Category: Film

Danay, Wichy and the new Cuban generation …

I have not had as much opportunity as I would have liked to dip into the underground music scene in Havana but sometimes I find, the good people in life, just come your way ….  I am realising that I have been lucky to have already met some major players and maybe 2013 will be my year of going underground.

Sometimes life as the wife of the director of the film school is all-consuming and added to that, three children under 8, who speak 3 languages.  They speak Spanish and French better than me so I have to make a stand and make sure their strangely accented English is kept up to date.  Needless to say I am kept very busy, and have to remind myself of a few little goals that I have of my own.

So far my experience with the new generation here in Cuba is a good one.  Not everything in Cuba is easy but when you meet these people you feel that the future is bright.  They are smart, educated, articulate, friendly, open and more than anything unpretentious (the thing I love the most about Cubans).   And although I am nearly old enough to be their mother, they don’t make me feel like that, and if I was their mother I would be quite proud of them.  Incidently, Danay and Wichy I think both live with their mothers!

I first discovered Danay Suarez last year, not long after we arrived, in a documentary on Cuban TV and was immediately smitten.  Her music, her look, her voice and her attitude.  I thought this girl is definitely well on her way and THIS is the kind of Cuban music I want to hear more.  I had already been lucky enough to hear the incredibly talented keyboard player Roberto Fonseca at a concert at the film school and was not so surprised to hear that Roberto was one of Danay’s mentors, friends and accomplices.  On top of everything Danay just has one of those voices that you would recognise anywhere and already I do.  She is definitely not just another hip hop artist.

Bumping into Gilles Peterson at the Biennial was another stroke of good fortune and I got to see both Danay and Wichy at the Cultura Habana party.  Check out Danay’s video of her track Yo Aprendi.  and her interview on Havana Cultura.

“I never said I was a rapper,” Danay points out. “I can rap and sing, but my real desire is to be a jazz singer, to develop that style. I haven’t done it because I don’t have the musical skills, but I’ll get there some day. I’ve got it inside of me.”

The next time I got to see Danay was at an intimate concert in Casa de Las Americas in Vedado thanks to Darsi Fernandez of SGAE who invited us.  She is certainly more than getting there in her musical ability.  The mixture of her petite frame, pretty dress and undeniable raw talent and soul, it was hard not to compare Danay with the great late Amy Winehouse.  But a little bit of me thinks that Amy must have known or heard Danay, rather than the other way round.  There was a lot of Cuba in Amy Winehouse.  I’m not sure if she visited Cuba, but if she had she would have fitted in just fine, and just maybe, just maybe, the Cuban way of life could have saved her life …….. who knows.

I met a young Cuban photographer Alejandro at the film school a few months back.  I liked his work so much that I asked if I could buy one of his photos.  Since then we have kept in touch sharing ideas and gossip.  Through a contact of mine, Alejandro is now working a lot for Cuba Absolutely (a good English language online magazine) filming and putting together some great interviews for them.   One sunny afternoon Alejandro called me and said he was in my neighborhood doing an interview and he could pass by to say hi.

We ended up having a late lunch and coffee and talking until he had to leave.  It was only then that I discovered he was on his way to Santa Fe to interview Danay.  Santa Fe is a little town on the beach just outside Havana close to my house.  I asked if I could tag along.  And this was how I found myself sitting on Danay’s bed looking at all her press clippings and chatting about her career.  Alejandro spent a couple of hours interviewing Danay in her mother’s little apartment and I was absolutely charmed.  As we all got into my car to drive back into town after the interview, my only comment was …. que linda persona.  What a lovely person!  Later that night I was hosting a party in the house and there was a call for me.  It was Danay to apologise for not making the cup of tea she had promised me in her house.  Don’t worry I said I hope we will have plenty of time to share a cup of tea in the future.

Wichy de Vedado has an equally friendly reputation.  The amount of people in Havana who have told me that Wichy is their friend. I was beginning to think this guy is the most popular man in town!  Check out the music and the comments in the Havana Cultura page ……

Wichy de Vedado is a really nice guy. Yes, you expect him to be dangerous or obsessive or at least to have a giant ego, but he isn’t and he doesn’t. Wichy is friendly and open-minded and, yes, he’s modest when it comes to his mixing skills and to the success he has achieved because of them.

 Do you see why such information should never be shared? If people knew what Wichy was like they would no longer be content to admire him from a polite distance. They would rush into the DJ booth and attempt to shake his record-spinning hand. Instead of dancing and looking aloof they’d slap him on his back and tell him how much they enjoy his music. And his reputation as one of the sub-zero-cool pillars of Havana’s underground electronic music scene would be damaged beyond repair. And his records might skip.

As I am not very cool.  I am the person that jumps dances behind the decks to shake his hand, or at least give him my opinion on his good music and how much I have to share with him.  And the thing is about Wichy, I think he actually does want to listen to this seasoned British raver and share a bit of my music.   Or maybe he’s just too damn polite 😉

Anyway, we are having a big party in our house on Friday.  It’s been a while. The graduation party of the students was the last one in June.  So with this party I am hoping to bring together a few new and old friends from the film school, the visiting teachers, my friends in international press, Habana friends and a few musical talents.  Rafa has promised me that he is trying to get hold of a new 17 year old Cuban singer called Annie to see if she will sing in our back garden.  So lets see.  I promise I will report back.  In the meantime check out Danay and Wichy with your super fast internet connections …. they’re worth it.

I just called Danay to see if she was coming and she told me she will be in Brixton.  So anybody reading this in London.  Get your spontaneous selves down to Brixton on Saturday night and think of me when you are dancing!

 

 

 

 

Myths and Reality ….. in Cuba

I had an adventure last week.  I escaped from my domestic life as a mother and wife of the director of the film school and became a student again.  And reading over my last few posts.  I think I really needed it!!

I had for some time wanted to do a scriptwriting workshop at the film school but had not found the time or the confidence.  I was very nervous about it.   Rafa was away in Margarita when the workshop began, so I had only my usual chutzpa to rely on.  On the Sunday night before, the children all finally in bed, I looked for a little notebook and pen.  Am I really going to do this? I thought.  Was I being audacious to try to do this course with the boys on holiday?  Will the other students accept me?  Will they think what the hell is the wife of the director doing here and henceforth to complain?  And maybe they would have been in their rights to do that.  Abusing my role as I am.  Aprovechando, as we say in español.  No matter what, I thought this was meant to be, for whatever reason.  And there speaks the great believer in serendipity that you know me to be!  Anyway, like my own hero, my call to adventure was too strong to refuse.

The morning came and I managed to drop Saskia off at her circulo.  Left the boys hanging out with Rey the custodio until their private teacher arrived and headed off down the straight road to San Antonio.

I made it to the school on time and found the head of the script department who showed me to the room.  Will I still have anything interesting or intellectual to add after so many years of childcare and food foraging … what could I bring to the table?

I was lucky enough that, for my first adventure into academic life at the film school, I had Ruth Goldberg as my teacher.  A New Yorker whose serenity hides a cutting and mischievous intellect and who gently encouraged all of us to slowly open up and share our thoughts and opinions.  Also, I think I was supposed to meet Ruth, she was the perfect mentor for my week stepping out of my ordinary life.

We talked about the structure of the Myth, of Joseph Campbell and the Hero with a thousand faces, adventures beyond the ordinary.  What is the myth we are living and what does it mean to us as people and writers?

We talked about our favourite films and why they appealed to us.  How our hero can be a country or a city.  What turns a myth into a tragedy?  How we all have our inner journeys and outer jouneys.  Where Freud and Jung came into it all. And it all made wonderful perfect sense to me.

By day two I began to think I was a myth junky.  I began to see myths everywhere!  Cuba is a myth, the revolution is a myth.  The myth of Cuba has already put me through a few tests and I still love it.

What about my relationships?  The myth of love at first sight.  Did I cheat the course of tragedy?  And what of my journeys?  What will become of my journey away from my homeland?  Will I ever return?  Or have I gone too far?  (Back to the Unbearable Lightness of Being again).  What does the rest of my life have in store for me?  I know I always wanted to step out of the ordinary world and that I found it hard to refuse adventures but will there come a time that I need to find my road back so I can resurrect myself as a new person in my old world? huh

Then how does all this relate to me as a writer?  How can I create my stories and my characters?  How can I bring things to life as a writer?  What kind of writer do I want to be?  I know I love telling stories and maybe sometimes making people laugh or think or perhaps feel a little bit uncomfortable.  Yes I like to take people on a journey out of the ordinary.

On Saturday night Wichy, my favourite Cuban DJ played at the film school, it was a perfect end to a wonderful week, as I remembered the journeys DJs have taken me on and wished writing was as easy as dancing.

And as I sit here now looking out at the sea all clear and calm after the storm the children back at school and the house empty I am trying to organize all the stories I have running through my head.

Thank you EICTV, all the script students of the second year for accepting me so graciously, and most of all to Ruth for inspiring me and helping me to remember all the things I knew and all the things I want to know.

Film Check

All the films I got to watch last week ….

Winter’s Bone

El Espiritu de la Colmena

El

5 Obstructions

Guantanamera

The Exorcist

Pilot of Breaking Bad (TV series)

 

 

 

 

A life less ordinary …..

I have been back just over a week from the UK and feeling as though I am just getting back into my routine, but also at the same time realising that there is no routine.  That is the best thing about my life here.  People are still spontaneous and open to suggestions.  People are busy but not booked up!  Every week is different even when you think you know what is in store …….

It was fun to spend that time with Saskia and family and friends.  But as usual when I hit the shores of their motherland, Saskia caught a terrible head cold.  In fact one particular night when we were staying in a very smart bedroom I was catching vomit in my hand so as not to Kalpol stain the beautiful white bedspread.  The joys of motherhood!!

It was the latest time I have visited London in years, and I did hit Autumn rather that the beautiful Indian summers that I have usually the pleasure.  I managed to kit us out with a few layers in second hand shops and Uniqlo ……..  I filled my suitcase with childrens shoes, England football kits, atlas, various cooking items and a whole load of food and toiletries.  Bisto now comes in squeezy tubes I was pleased to see!   I picked up a couple of cool frocks in Spitalfields market and a pair of ankle boots to get me though.  My second suitcase was way over the limit but the nice Spanish lady at Virgin took pity on me and waved it through …. yippy.  Twilight checkin is the best!

In England nobody seemed to have much time, everybody rushing, lots of people.  Can I still live somewhere so full of people I thought to myself ……….

I was glad to get back to sunshine and all my men and we partied late on a school night, so happy to all be back together again despite the long flight and jetlag.  Next year wherever we go it will be all together!  I promised the boys.  I think this was the longest I had left my family and it is easier said than done!

Cuba life is just as fun and I arrived home for the annual party at the Spanish embassy where I caught up with a few people.  The night after we had a dinner in the house with some friends and got dragged out to another party where Wichy de Vedado (one of the better DJs in Havana) was playing on a rooftop.  Trying to have a quiet week afterwards I was invited by a photographer friend to hear a band called Deja Vu, who had been recording in a house in Jamainitas on the beach close to our house and were having a party and a little concert to wrap up.  Luckily the concert was at sunset so I managed to get home by 9.  I enjoyed the music and the atmosphere around the band and their families and had to stop myself jumping in the sea with the other guests fully dressed ……….  could be a bit of a soggy drive home I thought.

Now bracing myself for 2 weeks holiday with the boys and Rafa away in Magarita at a film festival.  What adventures can we have?  This weekend we have the new head of the British Council coming over for lunch and we promised the children that we would do lots of fun things ……… the musicians of Bremen is in the theatre in Vedado, as well as a French season of children’s films.

 

One year in Cuba …. the best telenovela!

I missed my one year anniversary here in Cuba.  It was August 14th when we arrived last year so I am summing things up a little late, partly due to not having much time to get on line; and also we were all in a temporary dip in our enthusiasm for our life here.  The telenovela had become a little bit too gritty and I was too hot and bothered!

Now we are back up, and I am enjoying my Cuban life again just as I did when I first arrived.  I am still not tired of meeting film makers and teachers and dancing with the students at the film school or getting dressed up and going to diplomatic parties in beautiful venues, palaces and hotels in Havana.  I am still meeting interesting people from all over the world and making good friends and I still have so many things to write about and to do that I am always busy.

Rafa gave me an official role at the film school which I was already doing.  I just wanted the acknowledgement and a card saying ….  International Public Relations, which means I get to talk to anybody and everybody about how great the film school is.  Not a difficult task.  But I too have other little projects like trying to get more African students, not easy but we are making progress and collecting contacts.  I also enjoy meeting and entertaining the visiting teachers who are a very important part of what makes the school unique.  We have around 40 teachers who come every month from everywhere ……. Spain, UK, France, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, US, to name a few …….. over a year that adds up!

After a year of good and bad domestic experiences, I now have my lovely Mayda running the house and the parties and the shopping and the maintenance and the children. She does it so well that there are days when I feel as though I am living in a hotel.  If there is one thing I would like to do for her in the time I am here, it is to reunite her in some way with her daughter and only child who left with her husband on a boat 4 years ago.  A classic Cuban story, Mayda is too young to be allowed to visit her in the States and her daughter was recently denied her entry back into Cuba to visit.  Her son-in-law was given permission to come back but not her daughter and they both shed many tears of disappointment.

Mayda to me represents the good side of Cuba.  She works hard, always has a smile and a kind word and is loyal, funny and noble.  Some days I have to force her to sit down and eat a proper lunch as she never thinks about herself, just how she can make my family’s life better.  She is the one who has consoled me when times have been tough, and my decision to promote her and recognise her work, I hope will help in some financial way, to reunite her with her daughter.

The boys are happy in school and reading and speaking French which makes me so proud.  They now have Cuban accents when speaking Spanish and supported every Cuban athlete in the Olympics.  In fact during the Olympics it was fun to see how they supported UK, Cuba, France, Guatemala (got their first medal!!) and of course Jamaica (on the grounds that it used to be British and was in the Caribbean and they had Bolt!).

And how do I feel about Cuba?  Life is never boring and I have learnt a lot about humanity and life and love already.  I know I will always defend the Cuban people for their fun and their intelligence and their ability to resolve their lives no matter what the world or the state throw at them.  You have to admire their resilience.  I hope that all the good things that they represent can shine through all the corruption and unfairness that can make life bitter sweet.  I also hope that the Bling Blings don’t take over and turn the country back to what it was becoming in ’59 except this time with Reggaeton and Dolce and Gabana fakes.  Please Cubans learn how to do business without selling your daughters and your soul and keep your own quintessential style, don’t copy from the mainland.

Now I am planning my trip back to the UK with my Saskia to see her Grandma (not Granma!) and family and godmothers and good old friends who have patiently kept in touch with me and my life over all these years.  For those who don’t get the joke see link.  Granma was the name of the yacht that transported Fidel and Che and the others to Cuba in 1956 and has since become the name of a province and a newspaper.  The boat itself was restored and can now be seen outside the Museum of the Revolution in Havana.  I find it a little ironic that such an icon of the Revolution is a misspelled American word because we spell it correctly in England with a d!

 

 

 

1950’s wife in Havana

1950s woman

I don’t know what it is about my life right now but I feel like a 1950’s wife.  Is it Cuba or is it being the wife of the director of the film school or a bit of both?

It is true that life in Cuba in many ways has stood still since 1959.  The most obvious icon is of course, the 1950’s car.  There is something Madmen-esque about this world, even down to the Lucky Strikes, a world where men are men, like Don Draper.  Ice cream parlours, art deco hotel bars, trilby hats, cigars, sling back shoes, hourglass figures, no traffic, slow traffic………. And the music.

When my friend asked for some more modern music at a party the other day the DJ responded with the line.  In Cuba we are about memoria.  I disagree; I think Cubans should be shouting from their crumbling rooftops that CUBA IS THE FUTURE and the future’s so bright you gotta wear shades.  Otherwise Cuba will sell its soul to the capitalist devil along with Che memorabilia and black market cigars.  And Cuba I really do hope you find your modern soul and get yourselves a future, I do, I do, I do …..

Another favourite expression I heard before I arrived was that your heels get higher and your dresses tighter in Cuba.  I am not sure what that says about the island but I definitely have acquired a couple of pairs of heels since arriving to get me to the many receptions to which I am invited.  And yes I have dusted down some of my more feminine outfits, which did not see the light of day on the dusty or damp streets of backpacker, American tourist town Antigua.  More opportunities to get glamorous here definitely.

Are Cuban men more chauvinist, more machista than your average Puerto Rican, Mexican or Venezuelan man?  I’m not sure.  For me machismo is rife all over the Latin world, you don’t need to come to Cuba particularly to sample this cultural phenomenon.

However there was a Cuban documentary on the TV the other day just titled Los Machos.  It appeared to be a celebration of all things male.  Lots of images of good looking guys hanging out in the streets chatting, back slapping, playing dominoes, talking baseball……. laughing.  Just generally making that whole thing of being a man in Cuba look pretty damn cool!  There were even some very cute images of Cuban Dads with small beautiful children staring up into their eyes with love and admiration for their father’s tender manliness!

Obviously it wasn’t a serious or realistic documentary as I didn’t see any images of fat men with their T-shirts rolled up to reveal their sweaty large bellies or angry men clouting their young children for crying for a toy, like I saw in the plastic toy shop on quinta the other day.  The shop was full and nobody said a word except me.  I was so shocked and angry I had to tell him…well done, you’re a really strong man ……. Muy muy macho, muy fuerte! As I was watching the tears of confusion and shame fall down the cheeks of his toddler son.

But, truth be told, in general, Cuban men are an attractive bunch and their charm and seduction generally a little more subtle and laid back then many other races I have come across in my years of living abroad and travelling.  But I am getting old, and now a mother of 3, so maybe I am no longer a typical target for any lustful lewdness anyway!

Although apparently according to some of the students at the film school I am La rubia con lo mejor swing ……… which is a very Cuban way of looking at things.  It is not just about what you’ve got but how you move it!  And unlike my husband I like to think that I am the one with the best swing who just happens to be blonde rather than the one with the best swing out of a small subsection of blondes.  Yes, yes I know I am clutching at straws but we all need to clutch at straws sometimes to lift the ego.

But I digress, why do I feel like a 1950’s wife and mother?  Is it an accumulation of many years of devoting myself to my husband and my children partly because I wanted to and partly because I didn’t have much choice if I wanted this family to stay together, and I did.  Most days I see the upside of the story.  I am lucky to have been able to be with them so much, I have always been provided for, I have had many wonderful experiences and adventures with my family, I have enjoyed the added bonus of a husband with an interesting job.  No boring corporate partners dinners for me, just film festivals and parties and interesting film-makers both old and new.  So I should be grateful for this life and happy to be with my children guiding them though their bi-lingual, bi-cultural upbringing.  And I am very proud of them when their bickering and whining has not ground me down.   The global mother of 3.

But on the other hand I have been feeling suffocated.  Suffocated with the never-ending domestic trials and tribulations of living in Cuba and it feels like I have fallen into the last century.  I have 8 people that come and work in my house (I know it is ridiculous, believe me!) and I still feel as though I never have time for anything, or any time to myself.  If it is not my children that want my time it is my employees who need me to solve their problems.  I have still, after nearly a year, failed to turn that dynamic around ……. I want them to resolve all my problems and leave me free for the fun stuff and the stuff that is purely mine.

Oh in the mists of time I did have a career, I was going places, I was meeting interesting psychologists and sociologists.  My ideas about the creative career were bouncing around and taking me into new greenfield areas of research.

I have been wistfully thinking about my last summer in London when the sun shone, I cycled everywhere, did want I wanted, had an intellectual life, a career, people wanted to talk to me or help me, or collaborate with me because of my ideas and my research not because I was the wife of somebody.

Anyway …….. I took photos of the most amazing sunset last night, we have lots of friends flying in for the film school graduation and parties, we will get to have a holiday soon for all the family, I live in a beautiful house on a beach and I have a husband I love and loves me and takes care of me  ……. and I have the best swing  … sometimes.

But rising slowly up from the ashes is that feminist that I had forgotten about, the one that got out there and grabbed every opportunity going for herself, grabbed the moment and her own money ……. and she will be back, and she already has lots of ideas up her sleeve, just got to go downstairs and sort out the drama of the temperamental 1950’s plumbing and the drains in the kitchen which have flooded, but I’ll be back with more gutsy feminist adventures soon ……. I promise 😉

 

The Cook, the thief, his wife and her lover …….. in Cuba.

As I was thinking about writing this post, the Peter Greenaway film title that I stole for this post title kept playing around in my head all jumbled up and back to front.  I think Peter Greenaway has visited the film school and if not he should be invited.

I have a new cook, there was a thief about, I am a wife but I don’t have a lover, although in Cuba a lot of people do …………. anyway on on ….

The boys have broken up from school and a lot of our more wealthy friends have left for the summer to their properties in Europe along with most of the diplomats and bureaucrats.  Luckily we have enough Cuban friends and enough going on that I don’t feel too lonely and abandoned.  A little bit of breathing space ……… and now with our new air con in the living room, things are looking up!!

I escaped for a few nights to a global city alone, such things have hardly been heard of in our house!  I enjoyed walking the beautiful streets without having to keep my eyes on 3 little naughty heads, lunching in cafe terraces, visiting several galleries, finishing conversations with adults, topping up my fashionista desires ……… bliss …….. but that is another story for another time.

I returned to three happy but slightly resentful children, a husband ready to offload all his problems and trials and tribulations of being a single Dad and director of a film school ……… and yet another robbery in my house.  We let our defenses down for a moment, and of course I wasn’t here to keep my castle safe!

So there was the usual  ……why on earth did you let these people into our house?  Because I wanted to get things done well you were away. ……. conversation.

On the few occasions that I have left my husband alone since we met, he is always intent on improving the house and/or my car for me while I am away, which can often lead to conflict as I like to be heavily involved in the style of said improvements and also who they are done by.  He is then hurt, as he says he does everything to make me happy …… hmmm.

Anyway some workmen came to my house from the film school and were in my bedroom fixing the air con or pretending to fix other things and some cash walked.  Not helped by the fact that we live in a cash world in Cuba and do not have a safe.  Luckily we were approaching the end of the month and we did not have that much cash and they were decent enough to leave us some.

The film school was supposed to find us a safe but failed to do so.  I have now taken all matters into my own hands and decided that the only people who come into my house will be friends, family or people invited by me who have already had my tough character analysis test. I want to be independent from the film school in all matters of administration and maintenance of my home.  Apart from anything else they all like to have a good snoop and gossip is rife in any institution and all over the island.  ‘tonces no mas!

To this end, I now have a new housekeeper and cook who is proving to be a great investment.  Just as well as I had 9 adults and 9 children in my house over this weekend at various stages and I managed to just about feed those who were hungry.  Mercedes lives nearby, is a hardworking, organised women who is transforming my kitchen into a place of homemade cakes and shortbread cookies and cottage pie and it is only week one!

After a few weeks of struggling alone with some help from my young babysitter Claudia, I decided that I needed to get on with finding another nanny before the long summer holiday began, still slightly reluctant to use my children as guinea pigs, but it seems it is the only way.  Take them on a trial basis and see how it goes.

Still not convinced about the latest.  I am trying someone who lives very close by, 5 minutes walk away, but although she seems very sweet and a good person she also gives the impression that she has really suffered a hard life, and that life has worn down her spirit.

I want to say to her …….. hey lady lets laugh and smile and skip with the children, lets make up fun games and holiday adventures.  I am sort of hoping that we might be able to cheer her up a bit but she told me the other day somewhat despondently that Saskia has asked her why she had such a big belly!  I was at the time playing footsies with a giggling Saskia throwing her around the bed.  On the one hand I felt bad, but on the other I was marvelling at my 2 year olds communication skills and astute observational abilities.

Anyway Elena is a black lady, an afrocuban who studied Russian and spent 5 years in Kiev only to return to Cuba just as the Soviet system was getting the hell out and leaving them with the worst economic moment in post-revolution Cuban history, the infamous special period.  Suddenly nobody wanted to learn Russian or bother speaking it too much when she returned.  The Ruskies were gone and it seems that Elena has been sad ever since at her bad luck.  Although she did tell me that she loved living in the Ukraine.  Maybe she fell in love with a Ukranian who stole her heart forever.  I wanted to say to her, well your belly’s not that big and you’ve still got a great pair of legs but in these situations it is best just to keep quiet I find …………..

Anyway a few more parties to organise before the end of the film school term, the graduation party being one of them.  Juju, our beloved nanny of 7 years, who nobody has come close to replacing, is arriving from Guatemala at the end of July for a holiday and by the first week of August Rafa will be free ……… and we have to plan some Cuban adventures.

Where shall we go? Colonial Trinidad?  Maria La Gorda beach?  Cayo Coco?  Exciting, cultural Santiago, the other side of the island, is calling me, but 12 hours in a car in tropical heat with 3 kids means I fear I might have to delay that one.  But I want to dance to more Rhumba, meet a few more Cuban DJs, teach some recipes to my new cook, spend quality time with my children (woops I suppose that should have been first!), try to make my husband forget about the film school for at least a couple of weeks and entertain any pale faces Brits that make it over my Caribbean way.

 

 

Feeling hot hot hot!

Summer has hit Havana big time.  It is steaming and I have now totally submitted myself to the world of air con, seeking shade and ventilation whenever I can.  The air is heavy and I feel a weight pressing down on me.  I am listless and without energy and trying to wear as little as possible without letting too much of my 43 year old body hang out! (My Thai friend and dress designer has been whipping me up some nice little summer frocks).

I have to mop the sweaty foreheads of my children.  I go out at night with a fan.  I get sweat stains on my bras (I know!), I open the glass doors to the sea in the morning and no cool breeze welcomes me.  The sea is like a tepid clear soup and I can see little stripy fish and small rays darting through the shallows.

I have also been without a nanny this last month.  Although I liked Sonia I was beginning to doubt her effectiveness at dealing with the job.  The things she promised never materialised, she clearly did not enjoy cooking and I needed someone more steady, tenacious, patient and in some ways more appropriate!  One little example ….. She had taken it upon herself to take the boys to the supermarket round the corner and buy her feminine hygiene supplies in their company, at the same time explaining about the whole menstruation story, which I was not quite sure was her place or their time.  Pretty horrifying stuff for 6 and 7 year old boys.  They have not mentioned it to me so I am hoping that they were not paying too much attention, maybe too busy having a fight or trying to buy sweets or icecream.

Anyway this was the first time I really had to sack someone who has worked so closely with me, but once it was done, she marched straight out the door without a backward glance and I felt an incredible sense of relief.  I had muttered stuff about what a great person she was but she was not the one for me and how it wasn’t working out …….. like a teenager trying to let down softly their school sweetheart.

The first couple of weeks I felt content, alone with my brood, washing up an awful lot, but peaceful, serene even (no really!).  Now the novelty is wearing off and I want my freedom back.  No time to write, no time to investigate the new world of DJs in Habana, no time to nurture my wonderful new friendships, no time for much and on top of being a slavish hands-on Mum I have to find the time to deal with the administration aspects of the film school which requires a lot of patience and tenacity.  I have plenty of the latter but not much of the former.  I have been interviewing many nice women determined that this one will be the right one.  Phew!

My garden is taking shape too, which is exciting.  The back of the house which faces onto the sea, I can plant nothing pretty as the salt and the wind burns it all so I am turning the entrance on the road side into my colourful sun trap of flowers and hanging baskets.  Such things make me happy and Cuban garden centres are deliciously cheap and cheerful.

I am spending too much time cleaning up the poo and pee of the dog and the daughter.  The puppy just seems to want to sneak into the house to seek out my Guatemalan wool rugs as her toilet.  Saskia is getting the hang of the potty but is at times a little too enthusiastic as she rushes around proudly showing to anyone interested (mainly me) how it brims with steaming turd and a coulis of hot pee.  Accidents happen!

Moving swiftly on to another topic ……. a supposedly hot shot American Hollywood director flew into town in his private jet acting like some kind of diva who needed to be received by everyone including my husband.  He spent 3 days at the film school and was not an easy guest, asking many pert and naive questions.  Doug Liman made Swingers, Mr and Mrs Smith and the Bourne films.  Also the TV series The OC for those who like the latest Dawson Creek type offering about rich angst-ridden Californian teenagers.

He seemed to think that the film school would be delighted to accommodate him and they did in a most gracious manner, even though they had no idea what he was doing there.  As requested, they showed his first film Swingers to the students and 10 turned up, of which a handful left half way through and the others snuck out before the credits had finished (ie no questions to ask the director) leaving Rafa clearing his throat and suggesting a beer in the bar.  I wonder if he realised that the film school has received some truly great independent film directors in the last few months as always and are not easily impressed by the Hollywood machine although Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola amongst others have all visited.  Doug’s parting shot to Rafa was: Be prepared we are coming back.  We were not quite sure how to take that mysterious comment……. some kind of Hollywood film bay of pigs attack!?

More parties parties parties.  My first proper dinner in the house, another monthly party for all the visiting teachers and students from workshops.  Our friends the Norwegian Ambassador and his Mexican husband threw a couple of parties this month in their beautiful house round the corner from us.  Norwegian day of the constitution also happened to co-incide with the international day against homophobia and less appropriately the Cuban day for campesinos (loosely translated as farmers, yokels or peasants depending on the context).  There was a big lunch for all the workers on the film school farm which Rafa attended.  Guzman the boss made a point of saying that these campesinos were definitely not gay!  Or at least if they were they would never admit it ….

Stephen Bayley, successful British film director and the ex-director of the National Film school in the UK was back in town giving his extremely popular and successful workshops on the Meisner technique for actors and directors.  The Cubans love him!  They get enthusiastic and happy and at times even tearful and emotional when he is around.  We threw a party for him after one of the performances in the Bertolt Brecht theatre in Vedado on a breezeless balcony.

Last night it was the British Embassy party in the amazingly beautiful residence in Vedado.  I big turn out of diplomats but I spent most of the night hanging out with Stephen and the Cubans actors, musicians and DJs who are becoming my friends.  Rafa had been climbing in the Sierra Maestra with some documentary students from the film school and was waiting for me tucked up in bed after an exhausting few days.  And then the air con in our bedroom broke ……….. phew.  Feeling hot hot hot!!

Still Cuba intrigues, surprises and seduces me ………. what the future holds nobody knows.  People speculate and talk a lot about what the changes will bring. which is one of the things I will always love about Cubans.  You can disagree but once you talk and talk you usually both end up with a smile on your face.  People don’t get aggressive or shirty.  Just shrug your shoulders and have another cold Mojito, life’s too short to get angry or upset.  I’m learning …………….

Don’t cry for me Guatemala …….

Don’t cry for me Guatemala, the truth is I never left you……..

Well I did.  We did.  And a couple of weeks ago I went back with my family, with my 3 Guatemalan hybrids and without my Guatemalan and it was damn weird going back in time, solo parent, Saskia on my lap, and my boys either side on the two planes via Panama.

When I discovered I was pregnant in Buenos Aires in 2004, I walked the streets of Palermo slowly processing the consequences of my rapidly changing life.  There is a part of Palermo where all the streets are named after Central American Countries and I stopped at Guatemala and took a long look.  I even took a photo of that street name.  I realised that if I decided to have our baby, which I already had, I could never forget about that troubled little country that the world had managed to forget about ……….  A genocide that some people want to sweep under the carpet.  Maybe we all do in a way, because the reality of what happened in Guatemala is too much for a lot of us.  But thankfully there are some people like my husband’s family who could never turn their backs on the truth.

There is nobody who could look me in the face and tell me that the name Rosal Paz y Paz is not a noble one, no matter what side of the fence your politics falls.  Principles, humanity and honor are things that we can all recognise in people.

I spent 8 years in Guatemala.  All my children were born there.  I met some great people and learnt a lot about love and life.  I can’t say I was happy living there, but my husband and my children brought me a quota of happiness that was just sufficient to get me through and good friends contributed in keeping me topped up.

I made Guatemala a paradise for my boys, but at times I could not hide my unhappiness from them and I regret that.  It became my prison.  My beautiful prison, with Volcanoes and Jacarandas and Bourganvilias.  I thought I would never be able to leave.  The feeling made me anxious but my boys always brought me back to life.  I was a mother and a wife and that was what I had to try my best to be and do, regardless of the madness of the country, the history, the hypocrisy, my frustration, my boredom.

But an opportunity in Cuba came along and rescued us, just in time.  We escaped as history began to repeat itself.  A military government back in power, noble people persecuted and accused.  Short memories, and a fresh batch of hypocrisy and lies for a new generation.

So I went back for a week, travelling on British passports without my Rafa and I spent that week recreating the paradise for my children.  Their town, their friends, their nanny, their old daycare, their volcanoes.  Good friends who love us and we love them.  I have always been fortunate to find the good people wherever I am……….. and I thank those people for saving me when the serendipity and madness balance was tipping dangerously over to the wrong side.

My Rafa says he wants to die with his volcanoes, but right now we are relieved to be away from it all .  My beautiful dark-eyed Saskia, who is a happy soul, will grow up with her first memories in Cuba with the added bonus of a much more relaxed mother.  We already have good friends here and I don’t have to keep my mouth shut or keep looking over my shoulder.

To all the sweet kind people of Guatemala.  We will be back one day and I wish you all a lot of luck in the meantime.

Phew ……… it took a long time coming that one.  Next stop back to crazy happy days in Cuba 😉

Film check:  The best documentary I have even seen about Guatemala …….. Lecciones para una Guerra by Juan Manuel Sepulveda.  Synopsis taken from Festivalscope:

Between 1982 and 1996, the Ixil and Quiché people took refuge in the mountains as a last resort to save themselves from the massacres carried out by the Guatemalan Army, which took the lives of more than 200,000 indigenous people. After those fourteen years, the communities ended up settling in the northeastern part of the range, an area currently under siege due to the wealth of natural resources to be found there. LESSONS FOR A WAR is a celebration of the resistance of people preparing to defend themselves against another coming war. A chant of hope of a community that will not give up.

 

Cuban cinema, my first forages …….

I am so lucky to have access to a wonderful film library, reputedly one of the best in Latin America.  My husband is the director of one of the most unique film schools in the world and this has some benefits!  Luciano who heads up the library is a wise man of Latin cinema, who gives me tips and opinions along with the lovely chatty women who work there and know the films and the gossip.

My progress through the library is slow but sure.  Having 3 children and quite an active social life means that I cannot race.  I began by educating myself with some Cuban classics and it was a good way of learning a few of the important names in Cuban cinema.  I don’t have the internet power or ability to put links to all these films but you all do so ……….

Memorias de Subdesarollo directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea is set in the wake of the Bay of Pigs incident.  Sergio is a bourgeois aspiring writer who decides to stay in Cuba even though his wife and many friends have fled to Miami. Sergio reflects in his voiceovers on the changes happening in Cuba from the revolution to the missile crisis.  He feels alone in a brave new world and continues chasing beautiful women all over Havana.  The cool style of the film for me was really reminiscent of the nouvelle vague films of the 60s that I watched in Paris 20 years ago.  Jean Luc-Godard being my favourite.  The way the two main characters meet and the farcical relationship that ensues reminded me a little of A Bout de Souffle (Breathless).  But there are many things that are quintessentially Cuban and very atmospheric.  As a socially historical document it is well worth a watch.

I followed this with Lucia, a Cuban classic but without subtitles and Rafa I could not do justice to this great film.  I need to watch it again in a year or so and with a Cuban.  The images of the nuns being raped in the early part of the film, took my breath away.  Just be warned.  Its hard hitting stuff!

Solas created one of the most important works in the nascent feminist cinema of the period.  Told in three segments, set in 1895, 1932, and in the heady years just after the Revolution,Lucia is an epic of Cuban history. The three Lucias are literally, different women, each of their stories combining into a larger narrative of slow, painful progress for Cuba, less as a nation than as a society. The three Lucias each offer different visions of class; Solas deftly links concern with economic materialism to character growth and change, in the process transforming that often very bourgeois cinematic genre, the family melodrama, into a platform for social investigation.

I was lucky enough to meet one of the Lucia’s in my early days in Havana, Eslinda Nuñez.  I did not realise I was chatting with a Cuban icon on a night out at the Mexican embassy, I was just impressed by a beautiful and elegant woman, so easy to talk to and unpretentious.  I hope to meet her again soon.

De Cierta Manera (One way or Another) is the only feature film of the late great Sara Gomez.  It is set in the residential district of Miraflores built by the Revolution for the inhabitants of the shantytown on the outskirts of Havana known as Las Yaguas.  What I loved about this film was how the director mixed real documentary footage with actors and fiction.  This authentic technique was way before its time and a brilliant social document.  The film attempts to reveal the new reality that the Revolution has placed within the reach of a previously marginalized sector of the Cuban population.  The director mixes shots of the demolition of dilapidated tenements with the building of new houses and apartment blocks.

A metaphor for replacing an old socio-economic order with a new value system and the aspirations of a new society in construction.  Through the three protagonists she explores the evolution within the social environment looking at the old capitalist hangovers of individualism, false values and friendships and chauvinism.

I was chatting away with a friend, who has been living in Cuba nearly 12 years, at my sons rugby match a few weeks ago and he mentioned a film that was made famous as it was banned by Fidel in the 60s and prompted Fidel’s famous line: Within the revolution everything; against the revolution, nothing.  A strange line, and I am still trying to grasp exactly what he meant other than: stay faithful to the Revolution but that seems a bit obvious and nothing to do with the subject matter of this film.  Anyway the copy of the film that I got from the film school opened with this line.  PM is only 14 minutes long; Rafa and I watched it together and loved it.  It captures beautifully in black and white, fly on the wall photography, one night out in Havana over 50 years ago.  And well, some things just don’t change.  The music, the drunks, the food vendors, the prostitutes, the bars, the musicians, the lovers.  It was screened on Cuban TV at the time but never made it to cinema.

The makers of PM, Orlando Jiménez Leal and Sabá Cabrera Infante (brother of writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante) later went into exile and the film became, bizarrely, the most controversial and invisible film in the history of Cuban cinema.  Recently it was screened without any comment or fuss in a Cuban cinema and I am told that you can find it on YouTube in two parts.

I got another Cuban classic but thinking more of my boys who have had a poster on their wall since pretty much Paulo was born:  Vampiros en la Habana.  For anyone who doesn’t know, Cuban film posters are wonderful.  They have their own inimitable style and make great art.  A perfect present from Havana where there is not always too many nice things to buy as gifts unless you are in the know and can get away from the people hawking tired cliché Cuban rubbish and cigars.

Vampiros en Habana is an animation classic but without subtitles and a very fast storyline I was struggling and left it to my bilingual sons, who enjoyed it after feeling initially uncomfortable that it wasn’t a cartoon that resembled Disney or Pixar.  Other great Cuban films for children include Cannes prize winner Viva Cuba by our friend Cremata and the recently successful Habanastation.

After this I decided to have a break from Cuban films as I had been walking down the corridor at the film school and looking at all the posters of the graduates.  I had already seen 2 or 3 but couldn’t wait to get started on the others.  So read the next post to find out more ……..

 

E for Entertainment Cuba style

Cultural life in Havana is very good and there is always enough things going on to please anybody.  Beyond that there is always spontaneity and good music and parties to be joined.  Cubans are an educated bunch and they put culture way up on the list and they all love to chat!

I actually enjoy watching Cuban TV and we have felt no desire to try to get cable or satelite.  Firstly there are no adverts.  Can you imagine what a pleasure that is!!  In Guatemala I was forced to watch more adverts on cable TV than actual programming.  It was something that I resented a lot.  Here I have to deal with a few Cuban public service announcements, which I usually find either entertaining or interesting and they never interrupt a good film.  To name a few ……the one about how to get rid of bugs in your house and fumigation.  The one about how you shouldn’t use public transport when you are drunk and leery and others involving manners and how to respect your fellow Cubans.  Endless tributes to Jose Marti and the heroes of the revolution, and actually relatively little on Fidel.  Emotional pleas to free the Cuban 5, imprisoned in the US without a proper trial and many more, short exerts about beautiful parts of Cuba you should visit etc etc …….

The programming is pretty good.  I enjoy the many discussion shows on art and literature and social topics.  Interviews with interesting Cuban and visiting Latin personalities.  The famous Mesa Redonda (the round table) tends to be more national social, geopolitical or economic discussion so I can’t say I sit watching that too much but Rafa tunes in from time to time.

Last night I watched a discussion about being a single parent on another chat show (this one is triangular) hosted by somebody who works at the film school. Interesting and good for my Spanish!  I watch Cuban news, which is not bad for such an apparently isolated country, they cover more international topics than in Guatemala.  I have seen many good films, independent, foreign language (although can be tricky reading Spanish subtitles whilst listening to Bollywood Indian or German science documentaries) and also a handful of better Hollywood films.  Such US things as CSI, Private Practice, Seinfeld and White Collar have appeared too.

International sports events that Cubans take part in are pretty well covered.  When we arrived we had international athletics, the Panamerican games from Guadalajara, and lots of baseball which Rafa likes to dip into although I still haven’t got a clue what they are up to.  It seems to me like the epitome of male narcisism.  The way the pose and wiggle before every move like preening peacocks twitching and pulling at the tight pants in a jerky dancy fashion.

Also it goes without saying that you can watch an awful lot of good music from all over the world as well as Cuban.  On Sunday I watched Adele playing live at the Royal Albert Hall.  A week before I watched an amazing performance by the Cuban Symphony orchestra outside in a beautiful square possibly in Havana.  All the musicians were pretty good looking which can’t help but add to the experience!  And the children’s TV on the, what appears to be legitimately pirate channel of MV is a great mixture of BBC, Discovery kids and a bit of Mexican TV but blissfully advert free.  So my children don’t spend half their time saying Mummy I want that and that and that for my next Birthday/Christmas!

I have been able to take the children to see 4 wonderfully professionally produced plays, last week was a French musical organised for the week of francophonie in Vedado.  I took the boys to a pyjama story time party at their school.  We took them to see two Dutch films during the week of Dutch cinema.  All this is without even checking the ads in the paper.  Not a week goes by without some country having a week of their independent cinema.  I made it to a couple in British Cinema week, next week is Iran.  I have been invited to Norwegian, Belgian , Canadian, Brazilian, Danish … and oh so many other film weeks that I can’t remember.  I have never had to check the listing page of any newspapers in Rafa’s position we tend to get invited to most things.

As always, I do want to check out more music nights though, it is just finding the time and the energy!

Oh yes, and the Pope arrived last week for a flying visit to Havana and Santiago.  Can’t say I would have been rushing down and fighting the crowds for that particular event.  But I am happy for all the Cuban catholics who were terribly excited!  And that he persuaded Fidel that Good Friday should be a holiday in Cuba!

My next two posts will be my attempts at reviewing all the wonderful independent cinema that I am able to watch and access.  So get ready for my reviews on some great films from Cuba, South America, Spain and UK.