Barrio Cuba Film Review

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As we have discussed in class, family drama is a theme very characteristic of the Caribbean’s film, and Barrio Cuba is no exception. The film truly gets the essence of what the family drama was, and still is for many, in Cuba. In my opinion, it was very interesting to see how many contradictions and ironies there are in the movie, but it made me realize that ironies and contradictions is what life is all about. Towards the beginning of the movie, Maga’s father is worried about her brother’s sexuality, and her father ends up kicking out his own son from his house, staying with the “perfect” and “normal” daughter, when at the end that daughter is the one who ends up leaving his father alone. Maga represents the desperate women of that time in Cuba, who were desperate enough to leave everything behind, their families and country, in order to go and have a better life. Once again, the presence of love is what resolves everything, and the father gets to live again with his son, but obviously always ignoring the fact that his son was gay.

Another story that really shows the ironies of life, is the story of Santo. Santo and his wife were so happy, and then everything just collapsed in his life when his wife dies. Even after everything and after he leaves his son, towards the end he meets up with a friend, whom is going through a lot, and advices her to go back home, which was ironic, since he was the one who has supposed to be home with his baby. But, once again, love wins and he gets back to his family and meets his son for the first time.

Different from many others movies from Cuba, this is a movie that doesn’t show the positive side of socialism, it doesn’t show the families that have been brought together by the ideas of the revolution, of socialism, but instead it shows the families that were part of the revolution, and were affected by it, and the only thing that actually brings all of the together, is the love and friendship they have within each other. As we can see, Ignacio, the old man who declared his love for Maga, was old and alone, but after being rejected by his love, his friends are the ones there to support him and bring him back to his normal life.

The film clearly expresses the message of how love is such a strong force that can make anything happen, and can fix all of our problems. It shows a Cuba that not many have being able to see, and it represents a society other than the political and revolutionary society that many believe that Cuba is. Humberto Solá gets to really represent that community life there is away from the political status of the country, and how behind all that, there is just another Caribbean society, with the same hopes, believes and customs as many other islands in the Caribbean. And most importantly it gets to really demonstrate a society that goes beyond the political revolutionary people that has been all along in the eyes of the world when thinking about the Cuban Society.