Cuban Post-Revolutionary Writing and Film-making - Report Example

Cuban Post-Revolutionary Writing and Film-making Intellectual freedom in Cuba on the backdrop of revolution: The arena of Cuban intellectual creativity and discourse received a new dimension during the post revolutionary era. Prior to the revolution and Fidel Castro’s coming to power life of Cuban people was dominated by the combined effect of Fulgenico Batista’s military governance and economic imperialism of the United States. The revolution, its ideological foundation and aspiration to provide a better life to the Cuban citizens provided the common people with hope and promise for a better future. Historical, literary and sociological documents during the Fulgenico Batista’s military reign provide sufficient evidence of the kind of repression the common people of the nation encountered in terms of freedom in lifestyle, speech, expression and artistry. The success of revolution emerged as a hope to Cubans that there would be betterment in every aspect of life. Thus, the fall of Batista dictatorship on 1st January, 1959 and ascent of revolutionaries to the power was welcomed warmly by most of the Cubans. At the initial stage of reform, the newly founded government came up with manifold reform proposals in terms of social and economic standards of Cuba and economic support from the Soviet Union acted as the major patron in fulfillment of these objectives. However, immediately after forming such collaboration with the Soviet Union during the Cold War period, tremendous oppression from the United States became evident on the new Cuban government as well as the social life. At the initial stage of reforms, the new Cuban government claimed huge appreciation both nationally and internationally but the post Padilla affair and its consequences finally brought drastic decline to the government’s popularity (Booker 175). In this context it must be mentioned that failure of the new Cuban government under the leadership of Field Castro was not an immediate incident; rather the seeds of its failure were laid in the policies that the government was taking during reformation, without proper planning. The nation encountered huge economic crisis for a long time and there also was a great deal of migration to the United States. However, the government did not encourage any such efforts that were directed against its policy making process and all sorts of intellectual efforts to protest against the governmental policies or criticism against the government’s approach towards oppressing the freedom of speech and expression of people, were strictly discouraged. There was a clear declaration on the government’s part that only those intellectual and creative efforts would be encouraged that would support the revolution and any such effort that points out flaws in the system or violates the norms of governmental policy making regarding life, liberty, freedom of speech and expression of common people, must be abandoned immediately. Field Castro’s address of the Cuban intellectual community is a clear evidence in support of this observation, “Within the Revolution, everything; against the Revolution, nothing. Against the Revolution nothing because the Revolution also has its rights and the first right of the Revolution is to exist …. What are the rights of revolutionary and nonrevolutionary writers and artists? Within the Revolution, every right; against the Revolution, no right” (Castro; Black 108). Castro, through his speech, made it clear that during his reign Art would act as a device for elevating political ideologies and norm. He clearly denied the fact of artistic spontaneity and aestheticism. During his reign, Castro attempted to define morality and freedom of expression according to his own terms by denying the approach of artistic freedom and expression. Due to such oppression Cuban people encountered a great deal of cultural, social and political crisis for a long period of time and artistic creations like Memorias del subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment) and Antes que anochezca were highly discouraged in the post revolutionary Cuba. Both these creations have incorporated within their scope the actual evidences about existentialist crisis among Cuban commoners, individual reflections towards issues like sexuality and morality, impact on migration on individuals and an accurate description of the prevailing political scenario in contemporary Cuba. Both these creative works were highly criticized by the government as they were no ways in accordance with prescribed governmental norms. Both the works were produced in terms of literary and film narratives. In either ways these works satisfied the aspects of artistic social responsibility, artistic eternal appeal and ingenious craftsmanship. The Castro led Cuban government attempted to craft such an intellectual force that would justify its goals and aspirations. However, “One is hard pressed to find any country wherein literary production operates completely independently of economic, social, legal, political, or any number of other such pressures” (Black 108). Storytelling technique of these two works has clearly asserted the fact that artistic creativity in not only confined within the medium of its operation but also encompasses within its scope all the elements from social, cultural, historical and political perspectives. The transgressive narrative of Reinaldo Arena: Reinaldo Arenas’ autobiographical writing Antes que anochezca can be regarded as an excellent example of artistic spontaneity and revolt against all sorts of oppressive forces that attempt to smother the spontaneity. On one hand narrative technique of the book provides a clear impression to the audience that the kind of oppression people faced during Castro’s governance in Cuba. The book, on one hand, provides a clear impression about pain of an artistic soul, being caged within social and political issues and the film, on the other hand, allows the audience to participate in the flow of events and share the pangs of the author’s life. The First National Congress of Culture and Education, in the year 1971, asserted in explicit terms that “All trends are damnable and inadmissible that are based on apparent ideas of freedom as a disguise for the counterrevolutionary poison of works that conspire against revolutionary ideology …” (Black 118). It further pointed out that presence of issues like “Snobbism, extravagance, homosexuality and other social aberrations” (Black 118) should be discouraged from the scope of Cuban literary tradition. The literary creations of Arenas were replete with anti-institutional elements and homosexuality; consequently, those also encountered tremendous set back from contemporary Cuban governmental system. In 1974, Arenas was imprisoned almost for a year and half with the allegation of “ideological diversionism” (Black 123) but his bold voice could not be restrained by the governance. In this context, essayist Emilio Bejel has observed, “Obsession with homosexuality is never simply an obsession with homosexuality alone. This is very obvious upon a critical reading of Reinaldo Arenas’s Antes que anochezca (1992)… an autobiography in which homosexual desire and political power are furiously interwoven” (Bejel 299). The entire narrative of the novel is replete with several symbolic connotations that indicate towards revolt of a freedom seeking artistic soul against all sorts of patriarchal, political and institutional pressures. Figures like, Arenas’ insensitive father, who abandoned him and her mother, Arenas’ grandfather, are representatives of Cuban orthodox and conservative governance under Castro’s leadership. The book incorporates clear description of the kind of torture and abuse, Arenas in childhood, has encountered. At the same time, he also has admitted that such confinement against his imaginative faculty has provided him with a desperate urge to escape further to the world of fancy, “My existence was not even justified, nobody cared. This gave me an incredible opportunity to escape” (Arenas 5). Narrative technique of the novel has presented the main character as a narrator-protagonist, who is engaged in a continuous struggle against social traditions, the system and the state. The impetus that he received through his oppression during the childhood provides him with the stamina to fight against all forces that attempt to smother his creative spontaneity. Through his continuous opposition against “all dogma and political hypocrisy” (Arenas xvii), he finally attains his fulfillment as an artist. Julian Schnabel film, Before Night Falls (2000), which takes the novel as its principal foundation, has successfully fused the real life experiences of the author and his world of imagination. The narrative technique that the director has used in the film is different from that of the text. The way Arenas has described his experiences of sexual journey, the film does not depict the aspect with same kind of explicitness but it focuses more over the oppression that the artist experienced during his childhood. The declaration of Arenas’ teacher regarding his poetic capability and brutal response from Arenas’ grandfather my cutting down the trees, where he carved his verses associate the audience with pain of a budding creative soul. Graphic description of the film, on several occasions has emphasized over Arenas’ idea regarding sexual freedom and his conflict with the conservative government (Morales-Díaz 77). His endeavor to prove his creative capacity against all sorts of political oppression has received a special importance in the film and unlike the novel, narrative of the film Before Night Falls has helped him to emerge as “a symbol of hope, a beacon to those who wanted Cuba libre” (Morales-Díaz 79). Conclusion: Arenas’ narrative portrays Cuba as a nation that offers its citizens nothing but oppression, futility and confinement. In his autobiographical creation Arenas has clearly provided a quite gloomy picture of an entire state system, where moral corruption is abundant and hypocritical existence is considered virtuous. Castro’s Cuba is such a cosmos, where creative aspiration, freedom of choice and expression least attention and through his struggle against the system the artist has provided clear impression to the fact that political trivialities, aimed at limiting artistic freedom must be rejected and such attempts must be protested with spontaneous human endeavor for the sake of a prosperous existence. On the other hand, Desnoes’ narrative has portrayed the individual dilemma in Cuba during the 60s. The protagonist, Sergio, has emerged as an archetypical figure of Cuban mediocre mentality and existential dilemma. Compared to Arenas narrative, the Cuba that has emerged through Desnoes’ writing is pervasive and discusses the problems of common people during Castor’s reign from social, cultural and political perspectives. What overwhelms the audience in Desnoes’ narrative is not the brutal form of political aggression in people’s life but the kind of effect that it has created in the socio-cultural context. Through Arenas narrator-protagonist the audience receives a reflection of Cuba from a microcosmic perspective; whereas it has taken a much elaborate and macrocosmic shape through Desnoes’ effort. Works Cited Arenas, Reinaldo. Before Night Falls: A Memoir. London: Penguin. 1994 Chávez-Silverman, Susana and Hernández, Librada. Reading and writing the ambiente: queer sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish culture. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. 2000 Mesa-Lago, Carmelo. Cuban Studies 19. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 1989 Morales-Díaz, Enrique. Reinaldo Arenas, Caliban, and postcolonial discourse. New York: Cambria Press. 2009 Read More