Marxist Ideology in Cuba

The movie, Soy Cuba, was first released in 1964 and known for its unique camera movements.  It, like Que Viva Mexico, is told in a set of stories.  Whether these stories connect is irrelevant, but this method allows a filmmaker to present his or her message across place and time more easily.  Soy Cuba shows viewers the impact that the United States had on Cuba prior to the Cuban Revolution in 1959.  Since the film was initially released five years after the revolution, it most likely was intended to be a voice for pro-socialism in entertainment. Loosely, each story is another telling of Americans taking what is most cherished by the Cubans in different facets of Cuban life, while Cubans are left with nothing but growing hatred

Prior to revolution, the United States consumed 3/4^th of the export revenue of Cuba (Chasteen 268).  In addition to importing Cuban products, the United States also invested in many sugar mills, farms, and communication companies (Chasteen 268).  This influx of money and power created an elite, richer class of Cubans.  In fact, the United States supported the dictatorship of Batista (Chasteen 267).  In Soy Cuba, the United States’ presence is blatant in the first story, through the Americans in the club; the second story, portrayed by the landowner’s deal with the United Fruit Company; and the third story, through the U.S. sailors.  An increasing social desire for equality and redistribution of wealth begins to shape in Cuba around the time of this film.

Causing this inequality of wealth is the structure of Cuba’s economy.  Susan Eckstein’s article describes the trends in the Cuban economy as expanding and contracting with export opportunities (503).  Soy Cuba’s second story highlights Cuba’s monoproduct export dependence.  This dependence on a single export coupled with the United States’ need for inexpensive sugar cane resulted in corporations, such as the United Fruit Company of the film, purchasing land from farmers.  Realizing his already poor future has been nullified, the farmer burns the new property of the United Fruit Company, thus enacting a no-win scenario, a very Cold War feeling. 

The third and fourth stories show two sides of the Cuban revolution.  Growing popularity of Marxist, and Leninist, ideology in Cuba was most prominent among “outspoken students” in Cuban universities (Chasteen 264).  These ideals apply themselves to the economy and wealth of Cuba as well as the social disparity common to Latin American countries.  Instead of segregating themselves by color or race, Cubans were looking beyond this and discovering large disparities between the powerful and the poor.  Revolutionaries, and most likely all Cubans, recognized the ties between wealthy Cubans and the US-backed imperialism and sought to stop it.  

Que Viva Mexico

                Latin America, in the early 1900’s, was a land of fighting and revolution.  Latin America experienced its revolution as a natural link to progression.  Sergei Eisenstein’s unfinished film, Que Viva Mexico!, presents Mexico’s progress.  The progression from primitive to revolutionary remained centuries behind the United States, but the cost was more severe.

                The plot of Eisenstein’s film traces the progression of Mexico’s liberation as a unified people.  Eisenstein filmed snapshots of architecture and a funeral ceremony by indigenous, supposedly, Mexicans to begin the film at the roots of Mexico’s history.  The viewer is led to believe this solemn scene represents the exploitation and sorrow of many indigenous Latin Americans.  The scene is drawn out for cinematic appeal, perhaps in an effort to emphasize the dying out of indigenous race/culture and the introduction of a mixed mestizo race, the middle class. 

Eisenstein’s second novella develops political intentions of Mexico further.  The dowry scene alludes to a happier, more optimistic life.  Full of love, and European tradition, Concepcion finally obtains her last gold coin and will be able to marry Abundio.  This process, essentially a woman buying her in-laws’ permission to wed, signifies a point in Latin American history when women were devalued and devoid of status.  Whether Eisenstein intended to portray this scene as true love or something less romantic is unsure, but it stands as a prevalent moment in Latin American history.

                The third novella features Catholic-themed or inspired events.  Festivals and bullfighting, all in the honor of the Holy Virgin, are a continuance of religious and gender conflict in Que Viva Mexico.  Chris Robe’s article points out that religion in this film is portrayed as being used as a fuel for revolution.  He makes note of participants in a supposedly Catholic holiday dressed as pagan gods and conquerors and believes this to be subversion of the Catholic tradition, of which Eisenstein sought to mock its function in oppression and subsequent revolution.  While it is true that religion plays a small role in the entire film, Eisenstein’s unfinished work fails to connect the symbolism of the novellas. 

                The fourth novella is the most substantive and analogical of the five that were filmed.  It captures the oppression of the lower to middle class and its result.  This novella was shot in a straight forward manner.  It told a story from a single perspective, and therefore was the easiest to follow and analyze.  Stephen M. Hart surmises that “a highly choreographed sequence of shots [compares] the sap from the maguey cactus with the workers’ blood” (21).  The sap is seen as the lifeblood of a, as revealed later, revitalized Mexico; it is fermented by the poor and given to the rich.  Both rich and poor, Iberian and native, Mexicans died for it to become a reality.  In this novella, generalizing the characters and points of significance, the film suggests an oppressed, over-worked middle class seeking basic rights and privileges from the wealthy landowning elite.  The elites, in turn, respond with disdain, rape, assault, and harm toward the less fortunate, all the while reaping the fruits of their labor.

                Eisenstein’s final novella features a post-revolution look at Mexico.  The novella not filmed, Soldadera, in conjunction with the final, The Day of the Dead, feature both women and children, respectively.  Both of these novellas show the remains of years of fighting and conflict.  Mexico leaves behind a younger mixed, mestizo, population, the kind which is devoid of race and class conflict.

Gabriela and Sociology

            Gabriela, a Latin film about a young working girl and her relationship with her boss, provides a scene for the study of criminology in Latin America during the early 1900’s.  Prior to the turn of the century, crime, especially adultery, was explained as the work of demons, witches or otherworldly happenings.  Any offender was sentenced to death, similar to Camila in last week’s blog.  As medieval criminological theories waned, several theorists found a trend in physical characteristics of criminals.  Using measurable data of the human body, criminologists developed a theory of crime called positivism.  In Gabriela, the social environment of Brazil is a complete contrast from any other before positivism. 

            In Gabriela, the filmmaker provides a social setting with a before and after contrast.  The before is that of female promiscuity punished by violence and is commonly accepted.  This changes as Latin America pushes for modernization and progression as a people.  Caulfield writes that Latin societies sought “to resemble those of white, industrialized Europe” (149).  Specific emphasis is placed on “racial improvement,” and there was a lack of importance on politics and desires of the population (Caulfield 149).  Gabriela depicts the women of the film to be full of lust and passion, seeking the admiration of men all around.  Susan Besse says in her article, that women had their eyes open to the hypocrisy of men, and now that they were opened, they resolved to take justice into their own hands.  Not in this movie; in Gabriela, Gabriela takes her life into her own hands.  She experiences her freedom through sexuality, innocently at first and more serious later. 

            This push for freedom and progression leads to Latin America’s version of the flapper.  In the 1920’s in Latin America, Caulfield writes, “young girls and matrons frolicked shamelessly on public beaches in scandalous attire” (146).  These new women portrayed in the movie through Gabriela, as well as others.  Gabriela enjoys her beauty and her freedom in the bar, whilst flirting with the patrons.  Nacib becomes jealous, and in trying to keep her caged up after a lecture, she flees into the bed of her lover.  A response to behavior like this, the Vida Policial argues, is “vigilance over female activities by male authorities”(Caulfield 153).  Like all peoples, freedom is highly sought by those under close supervision.

            Gabriela is a great sociological movie, offering a parallel to movies such as The Great Gatsby.  Frivolous women and over-bearing men, as well as love scenes and their crimes of passion, consume this time in history.  Women finding their sexuality and their place apart from the role men prescribe during this time had huge impacts on both American and Latin American culture.