RadioRaheem84
28th June 2011, 22:00
Just finished re-watching Before Night Falls, the splendid but ultimately, in my opinion, false snippet of Cuba's past on film.
I know that Cuba was misguided in it's persecution and discrimination of homosexuals during the 70s and early 80s but the film itself make the Cuban Revolution look as though it was just one dictatorship being subdued to make room for another, i.e. Batista replaced with Castro.
There is no mention of the rapid rights gained for people of color, the massive land reform, the expansion of the arts, women's rights, etc. Instead we see nothing really change in Cuba and instead looks as though things just became worse!
Arenas himself admits to having relations with more than 5,000 men, even whole regiments. This strikes me as curious in a nation where he thinks there is a pogrom against homosexuals, which under his account was similar "to how the Nazis treated Jews".
Most of the time Cuban officials were suspect of Arenas for his counter revolutionary views and his countless attempts with foreign embassies to smuggle his manuscripts out of the nation, leading many in the Cuban government to think of him as a foreign spy/agent of the US.
Of course none of this excuses the Cuban government's treatment of homosexuals, it was a wrong and calculated move to appease the Soviets and a product of pre-existing social relations leftover from the Batista capitalist regime, but no other nation has made such gains in favor of homosexuals and their rights than Cuba! This is not expressed in the film and makes it look like Cuba is still repressive toward homosexuals and all dissenters!
The rest of the stuff I've read in the past couple of days is reflected in this article on Before Night Falls and some of the claims made by Arenas.
http://www.blythe.org/arenas.html
Your thoughts?
I know that Cuba was misguided in it's persecution and discrimination of homosexuals during the 70s and early 80s but the film itself make the Cuban Revolution look as though it was just one dictatorship being subdued to make room for another, i.e. Batista replaced with Castro.
There is no mention of the rapid rights gained for people of color, the massive land reform, the expansion of the arts, women's rights, etc. Instead we see nothing really change in Cuba and instead looks as though things just became worse!
Arenas himself admits to having relations with more than 5,000 men, even whole regiments. This strikes me as curious in a nation where he thinks there is a pogrom against homosexuals, which under his account was similar "to how the Nazis treated Jews".
Most of the time Cuban officials were suspect of Arenas for his counter revolutionary views and his countless attempts with foreign embassies to smuggle his manuscripts out of the nation, leading many in the Cuban government to think of him as a foreign spy/agent of the US.
Of course none of this excuses the Cuban government's treatment of homosexuals, it was a wrong and calculated move to appease the Soviets and a product of pre-existing social relations leftover from the Batista capitalist regime, but no other nation has made such gains in favor of homosexuals and their rights than Cuba! This is not expressed in the film and makes it look like Cuba is still repressive toward homosexuals and all dissenters!
The rest of the stuff I've read in the past couple of days is reflected in this article on Before Night Falls and some of the claims made by Arenas.
http://www.blythe.org/arenas.html
Your thoughts?