Soy Cuba

Soy Cuba was an extremely interesting movie that brought up some very interesting points following the Cuban revolution. It was released in 1968 and was directed by Mikhail Kalatozov.The film is divided into four sections which were really four different stories. This allows the director to show not only different perspectives, but also make different points throughout the film. The film was released after the Cuban revolution and in watching the film you can notice it definitely intended to show the positive aspects of Marxism/socialism while also showing the evils of capitalism. The United States had to be shown as an imperial nation with its own interests at mind over that of the Cuban people. Chasteen writes “It was Marxist historical analysis that made persuasive sense to Latin American nationalists bent on dismantling neocolonialism. The Marxist view of capitalism, highlighting class exploitation, seemed an apt description of Latin American experience”(264). This film was released at a critical point in Cuban history and needed to show why the new socialist government was better than the old capitalist one. The film did a brilliant job in this regard. The film did a very good job at contrasting the lives of the Cubans with that of the rich Americans featured in the film. A point to be taken from this is the director was obviously trying to show his audience that capitalism and the United States were evil and couldn’t be trusted. This is obvious with the scene showing the American soldiers and their drunken behavior in the first segment of the film. Cuban women were being used as prostitutes and shown as the victims of the American (capitalist) way of life. The film showed that if the Cuban people were to be successful and happy they must be independent from its powerful neighbor to the north and find its own identity. They could not rely completely on the United States economically and morally or it would be to the detriment of its people. The second segment of the film showed how the American based corporations could hurt the lives of the Cuban people by showing a fake American company buying a Cuban mans farmland. This leaves him without a home and again shows how the United States has its own economic interests over any other interests. On the other hand the second segment shows how hard working the Cuban people are and in socialist governments, the hard work of its people is key to its success. Eckstein writes about the benefits of universal healthcare and this is shown in the film. Before the revolution only the rich would have healthcare but after it would be enjoyed by members all throughout society. This is one of the positives of communist society and the film stresses it in several different ways including the scene with the recruiter. Being a recent addition to the socialist nations, Cuba needed to instill in its populace that socialism was the best path for its future. No longer would there be classes in Cuban society that would separate the wealthy or the poor. The film was very successful at showing the positive aspects of socialism and allowed the Cuban populace to see it through the different stories.