CUBAN TRANSITIONS

Earlier this month, Cuban actors Anailin de la Rua de la Torre and Javier Nuñez Florian  disappeared in Miami, en route to the first American screening of the film in which they star, Una Noche, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Days after their disappearance, the couple emerged from hiding to confirm, in a televised statement on a Miami TV network, that had defected from Cuba and planned to seek political asylum in the United States. Although de la Rua and Nuñez’ journey was not as dramatic as the story of the characters they portray in Una Noche, who attempt to float to Miami from Cuba on a homemade raft, their story grabbed headlines. A Daily Mail article covering the actors’ disappearance was accompanied by a still from Una Noche of a young man sitting on a rooftop, with the city of Havana laid out in soft focus behind him. The image had a caption that read “Havana Have-Nots: Neither Ms Mulloy nor Mr Arrechada judged the two actors for fleeing Fidel Castro’s island,” referencing the film’s director and its third star. I was struck by how the writers of the Daily Mail chose to refer to Cuba as “Fidel Castro’s island”. At first it seemed rather odd to me: wouldn’t these journalists know that Raúl Castro is now in power, not Fidel? But the more I thought about it, the more the caption seemed fitting. For despite the fact that Raúl, officially in power as President since 2008, is the executive power in Cuba, Fidel still casts an enormous shadow over the island.

While traveling throughout Cuba, images of Fidel far outnumbered renderings of Raúl. Although Fidel could not compete in number with the ubiquitous images of Che, his face was still all over, on signs and billboards and painted on walls. At ICAP, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, a painting over the main entrance read “Con Cuba Siempre,” with Che, Fidel and Camilo Cienfuegos shown in green fatigues, along with the silhouettes of the Cuban Five and a slogan calling for their release. In the foyer of the old mansion that houses ICAP, there was a modern style portrait of Fidel sitting on an easel in the otherwise largely empty room. At the Casa de la Amistad, a smiling Fidel is pictured next to an image of Jose Marti and the Cuban Five. Fidel’s face bedecked a large green porcelain vase in the room where we heard a presentation from members of the Cuban Agencia de Rap. At the Plaza de la Revolución, the wire sculpture of Cienfuegos read “Vas bien Fidel,” even though it was constructed in 2009, after Fidel left the presidency. In the Museum of the Revolution, again it was Che, Cienfuegos and Fidel who dominated the displays, even though Raúl was an essential military commander throughout the Revolution.

In the Casa de la Amistad

It was not only in imagery where Fidel dominated over Raúl. In taking to Cubans, many openly questioned Raúl’s policies and said that anything good Raúl had accomplished as president was actually an idea of Fidel; that Fidel remained the brains of the operation. Another popular opinion was that Raúl was able to succeed only because of the foundation left by his older brother. Few seemed to have genuine words of praise for Raúl that were not quickly followed by a “yes, but Fidel…”. It will be interesting to see what legacy Raúl, now 80, will have when he leaves office, whether or not Fidel will shape how Raúl is remembered. Because, for the moment at least, the caption in the Daily Mail’s article rings quite true: Cuba remains, despite the exchange of presidential power, Fidel, not Raúl, Castro’s island.

Sources

Daily Mail Reporter. “Young Actors in Film about Fleeing Cuba Arrive in U.S. for Film Festival… and Promptly Disappear.” Mail Online. The Daily Mail, 22 Apr. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133509/Actors-film-fleeing-Cuba-arrive-US-film-festival–disappear-fled-Cuba.html?ito=feeds-newsxml>.

Tatar, Andre. “Cuban Actors Portraying Would-Be Defectors in New Film Una Noche Defect For Real.” Vulture. New York Magazine, 28 Apr. 2012. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. <http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/cuban-actors-playing-defectors-defect-for-real.html>.