Fresa Y Chocolate/Strawberry
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7/19/20176:33:30 PM University of Washington Libraries Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services Box 352900 - Seattle, WA 98195-2900 (206) 543-1878 Document Delivery [email protected] w WAU 1 WAUWAS 1 RAPID:WAU Scan Seattle ILLiad TN: 1498675 11111111111111111111111111111111111I111111111 Location: Suzzallo and Allen Libraries - Stacks Call AP2 .S75 Loansome Doc: #: Work Order Location: N 1111111111 Journal Title: The South Atlantic quarterly: SAO Customer Reference: Volume: 96 Billing Category: Issue: 1 Needed By: 08/18/2017 Month/Year: , 1997 Maximum Cost: n/a Pages: 65-82 Article Author: Bejel, E NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT Article Title: 'Strawberry and Chocolate' Film directed The document above is being supplied to you in accordance with by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio: United States Copyright Law (Title 17 US Code). It is intended only Coming out of the Cuban closet for your personal research or instructional use. ISSN: 0038-2876 The document may not be posted to the web or retransmitted in OCLC #: electronic form. Distribution or copying in any form requires the prior express written consent of the copyright owner and payment of royalties. Infringement of copyright law may subject the violator to civil fine andlor criminal prosecution. Special Instructions: Notes/Alternate Delivery: 7/19/2017 1:48:38 PM (System) RAPID request held locally (Suzzallo Library) Email: [email protected] EMAIL: [email protected] ILLiad Emilio Bejel Strawberry and Chocolate: Coming Out of the Cuban Closet? lhe Cuban film Fresa y chocolate/Strawberry and Chocolate, with screenplay by Sene1 Paz and di- rected by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio, generated a great deal of excitement throughout '994 in many countries around the world, In addition to winning the prestigious Silver Bear prize in Berlin, Strawberry and Choco- late was the main attraction at film festivals in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and Spain, and was released in other countries as well. Most surprising, however, was the film's monumental success in Socialist Cuba, where it won not only the country's Critics' and People's Choice Awards but also the Catholic Church's OCIC (Organizaci6n Cat6lica Internacional de Cine) Award for exemplary films. (Perhaps the Catholic Church's award recognized the film's implicit defense of religious freedom in Cuban society rather than its explicit defense of the rights of the homosexual.) So much interest was generated by the screening of Strawberry and Chocolate in Havana and throughout the prov- inces that crowds outside theaters pushed and shoved in competition for tickets. Finally,in Sep- tember '994, Strawberry and Chocolate arrived The South Atlantic Quarterly 96:1, Winter 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Duke University Press. 66 Emilio Bejel in the United States, where, following its initial screening at the Latin American Film Festival in New York, it was distributed with English sub- titles throughout most of the country-the first Cuban film ever to reach mainstream U. S. audiences. The most extraordinary aspect of Strawberry and Chocolate was neither its cinematographic quality nor its theme of homosexuality per se, but rather that it was produced and released in Socialist Cuba and dealt with the rights of homosexuals in that society. Of course, had it been a poorly made film, the theme and country of origin by themselves would not have given rise to such success. Strawberry and Chocolate was well made, how- ever; the acting was excellent (with Mirta Ibarra truly exceptional in the role of Nancy), and, above all, the human warmth of certain scenes (espe- ciallythose where David and Diego communicate through an understand- ing that is progressive and complex) served to capture the attention and sensibilities of many audiences. There is little doubt, however, that within the context of r994 Cuba, the film offered a radical proposition by implying the acceptance and integra- tion of homosexuality in the concept of Cuban nationality. Such an idea would not have been so surprising if it had not been proposed by a Cuban writer committed to the Revolution. Sene! Paz is the son of peasantry, who, thanks to the Revolution, escaped his marginalized condition to achieve national and international acclaim as a fiction writer and screenwriter. But in Strawberry and Chocolate (as well as in his short story "El lobo, el bosque y e! hombre nuevo"/"The Wolf, the Woods and the New Man," on which the screenplay was based), this revolutionary implies that Cuban social- ism and nationalism must both fully integrate the homosexual.' Beyond a nominal treatment of the theme of homosexuality in Cuban Socialist society, the script invites interpretations that take into account the complex tension between heterosexuality and homosexuality, between nationalism and antinationalism (the latter signifying treason within the ideology of the film), between socialism and anti socialism [i.e., capitalism), and be- tween power and desire. To all of this must be added a religious aspect, inasmuch as the film's plot deals (although not centrally) with the topic of Diego's religious beliefs and David's atheist convictions. These relation- ships are further complicated not only by the historical period in which the action takes place (around '979, as indicated by a TV news broadcast that announces Anastasio Somoza's departure from Nicaragua-that is, at Strawberry and Chocolate 67 the culmination of the Sandinista Revolution), but also by Cuba's entire history up to the present. At the beginning of the film, David possesses all of the characteristics deemed positive by traditional, hardline Cuban socialism: he is hetero- sexual, an atheist, a Socialist, and a nationalist. Diego, on the contrary, possesses most of the negative characteristics, with the exception of anti- nationalism. (Diego insists that he is profoundly nationalistic.) From this point of view, the shared code that draws David and Diego together is nationalism, but of two types founded upon very different political prin- ciples: David is a Socialist who belongs to the proletariat, while Diego is anti-Socialist and has upper· class tastes and values-those that have at times been associated with an intellectual bourgeoisie, alienated and dis- possessed of power and prestige. Within the semantic context of the film, it is one thing to be a nationalist/Socialist (a revolutionary) and quite another to be a nationalist who not only opposes the Revolution (in spite of mo- mentary doubts), but who also wants to flee the country as a political exile. How, then, is it possible for these two characters to maintain a friendship that grows steadily in spite of their having such antithetical characteris- tics? I believe that one of the keys to their progressive friendship is the slow "conversion" that Diego brings about in David. Primarily ethical (but also political), this conversion enables a common point to be established between Diego's nationalism and David's. Diego constantly "preaches" an ethic to David that presents homosexuals as worthy of inclusion in the concept of Cuban nationalism and as dignified and capable of heroism. Diego's "sermon" could be called the ethic of the oppressed, which corre- sponds to the notion of resentment that Nietzsche applied to the ethic of primitive Christianity. Here, the oppressed try to convince the oppressor that it is imperative to be compassionate and generous toward them-that the oppressed must have the right to participate in the world-while ac- cepting that they are in the hands of the dominant ideology, which protects the privileged position of the oppressor.' It is important to remember that at the beginning of the film, and especially in his relationship with Diego, David is weak. and indecisive. From this perspective, one can infer a cer- tain envy on David's part with respect to Diego's strength and decisiveness. But, having assumed the ethic of the oppressed by means of what psycho- analysis calls transference, David is transformed, relatively speaking, into an activist for the rights of homosexuals. Moreover, although the relationship 68 Emilio Bejel of envy/resentment between David and Diego does not at first seem to be a class phenomenon, it could be argued that the film at least implies class conflict in an obscure or transformed manner, inasmuch as Diego's prepa- ration of fine foods and his social and political values can be associated with a certain sector of the Latin American intellectual bourgeoisie. Yet homosexuality is not, of course, a class phenomenon (however frequently it may be utilized in class struggles as a political weapon: "homosexualiz- ing of the enemy") because homosexuals, like women, have been discrimi- nated against throughout various historical periods and under different social systems! If this interpretation is correct, Strawberry and Chocolate presents a homosexual character from a social class inherently opposed to the film's basic ideology. Although it suggests an overture toward other social perspectives, the fact that the homosexual character is identified with a bourgeois class while the revolutionary is heterosexual implies a distanc- ing (although partial and subtle) from a more committed gay politics. As a result, one cannot help but consider the wealth of possibilities entailed by a work that included a homosexual of the Cuban proletariat and/or of cam· pesina origins (like some of the characters in Reinaldo Arenas's narratives, for example'). In spite of resentment's being, according to Nietzsche, an ideological trick by which the weak corrupt the strong in order to rob them of their properly aristocratic arrogance, vitality, and aggressiveness, in Strawberry and Chocolate something akin to an inversion of resentment's inversion takes place: this dialectic deals with a proletariat that, having been weak and oppressed under the former regime, is now in a position of power, so it is Davidwho has to undergo conversion to the ethic of the oppressed.