Cuba and Spanish Cinema's Transatlantic Gaze

Cuba and Spanish Cinema's Transatlantic Jaume Martt-Olivella holds degrees in English Phifology and Catahn Literature from the University of Barcehna and a degree in Comparative Literature from the University ofHlinoh. He is a founding member of the NACS (North American Catakn Society). Currently an Associate Professor of Hispanic Film and Cultural Studies at SUNY-University at Albany, MartiOliveda has published extensively on Catakn narrative, Hispanic film and cultural theory. He has edited two special issues of the Catalan Review : "Homage to Merce Rodoreda" (1987) and "Women, History and Nation in the Fiction of Maria Aurelia Capmany and Montserrat Roig" (1993). He has also coorganized the First, Second, Third and Fouth International Conferences on Hispanic Cinema and Literature, Pordand, 1991,1994,1997,2000). He is now at work on a book-length study, Basque Cinema: The Shining Paradox. Spectral Spectacles: From Gastronomy to the Consumption of Postnational Ruins This essay seeks to historically, theoretically and politically contextualize Spanish cinema's cur rent transatlantic gaze and its persistent (re)vision of the Cuban subject. Historically, this (re)vision finds its central referent in the discourses generated around the centennial commemorations of the 1898 Spanish-American War. Politically, such (re)vision is framed by the distancing and tension between Fidel Castro and José MarÃ-a Aznar. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán skillfully chronicles this tense situation in his written account of Pope John Paul IYs historical trip to Havana in YDios entró en La Habana (And God Landed in Havana). Vázquez Montalbán wn tes: The Spanish industrialists agree with him [Castro], while speaking of the second loss of Cuba. They are petplexed and irritated to find out that despite the presence of four hundred and fifty Spanish firms in the International Commercial Fair in Havana, there was no official Spanish representation, which conttasted shatply with the presence of many delegations from other European nations. (434-5)' Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Volume 5, 2001 162 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies It seems, therefore, that the Partido Popular , ruling Spain since 1996, is reenacting, at least as far as Cuba is concerned, its Francoist past of "Spain is different." Theoretically, the persistence of current Spanish cinema's transatlantic gaze towards Cuba must be analyzed as the imaginary articulation of two historical phenomena : the nostalgic reinscription of the Spanish imperial subject and the touristic commodification of the island as an erotic and "archeological" paradise. Vázquez Montalbán, in the text mentioned above, summarizes this double Spanish projection in very clear terms: "Spaniards in Cuba today are divided basically between tourists and industrialists. Tourists, themselves, are composed of two "espeleo-logies:" searchers of sex and searchers of revolutionary archeologies" (441). Maité (Carlos Zabala and Eneko Olasagasti, 1995), the filmic text that will be the basis of most of my critical analysis, gives us a perfect example of that double presence. Mikel and Juan Luis Oraiola are two Basque brothers who travel to Cuba in the hope of saving their small family anguL· (baby eel) business by refashioning it into a multinational enterprise. These two brothers are emblematic of the tourists and industrialists described by Vázquez Montalb án. Zabala's and Olasagasti's film uses the family metaphor as national allegory and forces the audience to confront the intolerance and insularity of Basque and Spanish national identity discourses by projecting them onto the Cuban mirror. Despite its comedie tones, or perhaps due to them, Maité embodies some of the crucial aspects of the political complexity of the Spanish transatlantic gaze. Issues such as racism, the need for social and cultural hybridization, and the questioning of Catholic and conservative moral attitudes occupy the narrative center of this film which is very critical of Spanish society. With the above historical, theoretical, and political considerations in mind, this article analyzes some of the ideological and/ or aesthetic elements that come into play in the (re)vision of the Cuban subject undertaken by the nostalgic gaze of "autonomous " Spain at the dawn of the twenty-first century, which also affects and regulates other Latin American filmic gazes. However , before entering into a deeper analysis of Maité and other recent filmic texts that share...