Cuban Revolution and Dirty Havana Trilogy - Essay Example

?Cuban Revolution and Dirty Havana Trilogy Introduction: Dirty Havana Trilogy is one of the greatest books written on the Cuban social structure, life of the people who live in Cuba and how the revolution was able to change the life of the common people in Cuba, whether it was really able to make any changes in the social life in Cuba or not-the book is all about that. It is a novel written by Pedro Juan Gutierrez and was first published in the year 1998. The book is banned is Cuba, but it was well appreciated throughout the Spanish speaking world. The novel is a real life description of sensuality, crime and poverty in Cuban society and also a story of people’s day by day fight against the poverty and social injustice. The fight was not to overcome that situation but to survive those in daily life. The main objective of the Cuban people was to keep avoid the trap which they used to face every day due to the poverty, in his view the trap was of despair, misery, prison and an easy death. The novel is consisted of three small books, the first being Marooned in No-Man’s Land, the second, Nothing to Do, and the third, Essence of Me (Gutierrez, 2002). The trilogy throughout the novel followed the main characters life in the streets of Havana, in small towns and countryside, as he experienced all different kinds of schematics and dealings that according to him were inevitable for all the Cuban people to survive during 1990s. The mid 90s was the worse time to not have a job in Cuba as the poverty was in its all-time high during that phase. The main point of discussion of this paper is whether revolution in any country against any ruling regime is always good for the country, and the people and the development of society or not Review of the Dirty Havana Trilogy: A book that tell the story of Social Life: According to the review of Heffernan (2011), the book all three parts of this novel are very much interrelated and discuss about the social structure and different social issues, poverties in Cuba. The reading of this novel gives a clearpicture of Pedro’s life and at the end of it all, most importantly it gives a clear picture of greater whole of the poverty of Havana, and ahidden view of what any common man was faced during the mid-1990s. According to his review, in the first part of the novel No Man’s Land, the landscape as well as background of the story make us realize the fact that poverty in the country of Cuba not only hurt the people but it also assaulted them during mid-90s - “police sirens, screams, and the smells of shit, piss and puke, of animals, taste of rotten foods all combined together put forward a picture of hopeless society where image of women was portrayed by raw sexuality, people busy in smoking or crime, with half of the people were jobless-all this scenario pointed out towards the social structure of the country during that time and same was displayed by him in this book” (Heffernan, 2011). In this book the naked sexuality seems like the only driving force of the character throughout his journey. The story was all about what the people of Cuba were up to just to get some food, money to live a normal life. Dirty Realism and Cuban Revolution According to Wondolowski (2001), the No Man’s Land was a clear description of how the people of Cuba were able to fight against the Economic crisis in day to day life. He pointed out that in place of an extensive, eye-opening experience of a luxuriously comprehensive imagined world, the reader of this book can easily inspired by a reiterating, ever-shrinking tape ring playing in the enclosed mind of the author. The central character of the story, Pedro Juana was a journalist who lost his job during the mid90 recession period in Cuba after the fall of Soviet Union. It is all about his hustle in the streets of Havana in Cuba. He lost his job just because he refused to be censored by the new political regime and thus he was able to face the hard core reality of the Cuban society during that phase (Wondolowski, 2001). People in Cuba used to live in very small house, with very little place to accommodate whatever they have. The basic amenities like soap and all were also very hard for them to buy as most of them without any job. People could not afford the luxury of taking proper bath or get well dressed before going to job or find any job. As mentioned by Pedro Juan Gutierrez a few cans on water on him not good enough to get rid of smells, sweat or damp but that was the reality. (Gutierrez, 2002, p. 20) Jobless people were eager to do anything for food as the entire market was swamped. In his review he pointed out the fact that the girls of the city at the age of twenty were on the road, were ready to do anything for food.(Gutierrez,2002, p.21). Harman(2002), in his review pointed out the fact that although after the fall of Soviet union many people believe that it was the end of capitalism in Cuba, but Pedro Juan Gutierrez does not thought in the same way. The collapse of USSR leads up to the failure of its trade link with Cuba. As a result there was a great economic crisis during early and mid-1990. According to Harman, “Cuba was entering the most serious famine in its history. No one imagined all the hunger and the crisis that would come about. The crisis was violent and went deep into the small corner of everyone's soul.”(Harman, 2002).The description of this book was as the reality was in the street of Cuba. The author himself has seen the reality in the roads of Cuba, in the society of Cuba. In his opinion, the story of Cuba was a clear fact that revolution not always change the things for betterment of the people, but sometimes it downgrade the standard of living of the people in the society. whatever Pedro Juan Gutierrez discussed was the true fact.Gutierrez in his book discussed about a true incident whichforced him to start writing stories. On a fine morning in Cuba he saw a dead body of a women on the road badly stabbed. The woman was tall, good looking but in his review, people gave the reason of her death as mainly due to the fact that she betrayed her husband and the person could not tolerate her betrayal. But the amount of blood was there, that clearly demonstrated the fact that the incident was mainly due to hatred. Gutierrez in his book also mentioned the fact that that kind of incident was very common in Cuba during that point as just for some food or money girls were ready to do anything with anyone. But the government does not give permission to the journalist to write that news in the newspaper as nothing bad was accepted as news in Cuba. Everything has to be fine in the model society. This regulation forced him to leave his job and start writing what was the true fact in the country (Gutierrez,2002, p.85). Most of the revolution in the history involved massive revolutions by the lower classes which toss up organizations of their own which fight to regulate the society from the point of view of the common man at the bottom of the social structure. The revolution in the Parisian sections in 1792-94 during the French Revolution, the Paris Commune during the revolution of 1871, all these revolution were the clear sign of lower class or so called common people of the society started to live a better life after a successful revolution in the society. But it was not so in case of Cuba during 1990s. To explain this Harman referred to the revolution in Cuba 40 years ago. It was different as the old state run by the dictator Batista was so unethical that it was incompetent of satisfying the basic demands of any class--rich or poor. It was such pathetic condition that US also removed support from then which resultant into the failure of the armed force. But that revolution did not created a revolutionary democracy to save the poor, instead it build a new structure based on Cuban economy considering the US property interests in the process with a top –down approach. In his review, Harman pointed out the movement started by Che Guevara which was more like a guerrilla fight in Congo and Bolivia. But the other leaders persisted with the top down economic approach by using the sugar cane production--to break into world markets in 1970. “The attempt meant subordinating the whole country to commodity production--and its workers to the harsh rigors of alienated labor.”(Harman,2002). But after the collapse of USSR in 1990, the true story of the Cuban society came to light. The regime of Cuba although survived but, “only by the further commodification of society described by Gutierrez”. (Harman,2002). According to the review of Ferrari (2003), after the fall of Berlin wall, Cuba faced the worst economic crisis of their modern history in the year 1993. The period was officially known as the Periodo Especial. During that phase, people of Cuba were very much starving for food. As the economy fall apart, people started to loose job and the social structure also collapsed. The book of Pedro Juan Gutierrez was all about the story of common man, how they struggle in their daily life. It was all about the fact that revolution against the regime is not always brings about happiness for the common man. Sometimes it also dished out negative results as well. (Ferrari, 2003, p.23). Conclusion: From the above analysis it is very clear that, the revolution in Cuba although make them free from the over dependency on USSR but at the same time it also brings about the downfall of the social structure as well as economic stability of the country. The top down approach taken by the leaders after the fall of barista regime was though not right from the humanity point of view but it able to make the economy of the country grow slowly. The approach of the leader was to engage the whole country to commodity production-sugar cane which was available in large volume in the country and also involved the workers to the production of the same but the Cuban economy remain afloat. The revolution in 1990s resulted in the collapse of USSR and most importantly it makes a big hole in the Cuban Economy which affects the society in big way. As Wondolowski (2001), in his review clearly mentioned the words of Pedro Juan which according to him sum it up all- “Nothing is made up. . . . Not a single lie. I only change the names. That's my profession: shitraker... And it's not as if I'm searching for anything hidden in the shit. Usually I find nothing”. (Wondolowski, 2001) References 1. Ferrari D.G., (2003), Aesthetics Under Siege: Dirty Realism and Pedro Juan Gutierrez’s TrilogiaSucia de LA Harbana, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, 7; 23-43 2. Gutierrez P.J., (2002), Dirty Havana Trilogy: A Novel in Stories; HarperCollins. 3. Harman C., (2002), Thinking it throughDown and out in Havana; Socialist Review, 265; 23.12.2013 < http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/sr265/harman.htm> 4. Heffernan C, (2011), Dirty Havana Trilogy review, A Gathering of the Tribes, 23.12.2013 5. Wondolowski R., (2001), Dirty Havana Trilogy: book review, City paper, 23.12.2013. Read More