TAKEAWAY: The world wide web is famous for providing a huge basket of surprises at every click and scroll. So, what a wonderful surprise it was for me to find a website that offers a vast collection of Cuban films, including one in which I participated as a child actor. Forty-eight years later I get to see it.
Mario the actor in scenes of The Young Rebel (1961) with fellow actor Blas Mora
To be young, idealistic and rebellious!
The email looked just like any other. It was from Roxana Urrutia, whom I had met in Spain two years ago as she organized a media conference in Marbella. This time, Roxana, who knows I was born in Cuba, wanted me to know about this website where all Cuban films going back to the 1950s could be seen—-for free. I immediately scrolled down to one title El Joven Rebelde (1961) (The Young Rebel). I clicked, and, presto, the credits started rolling, the black and white flick in front of my eyes, and about three minutes later, there I was, playing the role of Juan—-friend of the protagonist, the young rebel, played by a Blas Mora.
And, while I was ready to go to sleep in Nairobi, Kenya, where I work this week, the lure of seeing my scenes was stronger than the usual tiredness one feels at 11 pm after an intense day.
My scenes come early in the movie, as I attempt to assist my friend in his efforts to join the rebels fighting in the mountains. My task is to steal a gun from my uncle’s home, pass it to my friend, and allow him to go into the hills to join the Castro rebel movement.
Night scenes
Seeing the movie reminded me how scare I was filming those scenes in the middle of the night, afraid of snakes, bitten by mosquitoes and sometimes quite far from where the camera crew was, waiting and waiting for them to shoot a scene.
I also remembered how much I loved the acting. I was 13 when The Young Rebel was filmed, but by then I had been a child actor since the age of 8—-doing everything from television soap operas, to commercials, to several theatrical performances (my favorite).
Yes, geopolitics sometimes has a way of getting in the way of one’s plans and ambitions. In 1961, I had no doubt in my mind that acting would be my career of choice.
My parents had a different idea, however.
As soon as filming of The Young Rebel was completed, they put me on a Pan Am flight to Miami, to save me from what was obviously a communist regime coming into power. As the movie made a splashy premiered in Havana and Moscow, I carried trays of dirty dishes on my shoulders at a downtown Miami restaurant.
Within 24 hours I went from being a child actor, pampered and living in a sort of special world, to landing as a refugee in a country where I did not know the language, and where I was soon working part time after school at Suzanne’s restaurant. My name never appeared at the end of the movie, when the credits rolled. I was already “in exile” when the film was edited. Anyone who left became the enemy—persona non grata to the regime My scenes remained. My name disappeared from the credits just as quickly as my new life began in the United States.
In those days, one had 28 days to return to Cuba, or stay in the US permanently with “refugee” status.
On the 29th day I cried, and I knew that I was not returning to my parents (who joined me two years later), or to Havana and the marvelous world of a child actor that I knew so well.
I was young, but not a rebel myself. I adapted. I learned English. I said goodbye to acting, applied myself to my studies and then fell in love with journalism. The young rebel meets the American dream head on.
Last night in Nairobi, I watched me doing those scenes. Suddenly, it was 1961. My acting dreams were big at that time. So were the dreams of my fellow Cubans who thought that Castro and his rebels would bring us a better Cuba.
It was not meant to be. We know the rest of the story.
For those of you who wish to catch me as Mario the actor, go here: http://cinecuba.blogspot.com/2008/03/el-joven-rebelde-1961.html
Yes, Bob Hope: Thanks for the memories. And, thanks, Roxana, for leading me to this little movie. It will be fun to show it to my grandchildren.
Tip: One of the best Cuban films of all time, the Oscar-nominated Fresa y Chocolate, 1993 (Strawberry and Chocolate), is available to see here. I recommend it highly.
The hen did not think it was funny
Postcard from Nairobi:
It is the type of stories one often finds in newspapers in Africa and Asia——irrisistible, I call them.
“Man charged with making love to a hen”.
That was the headline on page 7 of the Crime/Courts/Investigations section of the Kenyan daily, The Standard..
Of course, I had to read it. Wouldn’t you?
The story read something like this:
A man has been charged in a Kisumu Court with committing an unnatural offense by making love to a hen. S.B. was accused of having the carnal knowledge of the bird at Nyalenda Estate in Kisumu. He was apprehended by neighbors who heard the hen making unusual noises from the house.”
But the hen did try to defend herself, the story tells us:
The suspect had a scratch on his nose, which shows that the accused had a tough time battling with the hen
No images accompanied this story. No comments accompany my blog entry.
Pure Design comes to the blog
While my 2002 book Pure Design is virtually out of print, we will be bringing you the short “fable-inspired” entries, offering solutions for magazines, books, newspapers and websites.It is all about the basics of visual journalism. Starting here July 1.
As readers of Pure Design know, I was inspired by Aesop’s fables to write short, all inclusive entries on a variety of design-related topics, from color and typography to white space use and page architecture.
My plan is to add new thoughts to each of the “fable entries”, to update the topics whenever possible. Our summer intern, Reed Reibstein, will be assisting me as we prepare the materials for presentation in this new medium.
As I read through the material one more time, I realize that 85% of what is in Pure Design still matters today. I will make an attempt to update that other 15% in which we can add new dimensions almost 7 years later.
Pure Design’s pages will be available as PDFs through the Issuu viewer (http://issuu.com/) embedded in the blog.
TheMarioBlog posting #286