporary himself. Alea, Tavío and Paz dared to destructive, in Una pelea cubana contra uitellectual discourse, (distance and tread slippery ground, to satisfy certain los demonios, (A cuban fight against proximity required for the long standing demands of cuban demons). rationalization of emotion), allow him to contemporary culture: the move with dexterity in themes and marginalization of homosexuals, the

Films like Las doce sillas, (The twelve problems that stemmed from a socialism instrumentaUzation of prejudice during a chairs) or La muerte de un burócrata, conditioned by the blockade and recent period, yet beyond that, a deeper (Death of a Burocrat), are indebted to economic dependency, improvisation seated intolerance, derived from the picaresque tradition, that a castüian and schemes that the cuban process ideahzed notions on the behaviour of analyst called "hungry cunning", a wasn't able to avoid despite the individuáis in society. popular subversive tool. With this autonomy of its origin, its leadership material and his tendency to populist and the impetuous health and resilience Strawberry and Chocolate tells of the inflexions, his work has revealed artistic of national culture. difficult friendship between David, a mastery, keeping to the tradition of the young communist, sexist and prejudiced, cinema d'auteur, that poses demanding One could expect from Gutiérrez Alea and Diego, a non-closet homosexual, a questions to an audience and doesn't that he would get involved in any matter "mad girl" as cuban argot says. Parallel merely drug them up. Gutiérrez Alea deemed "problematic" without stories with their respective contexts stands out in cuban cinematography, succumbing to triumphalist propaganda reveal double standards, political that is vocationally distanced from or giving Ln to irrational scepticism, two dogmatism and the reciurence to the commercial trends, as one of the most of the most serious dangers that prey on blackmarket as a means of survival in talented directors in the field of artistic cuban creation. He has the diré conditions of the blockade and contemporary reality, including the not succeeded in doing so with his film an economy that isn't able to solve in very satisfactory result of Hasta cierto Strawberry and Chocolate that has any way the problems of home-market punto, that dealt with considerable scored highs in ticket sales and has consumption. emphasis on a theme, that of cuban become debating fodder for intellectuals. machismo, which Pastor Vega treated Its mighty success has meant that a Things get complex because the subject much more efficiently in his film Retrato subject never before treated with such is not isolated, and it precipitates a de Teresa. stark sincerity has reached homes, social convulsión that is set on revisLng offices and places of public meeting. everything. The anecdotal background

If something characterizes the work of and the narrative angles had to reflect

Gutiérrez Alea it is the fact that very It benefitted from the coUeiboration of the various thoms of a problematic clearly defined arguments enable him to another sardonic and analytic producer, situation where oppressors and expand his thoughts on history and to Juan Carlos Tavío, [La Permuta and oppressed were locked in a struggle suggest different contents. He is one of Plaff), who worked on a script by Senel between tradition and the need for reform, where assent was given by Its premier showings in La Habana interdisciplinary basis, in order to inherited concepts and the pressing broke all audience expectations well determine exactly what our idiosincracy obligation to subvert them. This leads us before it went into the provincial circuit, is, including the áreas of popular beliefs to an ethical problem that has been and that is considering that in Cuba the and its myths, not as radical as was shaped by forcé of history, with many cinema has been a great public concern. esteemed initially, until we have seen sedaacks, but upholding to a reforming "If we can interpret the evidence how many of these homophobic criteria will that nobody in their sane mind can correctly", said a north american have been injected and overdimensioned, doubt. cubanologist visiting the island, "then when not clearly instrumentalized the mile long queues symbolize the during different periods of our history.

It is true in general that almost all the success of the plot and the approach,

work of cuban film-makers can be they constitute a criticism of incalculable The other implications of the plot and grouped inte this kind of ethic reflection effect because it tums into a majority what Alea proposed to express through exemplified through anecdotes. Some concern a problem that had never before it, as he tends to do, lent it an recent films emphasize debate, mainly been treated so directly. In this sense the unimagined transcendence. Fresa y those already mentioned by Alea and film acts as revulsión for discriminatory Chocolate was destined to be much more Vega, Un hombre de éxito by Humberto concepts upheld over a long period of than an exceptional film. For the Solas, Papeles secundarios by Orlando time." moment I prefer to analyse the context Rojas, the tales of Mujer transparente, of this anecdote and what the 70's

especially "Laura" by Ana Rodríguez, The very existence of the film already meant for the cuban cultural life that Adorables Mentiras by Gerardo Chijona, proves that things have began to change saw the birth of the friendship between and the controversial Alicia en el Pueblo with respect to the gay minority in the young undergraduate conununist de Maravillas by Daniel Díaz Torres, to Cuba, yet that "the authorities didn't and the homosexual emerged from the which cuban creativity owes much, make such a keen effort to try and closet. And it isn't a whimsical despite its problematic reception; eradicate anti-homosexual feelings as insistence, for in the film is debated with another chapter of an ongoing series that they did when it carne to bettering the understandable emphasis the fate of the threatens the futiu^e of the cinema consideration due to the blacks and to art work that challenges established screen: excessive intolerance. women, for example." guidelines and the personality that loves its own national culture as opposed to

If it is true that the concern for an ethics Tomás Gutiérrez Alea had once again canons that were imposed as ideal and that is progressively defined as it runs touched an issue that stirred deep held exclusive for the construction of a nwe into difficulties, (the same ones that popular anxiety. The challenge was also kind of society. beset our society), could determine our far-reaching, in a context where cinema's character, it is equally evident homophonic prejudices are the result of II. GREY QUINQUENNIUM OR LONG that of the arts it has been the one that an understanding that the majority has TERM NIGHTMARE? has approached reality in Cuba with the of sexual affairs as a whole. For future

greatest freedom and lack of constraint, tmalysts wishing to explore certain "The problem is that that isn't even when "random gales" devastated presumíibly implicit themes of cuban literature. There's nothing there. Just the cultural arena with tremendous culture, this topic will require more clichés. They only forgot to put forcé. detailed judgement, from an mujik instead of "guajiro" (Diego). Allhoiigli tlie miifh decimated cuban and firin defense of woinen against standard caricature that pandered to jjress has oiilv devoted proniotional machismo, [Re/rali) de Teresa. Porli'ail machoisl criteria iii vogiie. Fresa and notes lo tlip film, wilhoul going on lo of Teresa), bis film \ idas Paralelas. Chocolale Iranscends conlextual analyse tlie significances of ils content, (Parallcl Lives) Irealed the subjecl of ihe reference and becomes an accusative test lilis fací is already significan! for those hardshi])s homosexuals sufl'ered due lo of intoierance in its broadest serise. It accustonied lo reading between the Unes. intoierance. One of his characters was a .strikes home lo an exceptional degree,

Such propagandistic praise would iiave gav man who emigrated to llie L'S and given its intelligent nelwork of been inipossiiíle a few" vears ago, as hoping to live more coinlortabK'. and related thenies. it offers ¡deas that go indcefi ihc existence of tiie film itself. who didn'l find happiness. The paradox much beyoiid the suffering of a

The postm'e of ihe cuban governnient, of a non-closel lile awailed him. bul al mai'giiuilized commuiiiU . llial doesn t usiiallv participale or the expense of assmning the ini|)lications esTaljJish debates on such inatters, is of Ufe in a so|jhi.sticated ghetto. In Il is cjuile astonishing thal iii a countrv obsiously one of atonement for past another successful cuban fihn. La Bella whei-e machismo aiid anli-hoinosexual errovs thal nianv cui)an and foreign del Allianthra. bv lMir¡(]ue Pineda prejuilices were inleusified i-alhci- iban crilics have reminded theni of. and Barnet, a lioinosi;xual earned the relaxed bv faclors ihal foreign observers wiiich onlv served lo increase dislances aiidience's .sympathv. He was a pathelic llave persistentiv emphasized, nianv on behalf of personahties thal had stereolype of the Iriuniphant vedette, heterosexual speclators end up pi'e\ iouslv offered snpport. wilh imcondilional devoliou lo lus ¡denlifying wilh the gav cliaracter and

whore-mi.stresses. are moved when ihe vonng cominunisl h is evidenl thal wiliiiu llie cuban and the gav inad-girl embrace in a íinale stnicl tires of fihn prodiiction and Yet the occasions have been rare when ihal stirs all. This slorv is lold by a

(Hslrii)uli()n. wilhoul express members of the gav niinoritv have b(>en cuban film, aller ihe hardshi].) of real govenunenla! a|)pro\al llie inaking of a svmpalheticallv porlraved, bevond ihe experieuce, withoul ignoring the fact fihn such as Fresa y (Jhocolale wouldn t llave been possible, for it is not contení jusl to lell a stoi'v biit goes on to judge behaxiour. Two lliings are therefore clear. It exists because it gained governinent approval and il ineans thal somelhing is changing in Cuba, despile lile inimobihsni ihal its adversarles coulinue to denoiince and that niaiiy of the organizers would like to take refuge in. íeai'lul as thev are of ihe lioiror racui thal inevitable reh)nn will bring.

At the last Habana Festival, directed by the cuban Pastor Vega, the saine man wlio a decade ago inade an iinpassioned ToTiiás (íiiliérroz .Mea. Slniírbcrn- iiiid Clioroliih'. that homophobic prejudice and the steps officially made for the policies enforced His works were ptit in the drawer of taken to repress hoinosexuality serioiisly against them. inapprojiiate literatiire; his lile was damaged our cultural lile and created a extremelv disrupted. Now we have his climate oí mistrust and insecui'ity. Some cases gained notoriev, like the one sad unpublished texts and his prívate

of Cuba's greatest lyrical poet, José correspondence, that Iiterary scholars

The issue reached boiling point during Ijczarna Lima, who paid with ostracism discuss, in seminars and conferences the 70's, when inany actors and theatre the international lame of his novel that hinge on liis work. directors were dismissed íroni their post Paradiso, where referenccs to and when a type of pogrom was imposed homosexuality are manifold: from being Beliind these grand ñames, other writers on all of those who maintained President of the Writer s L.nion he were forced lo ado|:)t silence. Thev make relationships with a public, with suddenly became a "non-member ". His np a long list, in a country where art children or with students. This seveinieth anniversary was marked by and creativity seem to find ]jrivileged marginality sought justiíicalion in the the publieation of several of his works, circiuiistance. Thev took on anonvmous moral dictates approved by a Congress bitt tlien followed deep silence, although jol:)s in librairies and printing firms. of Educalion that eventtially became of he had the respect of those wlio Some suffered in (he (|iialil\ of llicir

Education and Culture, (beginnings of recognized his career and knew he was a work, embittered and analhematized.

1971), and has gone down in intellectual great insular poet; yet they coidtl do Others took the path of exile. It was the memory as a bitter reality. This purge nothing to avoid a predeslined late. tijne when the official cultural attacked university lecture rooms, the The most significant ctiban playwirght directorate tried to inipose the models of printing world, public offices related to of the twentieth century, Virgilio Pinera, "socialist realism " that came from culture and education; political had to endure a period of iiostility and Eastern Eiirope, witli exident contempt strategies eventtially tainted everything silence akin to Lezania s, unlil his deatli. for rlch. local culture. to the point that motivations and causal reasons became confused as this movement gained a signil'icance that had drastic effects for ctiltural lile as a whole.

Cuban theatre, for instance, that had for other latin american countries enviable standards of quality and owed its renaissance to government sponsorship, still hasn't recovered from the effects of that policy, despite the efforts and the energy of the present cultural administration. A similar purge was suffered by renown authors whose iiterary expression would never again be the same even though atonement was Tomás (áiliérrez Alea. Slrfíiríx'rry (iiid ('liocolnU'. Cuban writers had a westem tradition dramatic thing that nobody saw as a against "wimpness", which meant syinbolized by their greatest ñames: farse. weakness of character, "foreigness", if Lezama Lima, Virgilio Pinera, Alejo one imitated the corrupt West, because

Carpentier or Nicolás Guillen, the latter The moment of the "revolutionary even the world map had to be read the an author of elegies and songs that were mouth clamp" and of the avid emerging other way round and Cuba ceased to be fuUy communist, yet completely sepárate "talents" who were given posts at the westem as was God's will, and new from the rigid schemes of "real head of institutions had come. It wasn't extrapolated paths raised the contigent socialism". Painters continued to admire a question of those who were promoted to ultímate reality. Never before was art their masters: Wifredo Lam, Rene in the civil service foUowing an order of so much theorized about, and never did Portocarrero, Amelia Peláez and many merit and seniority, but of cunning true art receive such little promotion at ñames that kept up a modemity related fishermen in troubled waters. They home. to the avant-garde traditions, including began to practice literature, theatre, a local and very free adaptation of music or the fine arts, to fulfil III ABSENCE MEANETH NOT abstract expressionism that became professions that they understood to be OBLIVION exemplary, an art that Raúl Martínez strictly disciplinarian, and rising to the excelled in, and who, for a long spell challenge, they took advantage of their Today we recall all this as a transíent after, once he had got rid of the "hour and moment" to impose lucid nightmare, yet too recent to be contempt surrounding him, became the "creations", lacking in depth and effect, forgotten. Nobody can pretend that the iconographer of the revolution. yet very attuned to official trends. The impact and the after effects of that empire of Socialist Realism didn't lack period be ignored. Cuban culttiral policy

Writers and poets looked to their own its creóle Tsars and Tsarinas built to has now tried to rescue those writers roots for inspiration in order to shrug off domestic specification, generating a who having created significant works, such impositions and excepting a few court that enroUed sycophants and were prevented from publishing them. opportunists and hangers on, they joined buffoons, all of them passionate converts Those that perished are remembered together against the aggressors. Intuition to a truth imported from the East, hke and commemorated with the bitter taste and wisdom helped them on, though in dawn itself. of regret at the incomprehension that the institutions that governed and beset their final days. Those that stayed valued culture dogmatic rules prevailed, Cuban cultural publications, where in the country and who endured, are propelled by arrivism, in an eminently before the work of native authors ruled now saved from oblivion, published and centralized society. Prestige, and also the unchallenged, were flooded by awarded distinctions of merit. They chance of publishing and distributing translations that flattered eastem possess as inherent and underlying their work, could only come from this Europe. The Union of Cuban writers worth a more than triad fidelity and a sphere, but for them, as for Kafka's and artists invented a "cuban school of persistence in national cultiu'al valúes. mythical character, the door was closed. translation of socialist works", that

Although they loved the revolutionary appeared in exemplary monographic The most dramatic case of suicide and process and had swom loyalty to it, they issues, and which only tumed out to be exile was that of the prose writer were attacked by those in authority. an infamous parodie anthology. Reinaldo Arenas. His final works With many regrets they accepted an become a lacerating criticism and involuntary inner exile, which was a We had to witness a pathetic crusade testimony, product of a delirious imagination, where an understandable of revolution. Then, a writer who in Antón Arrufat, resident in Cuba and paranoia blurrs the limits of reality and exile degenerated from great innovator who in 1968 had problems because one fantasy. Calvert Casey, an author who of cuban narrative to a propagandist of of his plays was considered irreverent by opted for exile and also committed dead-end revenge, Lino Novas Calvo, the censors. Los siete contra Tebas, (The suicide, has recently been the subject of had his works beautifuUy and carefuUy seven against Thebes), hasn't seen anv an extensive apology in the same published, a right one can't deny him, play of his perfomed on stage for over niagazine Unión where he pubUshed his yet that strikes us as astonishing when twenty years, although his books are last text in Cuba, the ironically entitled other exiled cuban writers of undeniable published and he is consistently praised. tale: Adiós y gracias por todo, worth are still in coventry. This can be interpreted as the failings of ("Goodbye and thank you for a process where the variations of criteria everything"). A very significant event occurred, along depend on the whim of burocrats, or are these lines, at La Habana university, an the result of different, inexplicable

It is evident that all of this is a sign of instítution that during the black period contingencies, or perhaps, are the change, and that currently we are Uving exercised with particular obsequiousness outcome of improvised non-discussed a time of revisión and necessary healing, discrimination against those authors who initiatives. of which Fresa y Chocolate is an integral deviated from the "recommendations" of part. In the past few years there has dogmatism, suspending them from its The State has included in the list of the been the intention of regarding with syllabuses and comering them into honourable those that it repressed certain benevolence the work of some negative categories. The critic José erstwhile, always with great caution and exiled writers, previously reduced to the Prats Sariol presided a very fuU after much deliberation. Nevertheless, status of "non-persons", or to those conference room to whose audience he beyond this debate that is oriented to controversial authors who stayed on. went on to praise one of Cuba's greatest analysing and bringing to a cióse all that Curious things crop up, not always easy living poets, Gastón Baquero. The the black period entailed, praise and to explain. difference lies in the fact that Baquero ceremonies of recognition are not Uves in Madrid since the begirmings of sufficient to make good the damage

The poet and author Severo Sarduy who the 60's and doesn't stop attacking the inflicted. It is proof that the cultural died recently in París has received his cuban revolution in the Spanish and body can be damaged by decree, post mortem consecration. However, the North American press. It was a although it can't be healed by the same play-wright who after Pinera is question of praising a notable disident, method. considered Cuba's greatest, José Triana, not obviating reference to his though he receives his quota of praise disidence, yet valuing his literary In debates and in the specialized press, when the island's dramatic repertoire is excellencies. that due to the circumstances of crisis mentioned, hasn't seen his plays has only limited edition and erratic performed, not even his fundíimental Sometimes we are caught up in distribution, reference is made to what work, La noche de los asesinos, (The zigzagging motion that is disconcerting. benevolent critics cali the "grey night of the assassins) that for many is Demands can't be too inflated in this quinquennium" and that in effect was a the most genuine parable of the need for process of rectification, and especially very long decade. They lócate its high drastic change in order to begin a new when refering to those absent. To point between 1970 and 1976, the year life, to initiate once again the upheaval mention a notorious case, the dramatist the present Ministry for Culture was l'üinás Gutiérrez Alea. Slrawhí^rn-

I'ouiided. Otiiers consiilcr that tlie mere transcend the characters strife, striking As a cuban film director moved h\ the existeiice of that institution aiid tlie the hcart of inimetisin, that was a nevv- work of bis coUeagues told me, "it is measiires adopted (o rectify the situatioii generation "foreignness", undcr diflicult that in so little time somebody inherited, didti t mean., as woiild be sacralized pohtical atlittides, and come is able lo express better and more fully desirable, a deí'iiiite cliaiige fof the out iii defense of cuban culture, as the things that have worried iis so better iii the adversities that the represented by the homosexual much". Another film maker who had to protagoiiists of cuban cuhure suffered, character. Soma moineiits of critical piit up with the incleinencies of dogmas btit the beginiiiiig of a tTaiisformatioii finesse represent tliis theme, as when the hostile to creation and circumstances that hi ciihural teniis will be appi-eciable young coimnunist suffers the sovietizing that turned one of bis films into a with time. "intoxication" instilled bv excessive battleground aben to art, said, "that it is

propagandistic exaltation, that prompts wortb having lived through these years

The story of Fresa y Chocolate is set iii the homosexual's quick ¡ronic siuib, to see a cuban film that realizes this act that "grey" period. Its critical arrows steeped as he is in national culture. of justice". What could be considered as the gay ORIGINAL SIN for the symptoms that indícate a healthy community in Cuba, that does not have change among the publications and the representative organizations as in other for Lázaro Gómez cultured events of the contemporary parts of the world, has received the film panorama. There isn't a single Two souls with joy for it represents vindication. specialized review or any cuban cultural Nonetheless, they admit that the issue Two bodies event that doesn't proclaim that long Two men in love wUl require greater coUective effort, awaited rectification, and it is a shared Are going to be expelled from the against the deep set prejudices of concern that its continuity is maintained paradise fundamental machismo. It is evident and that it wiU shape other future They were to live. that both are not only refering to the rectifications. Avoiding overt Neither of them is a hunter film's story, but to a revisión process Who garlanded their victories with propagandistic messages, the Cuban long overdue. young boys. Union of Writers and Artists, an Neither of them have the riches institution that wasn't able to reject

This feeling has characterised the To calm the wrath of their judges. perverse tendencies and contributed to reception of the film. Some see Neither of them is president. the deterioration of cuban culture that Neither of them is a minister. themselves portrayed on the screen. was deprived of famous ñames, has Neither of them is a censor Others recognize the problem of cióse started in its reviews a campaign to of their mutilated desire. friends. They are thankful that without redress the uptipped beJance of the And they feel that every moming spinning yet another pohtical yam the cultural world. They can see their tree, film makers were able to find the way of their park, treating such subjects within the story their sun, The ticket sales' success story of Fresa y une. This in no way could be achieved like you and I Chocolate is the coUective seal of by "orientations" of the cultural That they can tear apart their flesh approval that the majority in Cuba administration, and far less so, by the In Love's sweet intimacy provides, a majority that is more Like I always desperately penétrate press in its present circumstances. Art enlightened than many and that has your womb with my flesh has broken the ice, from literature to developed a political sense of awareness desparately your womb song, and it is understandable that the and not only the will to consume. Yet with love. cuban cinema should do it emphatically, whoever sees a simple gay event in We aren't God. where extremist and populist tendencies Diego's and David's embrace is a myopic let's not get it wrong again. were vehemently stopped. observer, or whoever feels content with

An example of how the problems that The film Fresa y Chocolate comes, with this acknowledgement isn't able to see Fresa y Chocolate describes and its arrows aimed at all kinds of the woods for the trees. We welcome the considers have motivated cuban intolerance, at a moment when the present moment of crisis if it promotes a creators, that now are overeóme by the coUective awareness of the cubans has revisión of those valúes that film and join the queues to see what is matured and rejects elements that the predomínate in cuban life and an already considered as a breakthrough in establishment tried to inocúlate it with, undeniable reaffimation of national our cinema's history is Pablo Milanes's yet that didn't germinate. The analyst of identity. This choice includes all song, dated september 1993 and all this, whose public presentation is flavours, which means all options and all included in a recent LP: anxiously awaited, will have to search interpretations.