Soy Cuba

Propaganda through film has always been a significant tool for political leaders since the beginning of the film industry. By highlighting the proper material and degrading the opposition, an audience can be easily influenced. In Soy Cuba (or I Am Cuba in a simple Spanish to English translation), the Russian director, Mikhail Kalatozov depicts the pre-revolutionized Cuba as a capitalist-centric economy, heavily manipulated by the United States. After viewing the distinct chapters of the movie, the nationalist and communist visions for Cuba become apparent to the audience.

According to John Chasteen in Born in Blood and Fire, Cubans’ ideologies were centralized around the notions of nationalism and Marxism, which were in opposition of the America’s presence of capitalism. With the frequent appearance of Marxism in the majority of the Cuban population that did not benefit from the capitalist economy, the Anti-United States attitude began to increase while Fidel Castro slowly gained power through his promises of reform.

While the movie depicts Americans as collecting all the wealth on the island, Susan Eckstein makes note that Cuba was not a poor country. On a ranking system, Cuba is a highly competitive economy in the Latin American region due to the sugar cane production and the budding tourism industry. However, Eckstein clearly states that, “foreign capital, above all United States capital, played a major role both in agriculture and in industry.” The role of the United States in every day Cuban life was borderline dominant before the revolution.

Kalatozov utilizes his movie for a call to nationalism and the removal of capitalism. With the title, Soy Cuba, a sense of citizenship is developed, declining the boundaries of wealth and race. Everyone that felt oppressed by the government regime of the current leader of the time, Batista, should unite in order for Cubans to progress into an independent nation, instead of relying on the United States to dominate the land. According to Alejandro de la Fuente, a sense of unity was a common goal for Cuban reformers, rather than attempting to overthrow the government in individual groups. The idea of unity gave Castro popularity he needed to gain a popular majority favor with Cubans.

The influential material in the film also provided several symbolisms for the case of anti-United States and anti-capitalism. In the first chapter, a young woman would earn her living through entertaining American men. At the climax of the chapter, after she sleeps with the tourist and unwillingly sells her crucifix to the man (due to her small understanding of English), the scene could be interpreted as the United States taking advantage of Cubans. In the final portion of that chapter, the tourist is faced with the reality of poor Cubans, having to search through an underprivileged neighborhood for a way out. However, he turns a blind eye, ignoring the beggars in order to find his own way, symbolizing how the United States was aware of the condition of Cubans but turned a blind eye in order to keep accumulating income.

Gabriela (Best Theme Song Ever)

While romanticized in brilliant, daytime shows, “crimes of passion” were common occurrences in pre-modern areas of the world, such as Latin America in the early 20^th century. Defined on The Free Dictionary website, a “crime of passion” is considered to be “a defendant's excuse for committing a crime due to sudden anger or heartbreak, in order to eliminate the element of ‘premeditation.’” In the film, Gabriela, the idea of “crimes of passion” lays the undertone of the movie’s plot as the relationship between a bar owner, Nacib, and his mistress, Gabriella, begins to heat up during the transition of Latin America towards a progressive future. 

According to Susan Besse, a crime of passion was as public a sight in Latin America before “positivism” occurred in the legislature. Men would normally slaughter an adulterous wife as a rational solution for their situation. Latin American men treasured their pride and reputation far more than their feelings for their wives, exhibiting how the gender role for women was considered to be unequal to that of a man. A primary example of women being considered unequal in the movie is when an adulterous woman gives her secret lover money in order to buy shoes, so that he “may always think of walking all over her.” Women were satisfied with the hegemony between themselves in men, accepting their status as long as they’re provided for in material possessions. In the film, Nacib and his bar patrons agree that a husband is justified in killing his cheating wife, rather than allowing the embarrassment to harm his reputation as a man. As Sueann Caulfield describes, the status of family honor is placed on a pedestal in Latin American society, and wives were used to uphold the status of their husbands. Throughout the film, it is commonly seen for men to take women of a wealthy status as their wives, in order to increase their own status. 

The threat of receiving ridicule from his peers drives men to commit murder against unfaithful wives, exhibiting the failure of a woman’s duty to instill a moral conduct in the men, according to Caulfield. Traditional belief that while the men were the considered to be the more aggressive type gender of the two, it was the responsibility of a woman to teach the indecency of homicide. Thus, when the Colonel murdered his wife in the beginning of the film, the wife could be considered the true criminal of the two for failing to teach her husband that homicide is wrong. 

However, two acts in the film highlight the transition from traditional beliefs in Latin America towards a progressive era. The first, Nacib agrees to marry Gabriela on the basis of love rather than for a wealthier status. While arguing against the idea of marriage beforehand, saying that his mistress had no dowry or authentic citizenship, the bar owner decides he would rather be married to Gabriela because he loves the woman. The second act, at the climax of the film, Nacib does not kill the adulterous Gabriela. The positivism is slowly affecting the Latin American area, as the need to apply justification to murders becomes apparent. The Colonel who earlier slaughtered his wife receives his punishment, while Nacib is not ridiculed for sparing Gabriela.

Just a Random Fact For The Day

I personally feel like crying today. Just sitting in my room, and crying for an exceptionally long time, just because I can. Have you ever had a day like that?