LavenderRed_Cubabook

Many men found each other in the darkened theaters of old Cuban cinemas like the
Campoamor, Rialto and Verdun. One older Cuban homosexual recalled, “[Y]ou could
go and immediately pick up a young guy. Many had their first experience there. There
was a lot of sex in those cinemas.” (Lumsden)
The culture of Cuba changed with social ownership of the means of production on
the island—the land, mines, factories and other major arteries of economic life.
The Cuban Revolution did not, and could not, wave a magic wand and instantly transform
the social content of culture. But it quickly transformed the economic character of
culture. Like everything else that is collectively produced on the island, culture began
to be produced to meet the social needs of the many, not just packaged for individual
consumption for the few.
Lumsden reported the ways in which he saw culture being made available to everyone
in Cuba in 1996. “This is evident in the low prices and range of theater, dance and music
that are available on stage or in open spaces like the Parque Central in Old Havana. It is
evident in the quantity and quality of translated foreign and domestic books that have
been published at low prices in huge editions. Finally it is evident in events such as the
annual film festival (New Latin American Cinema), which has an impact as great as
Toronto’s Festival.”
Lumsden observed, “When you attend a cultural event in Havana you come away
as impressed by the informed and critical engagement of the audience as you are by the
innovative quality of the performance itself. This involvement is far removed from the
commodified nature of so many mainstream cultural events in North America.”
This is the Cuban audience to which the state sponsored the release of the 1993
blockbuster movie “Strawberry and Chocolate.” The film, about an attempt at friendship
and understanding between a young heterosexual communist and a male homosexual
intellectual brought same-sex love out of the cinema balconies, where shame and guilt
lurked in the shadows, and onto the silver screen of Cuban culture.
Over the next two years, two important documentaries followed—”Gay Cuba” and
“Butterflies on the Scaffold.”
All told, these movies offer a view of the influence of revolutionary process on popular
culture, as well as the influence of popular culture on revolutionary development. The
films are themselves part of that dialectical struggle, which itself takes place within the
battle against ruling imperialist ideology, broadcast at every turn by its entertainment,
media and education industries.
Change apparent in still photos and motion pictures 63