The Hispanic culture was very prevalent in the film, Guantanamera. The background music from the opening scene to the travel through Cuba. There was salsa and merenge that punctuated the action. Magic realism was also prevalent, showing a vision of a young girl dressed in old costumes, a ghost of the past shown as a vision to the old man, Candido. Also, the relationships of men and women, especially the lover boy, Mariano, and his list of women in every port. Adolfo also ruled over Gina, treating her like he owned her.
The Cuban element was also very prevalent. I have never been to Cuba, but have a friend who is from there. She has gone back very infrequently due to difficulty obtaining a travel visa, but her stories are great. I did not realize how much that culture is about rum, tea and coffee. Also, since I did some background reading before I saw the film, I knew it was about a funeral traversing the country to get to the burial destination.
I found out that because of the socialist government, travel is permitted with permission, that is why Adolfo allowed Candido to travel with them. If there is a vacant seat, the car must stop at checkpoints to pick up other travelers. This was shown by the truckers having to transport lots of people to different places. I thought this was a great idea, but probably not very practical. I did not realize that at each point that the body was moved to, the government had to provide food to the bereaved. This system was shown not to work out very well, when people were fighting over food, and they closed the station down and the government worker, Adolfo, ate the sandwich.
I enjoyed this film, finding it more humorous than our previous comedy. This type of humor seemed to transcend culture, since it was a satire on the serious side of death. Maybe since I am a nurse, I found it funny. The mix up with the body was very clever, and I wonder if the old man was buried next to the other man or if he was forever next to Yoyita.
The message of this movie, also was that love does conquer all, and I believe it demonstrated the emergence of the female, even hispanic, finally being able to do what she wants, which is a very modern idea, indeed.
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Aldofo sure was a difficult character. he seemed to be so opinionated and argue with everyone. I found it sad when he even argued with Candido's request to turn off the music. He was so controlling of Gina, not wanting her to go out, comoplaining about how she dressed...etc. I too was glad when she found some happiness with Mariano. I thought he was kind, but I'm not too sure how faithful he would be. I did not know about the empty seat in Cuba. How interesting, I think the Cuban government is very controlling. I thought that Aldofo was appointed as a funeral director and took the food as another way the government was controlling its people. I agree that Aldofo only seemed to care about himself.
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