CUBAN TRANSITIONS

My dad is a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain and his show, “No Reservations”. When he had found out I was going to Cuba this semester, his first reaction was to recommend Bourdain’s episode in Cuba. He also reminded me that Bourdain attended Vassar for two years until he transferred to the Culinary Institute of America. I only got around to watching his episode that takes place in Cuba after returning to the States. While watching the episode,I began to compare my experiences as a ‘well-informed’ tourist in Cuba with the way he represented his experiences in Cuba. I believe it is particularly important to examine how Bourdain represents Cuba in his episode of “No Reservations”, because it he is the intermediary between Cuban culture and his audience, like my father. My father is consuming the ‘Cuba’ that Bourdain constructs.

Bourdain, as a celebrity TV show host, enjoyed incredible mobility while touring Havana. He admits himself, that he had “been living large by Cuban standards.” Furthermore, he possesses a certain mobility to express certain feelings and ideas, a privilege afforded by him because he is an American filming a TV show that would be broadcasted by the American Travel Channel.

Bourdain made some charged jokes that could be interpreted as critical of Cuba. For example, as Bourdain watches an Industriales Baseball game, he concludes that the revolution was a failure because the government had recently outlawed beer in the baseball stadium. I found myself questioning whether the fact that Bourdain couldn’t wash down  his “Cuban” hotdog with a beer is a salient criticism of the revolution, and whether it warranted Bourdain suggesting a “regime change.” In fact, the real criticism in my opinion, was upstaged by the way the moment was filmed and edited. It came just seconds before Bourdain whined about the lack of beer in the Industriales’ stadium. The baseball game that Bourdain watches is a mid-week (Tuesday), daytime game because the lights of the stadium had been broken. Anthony Bourdain asks the justified question, how can so many people attend a day-game on a Tuesday? Bourdain’s guide whispers the disclaimer, “unemployment”. This seemed like one of the important critiques that needs to be posed in my opinion. However, I have reservations about whether Bourdain effectively communicated this message. The reality of unemployment in Cuba was sidetracked by a montage of fans dancing, singing and smiling. What message was “No Reservations” trying to express? The technique of upstaging criticism of the Cuban state with lively music and less politicized t.v. frames was ubiquitous in the program.

Perhaps, Bourdain was trying to offer a more complex conception of Cuba that is not essentialized. Some travel television programs would portray Cuba as an entity to be consumed: bottles of rum, fat cigars, beautiful people. Other programs about Cuba could be extremely charged and critical of the regime, not acknowledging its successes. I found that “No Reservation” did not commit to either portrayal of Cuba. Bourdain seemed to attempt to portray all these aspects of Cuba simultaneously. He praised the Cuban education system and the quality of the Cuban people. Yet, he also participated in the tourist consumption of Cuba throughout the show. Bourdain ate lots of fish (a food that is not very attainable for the average Cuban) at luxurious restaurants and drank straight aged-rum and Mojitos. Yet, Bourdain’s narration showed a level of consciousness of his own mobility as a tourist, which immobilizes others.

In the last minutes of the episode, Bourdain buys a tamale from a street vendor, and comments about how the street vendor is a more authentic representation of food in Cuba. Ironically, in the preceding scene he was eating fideo with squid and prawns(not typical of Cuban cuisine)  in a state owned restaurant with a Spanish chef. Bourdain spiraled between unauthentic representations of Cuban culture (i.e. the fideo with squid and prawns) and authentic representations of Cuban culture (or as close a tourist can get to an authentic portrayal). It seemed as if Bourdain was avoiding any conclusive claims and conclusions, passing the responsibility to judge to the viewer. Although, the unauthentic portrayals of Cuban culture were frustrating for me to watch, they are a reality of the new construction of Cuban culture. Tourism has become an extremely perceptible and large component of Cuba. A tour guide even tells Bourdain it is” necessary”.

In the finale, Bourdain suggests that people go to Cuba “to see”. But, he encourages people to see “the good and the bad”.  I believe that Cuba needs to continue to approach tourism, an integral part of its economy, with prudence. Tourism seems to have an ability to delimit “authentic” Cuban culture in spaces where Tourism is omnipresent.

My father saw Cuba in many different lights through “No Reservations”. The ability to portray the multiplicity of Cuba is impossible through video. However, I do believe “No Reservations” could be a good supplementary material.

In this same vein, my portrayal of Bourdain’s episode in Cuba is not “authentic”, especially given the limits of language to express experience. Therefore,

Part 1 of Cuba episode of “No Reservations” 

Part 2

Part 3