MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Based on the novel by Edmundo Desnoes
Leading players
Direction
Havana, 1961. Many people are leaving the country
She'll have to work over there
Until she finds someone stupid enough to marry her, that is
Frankly, she's still good looking
She'll forget me as soon as she finds an easy life
I'm the one who's really stupid
I worked to give her a soft life...
... like a New Yorker, a Parisienne, not an underdeveloped islander
All those who loved me...
... or nagged me right up to the last moment...
... have already gone
For years I've wanted to find time to write, or keep a diary
Have I anything to say?
Everything's the same
All the same
Suddenly it looks like a set, a cardboard city
The Bronze Titan
Cuba, free and independent. Who'd have believed it?
No imperial eagle, but where's the dove Picasso was going to send?
Is comfortable to be a communist millionaire in Paris
"This humanity has spoken 'enough' and has begun to move"
- they won't stop till they get to Miami
However, everything looks so different today
Have I changed, or has the city?
The moment of parting
"Oh, abandoned, like the wharves at dawn
"Everything about you was like a shipwreck"
- What are you doing? - Can't you see?
What are you reading?
Something trite, frivolous and superficial. "The Best of Everything"
Oh, yes, that film...
Stop looking at me...
...as if I'm some strange insect!
Les talk
Whas biting you?
You only talk about insects lately
Why not?
Aren't we surrounded by insects? Isn't this country falling behind?
I say so, but what do you think?
Why? You've never been interested in my opinions
You're practising your English lately. I think you want to leave
Clear off! Leave me alone!
I like you when you become vulgar
It always excites me...
... when I see you struggle between elegance and vulgarity
I've been keeping an eye on you for some time now
You've become rather disgusting lately
Because I've run out of Yardley's brilliantine...
...and Colgate toothpaste and after-shave lotion
Those things help a lot, don't they?
Yet you become more attractive every day
You're more artificial
I prefer women like you to natural beauty
I prefer good clothes, good food, make-up, massage
Thanks to such things you're no longer a slovenly Cuban girl
I never know whether you're serious of joking
A little of both
Go joke to your mother!
I can't stand living here any longer! You stink!
Everything you said was recorded
Every word. Ill be fun when you hear it played back
You monster! I'll smash the recorder!
Women look into your eyes as though wishing to be touched by your look
Such a thing only happens here
Maybe Italian women stare longer, but no, not like ours
Havana's like a country town since "El Encanto" burned down
To think that Havana was "The Paris of the Caribbean"
Thas what tourists and whores called her
A Tegucigalpa of the Caribbean...
... thas what it looks like today
Not only because "El Encanto" has gone...
...and the stores are half empty...
... but because of the people
What does life mean for them?
And what does life mean for me?
But I'm not like them
They're making the first socialist revolution in America. So what?
They're going back to the jungle, hungry, like the Haitians
They beat Napoleon, and so?
The worlds most important sugar industry, before the revolution
Now look what they've made of it
Times change
Sergio, is not our own problem
Is between the Russians and the Americans, nothing to do with us
I tell you this whole thing will blow up, Sergio
Whichever of them throws the first punch, we'll catch it
Why? Because we're a tiny, little island
You'll catch the punch, because I won't be here
To think we've been friends for over five years
Under Batista things got to breaking point for you
Not me, I kept out of politics, I have a clear conscience
All I've ever done is work, like an animal
Just think of Anita. So beautiful, yet living on a diet of black beans
Is not good enough
Yet they have the know-how to develop the country's economy
Yes, the know-how
The Americans know how to make things run properly
- Check the oil - I haven't any, but I can check it
Why bother?
I've got to hand it in just as it was
Is been inventoried. If is not as it was, I can't leave
You'll have to touch it up with synthetic paint somehow
You'll have to paint this part, at least
He says a Cuban can stand everything except hunger
Think how we've starved since the Spaniards came
In Latin America...
... four children die of malnutrition every minute
In ten years twenty million children will have died
Equal to the death roll of the Second World War
A symbol of decadence
If I keep it here I don't have to get it repaired
Well, if you prefer walking...
No, but I feel happier. Is a way out of problems
They say the latest American cars are incredible
I was reading a magazine Julio lent me
Sealed engines, two spark plugs, a two year guarantee
If it breaks down they give you another one
Thas the only answer to our mechanics
People are becoming more stupid
- Pablo's right: The French stink - They're just naturally dirty
I don't care if they confiscate the lot
Is all the same to me
But I'm not staying safe indoors, like when they fought Batista
Truth is, I never thought they'd topple him
I must do something now, or I'll be lost when this thing blows over
Thas what the Bay of Pigs prisoners said
THE TRUTH OF THE GROUP IS IN THE MURDERER
We found, in the invaders' military organization, a social structure...
... reflecting the social structure and morality of the bourgeoisie
The priest
The free enterprise man
The dilettante official
The torturer
The philosopher
The politician
And many sons of good families
Each of them had specific duties...
... yet it was the whole, the group...
... which gave meaning to each individual activity
Calviño was a murderer who even horrified the bourgeoisie
The housecoat I wore. Is still bloodstained
He kicked my stomach and I bled
But that wasn't enough for him. Because I struggled...
...they broke two of my vertebrae
They hit him with sticks
You hit him, too. He fell on his knees...
... you kicked him in the side
Then he fell down. Do you remember?
You abused him even after he was dead
You shot him, then laughed at the way he died
On October 6th, at 7 P.M...
Do you deny it?
Do you deny...
...nine days after you had killed Morua...
... you boasted about it?
- Do you deny it? - I can't answer
In all capitalist societies...
... the same type of man is at the disposal of the bourgeoisie
In the moral division of work...
... the murderer enables others to exist...
... others not in direct contact with death...
... who, as individuals, wish to keep their souls clean
Speaking for myself and those like me...
... maybe a minority...
... we're not like Ventura, or those other miserable creatures
I didn't even know Calviño then. I lived my own life
They're like disjointed elements of a whole which no one fully admits
I can't answer for the others. Everyone answers for himself
It seems that you want to accuse me...
... of being the instigator of the invasion
I insist my mission was purely spiritual
I have never handled a weapon
Being mixed up in a conspiracy doesn't make one a conspirator
As I've told you, I've always taken a neutral stand
I'm apolitical; never had anything to do with a political party
One's personal behaviour excuses one from general responsibility
Everyone concentrates on himself to escape contamination by others
Or else, by sinking into the group to mask his own responsibility...
... he divides his guilt with others
I wasn't the only one in the group
Conversely, the group may be disowned...
... when its members wish to avoid responsibility
You're talking about the group's idea, not mine
But the idea of group responsibility...
... is the murderer-torturer's haven, his claim to moral innocence
Listen, I've committed no direct crime, I tell you
But none of the cases considered...
... shows the dialectic relationship between individual and group
None of those who came with Calviño...
... see that they're part of a system which entangles them in their acts
In the accounts of landowner Freyre...
... in the extreme unctions of Lugo...
... in the reasonings of philosopher Andreu...
... in the dismissals of dilettante Rivero...
... in Varona's "representative democracy"...
... who could divine the death they'd help spread over Cuba?
Death by starvation, by sickness...
... by torture, by frustration
She cleans the apartment three times a week
She's been coming for a year and I never noticed her
She'd be attractive if she troubled. She's as thin as a Vogue model
I like her
She's a Protestant
A Baptist, I think
Were you baptized in a river?
What happened?
Well...
Is it a secret?
We gathered by the river...
...the pastor and I entered the water and he told me the meaning of baptism
For us, baptism symbolizes the death of sin...
... the resurrection of a new life, full of faith, hope and dignity
Then he immersed me in the water
You've no idea how frightened I was
But it was all over so quickly
All that worry and fuss for nothing
Almost everyone's an exhibitionist
I see people as weak, almost hairless animals, on two legs
Someone said that man's intelligence and physical imperfection...
...are because he's the premature foetus of a monkey
At an exquisite moment...
... between 30 and 35, Cuban women lose their looks
They are fruits which rot at an amazing speed
The rule of the Yankee empire...
... having been ended by the triumph of the Revolution...
... their Guantanamo Base is now a spy centre
Our cameramen...
... film some of the provocations...
... by military personnel and counter-revolutionaries hiding there
You have beautiful knees
- Will you have dinner with me? - Are you crazy?
No, I just don't like eating alone
Are you waiting for someone? Your boy friend?
Are you crazy?
Is dangerous to wait around alone at your age
You are crazy
No, look... really...
Why not have dinner? I get indigestion if I eat alone
I'm waiting for someone from the film company. I'm having a film test
I have a friend there. An important director, I believe
In the film company?
I'll introduce you to him, if you like
- Whas the time? - About six-thirty
He's late. He won't come now
Won't you have a drink?
I mustn't. I'm having injections for my nerves
Why do you want to act?
I'm tired of always being the same
I want to be someone different without people thinking I'm crazy
I want to develop my personality
But all those characters are like scratched records
An actress just keeps repeating everything
The same movements, the same words, thousands of times
Where did you get them?
We found them. They're cuts made by the old censor
The outfit we had before the Revolution
They refused to pass such scenes
They said they offended morals and good taste
So they had their moral preoccupations, too
At least they worried about keeping up a front
- What will you do with them? - I might use them
As a sort of collage, a bit of everything
- It will need to have some meaning - It will. You'll see
Will they release it?
Have you acted before? In the theatre, or on television?
No, I had no luck
Have you studied drama?
Well, I did intend to take some classes...
Well, just complete that form
Aren't you going to audition me?
I can sing, too
If you say so... Well?
Are you sure is no?
What a beautiful house. Do you like it?
Don't think we'll do anything
Thas where I live. Come on
- I don't... - Don't what?
- What about your wife? - I told you, I'm divorced
- Even so, what about the neighbours? - Well, if you don't trust me...
Whas wrong then?
Well, you go up first
Top floor, apartment K-L
Make yourself at home. I'll make some coffee
My parents... and my ex-wife, Laura
They left on the same day
And you?
Aren't you leaving?
No, I'm all right here
Are you a revolutionary?
What do you think?
Neither revolutionary nor counter-revolutionary
Well, what am I?
You're nothing
- They'll send you things - What for?
They could send nice shoes... maybe even a car
Laura had a figure like yours
You can look at her dresses
You can have them, if you like
Look at them, anyway
Perfect!
You must fasten it up
Come along now, don't cry
You've ruined me
We've done nothing wrong
What shall I tell mama?
Don't tell her anything
I'll come with you if you like
No thanks, I'd rather be alone
Call me
Thanks to such things you're no longer a slovenly Cuban girl
I never know whether you're serious or joking
A little of both
Go joke to your mother!
I can't stand living here any longer! You stink!
Everything you said was recorded
Every word. Ill be fun when you hear it played back
You monster! I'll smash the recorder!
Let me go! I never want to see you again!
I'm leaving... alone. I don't want you to come with me
Leave me?
Find some other woman, more to your taste!
I won't be a guinea pig for your whims and games!
I'm going to live my own life! I'm getting old!
I don't want to be with you! I'm leaving!
Before your lips confirmed you loved me...
... I already knew it, I knew it!
All right now?
I thought you felt bad
I'm all right now. I'll help you prepare lunch, if you like
- Whas the matter? - Nothing's the matter with me
Go, say it! It couldn't last!
Is all over! You don't love me any more!
Nice?
Why did you cry last night?
- Don't make fun of me - I'm not
You are, you don't have any feelings
You don't have to criticize the way I live...
One thing about people that upsets me...
... is their inability to sustain something without collapsing
Take Elena...
... she was totally inconsistent
Didn't relate things
Thas a symptom of underdevelopment
The inability to relate things, to gain experience, develop
Is difficult here...
... because women are conditioned by sentiments and culture
A soft environment. People waste talents on inconsistent adaptations
They always need someone to think for them
I hope to see you soon, Sergio
No, I'm already familiar with the States
What will happen here is the mystery
Everyone knows what will happen
Well, I don't. I really don't
It won't be like the Bay of Pigs
Maybe not, but it might have interesting results
Right, but I'd rather be on the other side
You'll be safer
And you'll be able to see old friends
I know what you mean, but there are decent people among them
So they say
Whatever they say, I've got a clear conscience
You, yes
Was I like him?
Possibly
The Revolution is my revenge on idiots like Pablo, at my own risk
I know Pablo isn't Pablo, he's my own life
Everything I don't want to be
Good riddance
Like vomiting them up
I keep my mind clear. A disagreeable emptiness
I can't prevent whas happening to me: Him, Laura, everyone
Francisco de la Cuesta lived here
We were eight or ten years old
Where is Francisco now?
Does he remember our pranks?
I try to and I can't
At school the priests were always right
They had the power
I'd done nothing...
Then I understood the relationship of Justice and Power
Armando's father was a freethinker
Every week he'd give him a peso to go to a brothel
He took me to a woman who charged 50 cents; told her to be nice to me
But I couldn't do anything with her
I had to find another
After that I went every week
Suddenly I discovered that Elena didn't think like me
I expected more of her. I thought she was complex and interesting
I'm Europeanized
Elena forces me to feel underdeveloped
I tried to change Elena, but, like Laura...
... she doesn't understand, she has a different world in her head
She doesn't see me
A TROPICAL ADVENTURE
Hemingway shot this gazelle on his last trip to Africa
That was in 1953
He made that trip with Mary, his fourth wife
It is one of the fastest gazelles in Africa
He said he killed it to avoid killing himself
But finally he couldn't resist the temptation
He made several trips to Spain as war correspondent...
Is this where Mr. Way used to live?
Whas special about it? Books and dead animals
Just like the American houses in Preston
The same furniture, the same American smell
- Whas an American smell? - I don't know... you sense it
Do you like the smell of Russians best, or Americans?
Leave me alone! I don't know anything about politics
The tropics
Backward countries...
... where you kill animals...
... fish and sunbathe
And there: "the beautiful Cuban señorita"!
"I'll ever fear anything again", Macomber said to Wilson
"Something happened inside me when I saw the first buffalo
"Like a dam bursting. It was pure excitement"
As if chasing a buffalo would conquer fear
Anyway, there are no buffaloes in Cuba
He conquered fear of death, but couldn't stand fear of life...
...at a time when the world was beginning to get too big
Why did you go away?
You were amusing yourself
Do you mind?
You don't care
You don't care about me
- about anything
This is Hemingway's private study
He could always be found at this typewriter
He never sat down to write
He'd get up very early and work till 11 or 11.30
Few people were allowed into this room. I was one of them
I would move about very quietly...
Rene Villarreal
He was a guttersnipe when Hemingway found him
I read that somewhere
He moulded him to his need: Faithful servant and great lord
Colonialist and Gunga Din. Hemingway must have been insufferable
This was his refuge, his tower, his tropical island
Big game hunting, American furniture...
... Spanish photos, books in English, a bullfight poster...
Cuba never really interested him
It was his refuge, guest house, base for fishing in the Gulf Stream
ROUND TABLE: LITERATURE AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT
Culture in an underdeveloped country...
...is the sometimes painful and costly operation...
...by which people become aware of the possibility...
...of changing social conditions...
...writing their own history...
...and select the most fertile of their traditions...
...to bear fruit in the conditions created by national liberation
We are only a few steps away from being negro cooks and janitors
I discovered I was a "spick", a derogatory term for Latin-Americans...
...negroes and other inferior people
Although I look like a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant...
...I'm really a southern negro
All Latin-Americans are negroes, discriminated against, oppressed...
...ignored outsiders in the swindle's pretensions of universitality...
...the American way of life, the great white dream of the U.S.A.
Now is the turn of the devil's advocate
He who piles doubt upon doubt...
...and asks you:
Don't you realize, the words you are using...
...underdevelopment, underdevelopment...
...are sick, or at least ailing?
Don't you realize that these may be language traps...
...accessories of an already wasted culture...
...a stratagem, a lingistic alibi...
...a linguistic-ideological arrangement...
...leading to the tranquillity of forumulas?
Is useless to flee the linguistic continent of underdevelopment...
...and forget that the basic contradiction of our times...
...is not the contradiction...
...between North American imperialism and underdeveloped continents...
...but the contradiction between the impetuous development...
...of the productive forces of the whole world...
...and the forms and relationships of capitalist production
Between the socialist revolution...
...and the final imperialist phase of capitalism
To take one of your examples...
...the basic contradiction between the proletariate and capitalism
I believe that what you have said is a complete abstraction
The embodiment of the basic contradiction...
...takes the form of war
For me, the basic contradiction at this moment...
...is not between European proletariates and capitalists...
...but it is in the areas where war exists...
...there we see the basic contradiction, as in Vietnam
The sole basis of this discussion...
...rests on whether the basic contradiction...
...is one thing or the other
On pure Marxist grounds...
...I agree with you, but the embodiment is something else
Who are you up there, with that cigar?
You feel pretty important; you don't have much competition here
Outside Cuba, you'd be nobody; here you're well placed
Who's seen you, Eddy? Who sees you now, Edmundo Desnoes?
I'll translate what Jack Gelber just said
I don't understand... The American was right
None of that helped. Words devour words and leave you in the clouds
How does one get rid of underdevelopment? Is difficult
It taints everything
What are you doing, mixed up in all this, Sergio?
You've nothing in common with them. You're alone
In underdevelopment things are forgotten, people are inconsistent
But you remember too many things, too much
Where's your family, your work, your wife?
You're nothing. You're dead
Now, Sergio, your final destruction begins
Is always the same with mother's letters: Gum and razor blades
I use an electric razor
All I asked for was books
I can't read her writing
They're crazy. We don't understand each other
Hanna was the best thing that ever happened to me
Escaping Hitler, they landed in Cuba
Hanna was more of a woman than the underdeveloped girls here
How long were we together?
I can't remember; the best thing that ever happened to me
Why did I let her go?
When they left for New York we were engaged
Not that we believed in convention
I planned to settle in New York with her
I wanted to be a writer
Hanna was the one person who believed in me
She'd help me
Then father gave me a furniture store
I worked like mad for two years
"Hanna, darling, I can't leave now. Please understand
"I don't want to arrive empty-handed"
Hanna, darling...
One day it was too late... I'll always look for you
Where are you now?
What do you think of me?
Stop right here
- Surname? - Carmona
- Middle name? - Bendoiro
- First name? - Sergio
- Occupation? - None
- Don't you work? How do you live? - From apartment rents
An ex-landlord
- Age - 38
- Nett income? - 600 pesos
- Income from rest of family? - I live alone
- Do you pay Urban Reform? - No
- When did you last pay it? - I never have
This apartment, are you the owner, illegal occupier?
I'm the owner
- Any embargo? - No
How many square metres? Roughly
Is pretty big
Les say 100 to 200 square metres
- Want to measure it? - No, I'll take your word
Les say 300. We can always correct it afterwards
Type of construction: Brick
Now, concerning these apartments...
- How many rooms each? - Bedroom and study
- Servants' quarters? - Two rooms
- How many toilets? - Les see now... five
- Baths? - Three
There are two lifts. State of upkeep: Good
Sign here
- Whas it all about? - Is just a sort of check
If anything's out of order we'll let you know
You can't turn there, go straight ahead
Don't bother, I'll get out here
In the midst of all this I'm living off rents
I've got some 12 or 11 years to go yet
Is two years since they took over my apartment block
Everything's either too early or late for me
Once I might have understood these goings on
But not now
I'm 38 and I'm an old man
I don't feel wiser, or more mature
I'm more stupid, more rotted away
Like rotten fruit, like refuse
It may be something to do with the tropics
Everything ripens and decomposes quickly; nothing endures
I'm old already
Since 13 I've been to brothels
At 15 I was a genius
At 25 I owned a store
Then Laura
My life...
... is like a sterile ornamental plant
I have a certain dignity
You Sergio?
I'm Elena's brother
Is she ill?
She's never ill. Is something else
She says you took advantage of her
You've ruined her
Is not something to be paid off with dresses
She says you promised to marry her, then took advantage...
I should have known Elena was capable of anything
I didn't want trouble
I was willing to marry her. I was afraid
Tell him what you told mother
You deceived me
You said you'd give me some dresses...
...then you took advantage of me
If you say so
But you know is untrue
You're no virgin...
Show respect! My sister's no whore, damn it!
How could I get involved in this?
I resigned myself
I'd let myself be dragged along. I was afraid
Girls must go to the altar as virgins! Is their greatest treasure!
Women are liberated now
Don't talk like a revolutionary, because you're not!
I won't be forced. If I marry is because I want to
Why did you want to get rid of me?
Is not that, Elena. I'll marry you. Is just that I need to think...
Think about what?
I've got to make arrangements, haven't I?
I must get my divorce papers
Yes, madam, I'm divorced
Why did you have to bring her?
That night when she came home, her panties were bloodstained...
Thas not true!
I'm sure she wasn't a virgin. What will they get out of this?
Any statement?
Is all untrue
I didn't assault her: She consented
It wasn't rape
The accused, Sergio Carmona...
...planned to seduce Elena Josefa Doredo, aged 16...
...and with that intent took her to his apartment...
...at Linea, Vadado...
...where he abused her virginity...
...although aware that she was mentally disturbed...
...therefore incapable of resisting
Have you anything to say? Address the attorney
Do you know Elena Josefa Dorado?
Answer to the bench
- Where did you meet her? - On 23rd Street, in Vedado
Did you take her to your apartment and have sexual intercourse?
Tell me, before the night in question...
...did the plaintiff confess to you any previous experience...
...sexual intercourse with another man?
No, never
I was the only one to give coherent evidence. That finished me
It was as if I'd duped a "poor unfortunate"
It was to give me some of his wife's dresses
She's left the country
Now everything's "the people"
Before, they'd have been the guilty ones and I the respectable one
The bastard has the nerve...
Did you threaten Sergio's life?
If he didn't marry her
You threatened him. What did he say?
He said he'd make arrangements, but in the end he didn't marry her
When was Elena taken to the doctor?
Well, according to mother... I don't know exactly...
Mother says it was some months before all this happened...
Do you know what the doctor said?
And the results of the tests?
Then came the verdict
The accused, Sergio Carmona...
... invited Elena Josefa Dorado, aged 17...
... for a walk on the evening of 25th January, 1962...
...and during said walk they went to the home of the accused...
... located at Linea, where they had sexual intercourse
Tests show no evidence of the girl being mentally disturbed...
...nor that she was insane or unaware of her conduct
Secondly, the accusations by the district attorney...
...are as set out in folios six and seven
Thirdly...
... the defence has denied all the district attorney's charges...
... pleaded for the acquittal of the accused...
...and dimissal of the case, with costs
Finally...
... on the facts as proved...
... there is no evidence to sustain the charge of rape
Upon consideration of the above...
...and with regard to Articles 142, 240, 741 and 742...
...of the Social Defence Code and the Criminal Prosecution Law...
...our verdict is that we hereby absolve the accused...
...of the crime of rape as charged by the district attorney
A happy ending, as they say. Justice triumphed for once
But is that so?
I'm left in a bad situation; I'm too educated to be innocent
They're too ignorant to be guilty
I just hope they haven't locked her away
MORE PLANES AND WARSHIPS TO FLORIDA
KENNEDY RETURNS SUDDENLY TO WASHINGTON
YOUNG MOTHER HAS TRIPLETS
DOG WITH TWO HEARTS
TRADE UNIONS COMPETE FOR OUTPUT
PUT THIS UP ON THE NOTICE BOARD WHERE YOU WORK
HOW TO PREVENT TETANUS
MOST CASES ARE FATAL
ANTl-TETANUS INJECTION IS THE ONLY PROTECTION
THE THOUGHTS OF MAO TSE-TUNG
Attempting to resolve ideological problems, rights or wrongs...
... by administration or repression, is not only useless, but harmful
For the safety of customers who come to the shop below...
...as well as for the sake of the tenants...
... why doesn't somebody repair our balcony?
Seven times I've reported it to the authorities
She brought me a stack of photos taken at her baptism
It wasn't at all as I imagined
The robe didn't cling to her body. There were many people
I hadn't thought of them, the witnesses who are everywhere
People are ready to die, without considering who's to blame
What if it all starts?
No good protesting. I'd die, too
This island is a trap
We're small, and too poor
Is an expensive dignity
We definitely reject any intention of an enquiry...
...any inspection of our country
Nobody inspects our country
We know what we're doing
We know how to defend our integrity and our independence
They threaten us with talk of a nuclear attack
That doesn't scare us
We know the age we live in...
...and we must learn how to live in it, with dignity
All of us, men and women...
- we are all one!
In this hour of danger...
...every one of us, revolutionaries and patriots...
...share the same peril...
...and victory shall be for all
Our country or death! We shall win!