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MARIO J. TORRES
The
king's invisible garments
In Cuba the word culture strictly fulfills its root: cult, but in this case,
it is to the prevailing system and for that reason everything goes through a
strict sieve and all themes and artistic creations that will see the light
are carefully chosen and they must fulfill special requirements that should
always defend the regime and it all has become a disease that has spread to
the 2 TV channels of the country, to all the radio stations, all newspapers
which are the organs of the island's only party: the Communist one and in
general to all mass media and means of communication and which in the case
of culture do not escape the trap either, starting by organizations like the
UNEAC and other related ones by that control creators and creations.
The price of success for a Cuban artist is to sell his soul with songs of
praise to the system and in spite of the fact that everyone may know that
the king is naked, all should flatter him by pointing out the beauty of his
clothes even though nobody can see them; hence, all artistic creation must
agree with " the principles, revolutionary achievements and benefits of the
just socialist society" in which everything is good and positive and besides
it must condemn the injustice of its enemy, the "Yankee Imperialism" where
everything is negative, disaster and disgrace, with the serious risk, if
these rules are not followed, of being accused of ideological problems,
being banished from the public scene or what is worse, of suffering
imprisonment or execution; for these reasons, although there are endless
advisors in all these media as in the literary field, music, movies,
theater, radio, TV, newspapers and all shows, whose work is to assess, check
, verify, criticize, modify or adjust what is going to be broadcast,
exhibited, showed or published to the system's convenience, from the word of
a song, an _expression to be said in a TV or radio show or the subject of a
book, there exists a self censure that comes from the very art creator, who
already knows the rules of the game and is not willing to get out of it in
order to survive and who then protects himself by avoiding certain truths
that may be dangerous or simply not welcomed but at the same time limits his
creative potential due to this rigid policy, developing a strange kind of
double morality which is typical of the regime and that precisely gives the
game to this article because everybody knows the king is wearing no clothes
but nobody will ever dare to say it.
A poet would never be so daring as to write a poem whose ideas may be
interpreted as contradicting the system. A cartoonist, a scriptwriter or a
humorist would never be that bold to draw cartoons, write scripts or make
jokes ridiculing something of the system even though the critic or reference
be right. A singer should prefer to sing a revolutionary or political song
rather than singing in English which would be dangerous or of no guarantee
for promotion or singing with the style of those who live or have lived in
the Miami exile like Celia Cruz or Willy Chirino. Besides, a composer would
never write anything doubtful to be offensive to the government because that
would mean putting a rope around his neck since these artists always have
behind them the invisible but omnipresent state security or simply bribed
informers who are ready to fulfill their dark mission.
On the contrary, artists must reflect the marvelous Cuban reality as in a
massive deceit in which everyone knows all is false. Even in dance, painting
and sculpture, which are mute in their oral _expression but whose works of
arts carry "symbol" interpretations, creators have to be very careful with
the meaning these may imply since there is always an eye watching and it is
well known that there will not be forgiveness if an error is made.
In general, opposite to expressing a neutralism or impartiality that
supposedly would keep the artist or author "clean" from any "sin", it will
not be enough to keep silent and put up with unfairness because the system
demands from its people to be partidist or what they call a political
definition in all artistic manifestation so every work of art must
politicized as is done in the field of Education where something similar
takes place and the more militant the topics or personal expressions may be,
the more success may be attained. Neutralism might be interpreted or
understood as "an ideological problem or a political weakness", which is
highly condemned and no artist would dare run such a risk so everyone has
learned to walk along the tight rope and to live honoring the beautiful
arabesques of the king's garments even though nobody believes it and when
the strong desire of shouting that the king is really naked, becomes
uncontrollable, it is the moment then, of trying to escape from the cage and
leave the country in order to avoid a sure prison as lots of artists have
already done, almost reaching hundreds among the most renowned and who have
dismantled the artistic life in the island; the majority of them living in
total freedom in the city of Miami and about whom the Caribbean octopus
misinforms the people by spreading rumors that they have died, failed or are
in misery to erase the idea that there exists a land of salvation where many
fortunate people now step on.
In this case, the brainwashing of so many decades of deceit and lies has
been so strong and powerful that at times even if a Cuban's relative in
exile takes care of informing him or revealing the truth of the successful
whereabouts of any Cuban artist in the US, that person in the island may not
even want to believe it.
Also, every artist, apart from adjusting his creations to the system's
convenience, must have an active political life from a personal point of
view, belonging to all the organizations that measure that unconditional
commitment and must be recognized as supporter of the regime or at least
identified with it. Besides, there has arisen a false nationalism, behind
which, the pure essence of the dictatorship is hidden, in which, with the
pretext of of outstanding the country's values and fulfill with the saying
of "...know Cuba first...", everything that should be heard, watched, read
or written is strictly dictated, that is to say: watch Cuban movies or those
from the East European socialist countries when they existed, play a given
percentage of Cuban music on the radio, up to a great extent avoiding
foreign music and that of the "enemy's", censoring all coming from overseas
and labeling all individuals who consume the product as ideologically
diverted, banning artists from being heard or seen in the island for any
kind of manifestation they may have made or opinion they may have expressed
as happened with José Feliciano, Raphael, Roberto Carlos, etc, who were
unexplainably banned for years in the Caribbean country. In the case of The
Beatles, they were considered as a possibly harmful phenomenon for the young
people of the decade of the 60's, who were forced to "enjoy" the so-called
Nueva Trova with patriotic and militant songs and the British band could be
heard or known in Cuba years after they traveled to the US when they were
not such a novelty any more.
TV shows must be tailored to the reality lived inside the island's system
but always reflecting that there is happiness and satisfaction with the
regime. Young Cubans have had to secretly hide and catch in the dark foreign
radio waves in order to listen and enjoy their real tastes in the different
spheres of culture and entertainment and in the field of movies, they had to
undergo for decades the long, tasteless and boring Russian movies, only
waiting for Saturday night in order to watch the American movie assigned in
the ration coupon since the "poison", term used to designate all that comes
from the "Yankee Imperialism," should be administered in small doses and in
the case of artists they have had to follow the rhyme of lies, deceit and
restrictions in order to survive and keep ahead.
The Cuban people are hungry to develop and consume their own cultural
movement without restrictions and to also have in this sphere of life, the
freedom to do whatever they like or prefer without having to put up with
impositions or fear to retaliations but the punishment to have to suffer
them is another achievement of this tropical dictator.
MARIO J TORRES
NOVEMBER 2004
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