Image, nation and Cuban identity in the Hollywood discourse

Abstract

Cuban Cinema is said to date back to the first moving images shot by Americans in Cuba during the Spanish-Cuban-American War (1898) an era that precedes the rise of Hollywood and its global hegemony. Today, we would call these pioneering films ‘political propaganda’ - that historian Román Gubern has argued reveal the eternally manipulative nature of cinematographic language. In the long history of Hollywood cinema, there are many films that have addressed aspects of Cuban identity, and we cannot diminish their influence - or at least the effort - in building a credible and truthful image of Cuba.
However, since its early days, Hollywood has also often projected an exotic and stereotyped representation of Cuban identity-based on many films that were actually shot in spaces and locations outside the island. I argue that in this process, not only the nation’s historical memory has been distorted, but it is a phenomenon that continues to the present day. This essay takes a panoramic view of the representation of Cuban identity, culture, and history in Hollywood, from the times of the Spanish-Cuban-American War until the recent administration of President Barack Obama, a period marked by the famous Cuban Thaw. At stake, are the issues of ethics of representation of the “other” amid power differentials in cinema about Cuba, but also across Latin America.