Strip #1:As a group, we decided to use the above strip (out of two, total), because we think it represents a lot of what this graphic novel is about. Below, in an interview with Inverna Lockpez herself, the interviewee asks Inverna "What do you want your readers to take away from this graphic novel?" Although she doesn't respond in great detail, I thought it would be important to note that she responds as if she's defending a naive, young, passionate woman. After reading the graphic novel, that sounds right to us. The title of this graphic novel is Cuba: MY Revolution. The "My" is key. While the book is a historical account of the Cuban revolution, the book is more meant to share the story of Inverna, and the so called "revolution" that she went through, during another revolution. In the strip above, the main character is essentially in awe. She is seeing Fidel Castro speak live, in person. His physical appearance is god-like to her, a white dove has landed on his shoulder which "electrifies" the crowd.
The character is in some ways falling in love as she hears Fidel speak. She believes in what he stands for, she believes he is a savior of sorts for Cuba, and in this beginning portion of the novel, she seems to be passionate about this revolution more than anything else in the world. She devotes her life to helping the cause as we see in the novel. She joins the militia and helps with medical issues. One could make the argument that she was brainwashed by the ideas that Fidel seemed to put forward. As we will see with the next comic strip, the main character is on a different end of an emotional spectrum. The two choices we picked out are meant to represent the start and finish of her "revolution." In the beginning of the graphic novel she is dedicated to a cause. Throughout the novel she learns that Fidel Castro and his entire campaign are not as how she thought things were originally going to go. She remains quite persistent, however, and in many ways stubborn. No matter what, she strives to defend Fidel's revolution, and the above images help capture the dedication.
(See 2:26-3:12) ==>
Strip#2The second strip is the very last
image of the book. It depicts the end of her “revolution” while leaving Cuba on
plane headed for the United States. We can see so much going on in this
picture, it is such a powerful depiction of what the last few years had meant
to her. She was leaving her very beloved country even though she didn’t want
to. The panel shows her crying which our group thinks is depicting sadness,
sorrow, pain, and revelation. It took so much to be able to leave the country
even though she didn’t want to. She loved the land and its people; she was in
love with the ideas that she believed in at the beginning of her journey. We
see her questioning near the end of the book why shouldn’t couldn’t be like
others who would work all day and still be at the airport protesting people
fleeing the country. Her revolution took a toll on her emotionally. Everything
that she hoped for from Cuba’s revolution was crumbling away, the man who she
viewed as a god didn’t end up being the savior that she hoped for. This panel
depicts the pain and sadness that this gave her. Leaving the country was also
very hard for her because she was torn in different directions. Her mother and
sister had already gone to America yet leaving meant leaving her father behind
in a time of struggle for him. She also had to leave her husband Carlos behind
while still feeling the loss of Flavio who was killed in the fighting. Leaving
the country meant leaving people that she loved along with her beloved country.
As we discussed in class, revolution meant that something had to die and in the
case of her personal revolution something died, something that she tried so
hard to fight for and support. Letting this hope die was very hard for her as
we can see from the tears on her face in the panel as well as when she
questions whether she should stay or not while at the airport. Once being on
the plane her final hope to fight for her beloved cause was gone.
Fidel's Following:The Cuban
Revolution was portrayed, in Cuba, as a progressive and important time in Cuban
history but what was the cost of an overthrow of government. The costs of
overthrowing the oppressive regime that existed before Fidel took power was the
continued repression of different political ideologies. Not much exists in
recording the counter-Fidel movement but one thing is known as fact, and that
is the injustices projected by Fidel onto people he did not see fit. The reason
I write this is our group attempted to find anti-rebellion protests and
anti-Castro protests but very few pictures or videos exists to show actual
Cubans protesting against Fidel. We believe the reason for this the success of
Fidel’s propaganda and the ruthlessness of his army to eradicate all unwanted
elements in his country. In Cuba there is a three month to one year sentence
for anyone who “publicly defames or scorns the republic” and the media is state
controlled. What this means is anti-Castro protests carry a big punishment and
generally wont be spoken in public, which is why finding evidence of the true
anti-Castro movement is incredibly difficult even to this day. The illusion we
are faced with in stories like Cuba My Revolution where Castro is portrayed as
a hero to millions, when in fact he is a communist dictator. Not surprisingly
if you look north into America we can see Cubans in exile protesting Castro as
well as students and American citizens protesting a new communist dictatorship
in the backyard. The reason we can find American protests of Cuba so easy is
the political mindset of the American Government and their anti-Castro views.
More Cubans protests means more progress in establishing Castro and Cuba as
unjust. In summary what we discovered is that anti-Castro and anti-republic
protests in Cuba are strictly forbidden and their propaganda machine is working
at full throttle, while in America during this period protesting Cuba furthered
the goal of the American government and was there-for encouraged.
Works Cited:
1. http://www.diplomat.am/dir/publications/religious_symbolism_in_cuban_political_performance/3-1-0-83 2. Impedments to Human Rights, #III, Human Rights watch, 1999 3. Gregg Anne-Marie, "The Cuban Exiles of Echo Park", KCET News, Febuary 6, 2014 4. Wilkins, Michaael, "Anti Castro Crowd", PBS The World, Febuary 19, 2008 5. http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/historyofthecaribbean/p/08cubanrevo.htm
