CUBA –
Swinging to a Foreign Beat
16 Minutes


Shots of Streets

Music 01.00.01.
Taxi Driver V/O: I had a suspicion that Ernest Hemmingway had been in the same taxi – 40 years ago. But since papa strode the seafront in Havana some things have changed. (Music becomes louder)

01.00.09
Clark in car V/O: As a journalist you don’t just arrive in Cuba and start working. First there are some rights of passage some formalities to attend to...

01.00.33
Taxi coming to a halt

01.00.42
Press Centre – Clark enters picture
V/O: The press centre likes to know what you’re doing. You have to have a reason to be in Cuba.

01.00.45
2 Shot through glass V/O: Mine was Music.
01.00.51
Subtitle
Clark: “I’m here to make a documentary on Cuban Music”.

01.00.53
Taxi Interior Music.
V/O: Once your topic is approved interviews are arranged – experts to speak about your subject. To discuss the finer points of Salsa and Cuban rhythm I was directed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
01.00.58
Taxi stops once more

01.01.14
Clark enters foreign office
V/O: I was to meet with Isabel Allende – not the writer – the Foreign Affairs Advice Minister.

01.01.18
Clark in interview with Isabel Allende (Subtitle)
Clark: I’m here to make a documentary on Cuban Music.V/O: The vice-minister was a nice woman but someone who perhaps preferred the bump and grind of international politics to the rhythm of Havana nights.
01.01.24

01.01.29
Isabel Allende talking(Over Interview)
V/O: Ms Allende could speak eloquently on Castro on Cuban foreign policy – the Helms Burton Blockade – but when it came to music – it seemed – I was on my own.

01.01.3601.01.44
Street Scenes

01.01.56
Shot of Cuban Musicians
V/O: A rehearsal in the back streets of Havana. The band is called Sierra Maestra – named after the mountains in Cuba from which the guerillas led by Castro and Che Guevarra, launched their revolution forty-five years ago.

01.02.0301.02.15

V/O: Cuban Music is undergoing something of revolution itself. On the dance floors of New York Paris and Sydney – Cuban salsa is sweeping the world. Bands like this are now in such demand overseas that locals rarely get to see them.

01.02.42
People looking through the windows at the Musicians

V/O: Music has become one of Cuba’s only exports – as such most Cubans simply can’t afford it.

01.03.08
Street Scenes

V/O: I had expected to find Cuban Music alive and well and living on the streets.

01.03.18
Audience and Singer
V/O: But here it seemed music was reserved for foreigners and a middle class elite with access to dollars.

01.03.36
Guava Pickers
V/O: Most Cubans don’t have dollars. They’re caught in an economic crisis that has been growing since the downfall of the USSR. For years Moscow looked after this tiny communist enclave. They supplied tractors and fertilisers. They bought Cuban sugar at 5 times the world price. When the support stopped so did the sugar industry.

01.03.47
Tourist outside shop
V/O: Now Tourism is the largest industry.

01.04.14
Inside MuseumStatue and T-shirt V/O: The revolution itself has become part of the tourist attraction. Right down to Che Guevarra, revolutionary hero – martyr souvenir. 01.04.18
Evening shots – Sun setting Music.V/O: For the decades before Castro, Havana was a magnet for the famous and the infamous.

01.04.29
01.04.35
Hotel Naccional V/O: Landmarks like the Hotel Naccional hover over the seafront – a reminder of a Cuba’s capitalist and corrupt past.

01.04.41
Shots of houses along bank
V/O: In the twenties Al Capone had a beach house here.

01.04.49
People playing volleyball
V/O: In the 50’s Meyer Lansky and the Mafia treated Havana as their playground.

01.04.53
People on cannon
V/O: Before the revolution this was Where wealthy foreigners, and especially Americans could kick up their heels. Castro spoilt their party.

01.04.59
Driving by Night
V/O: But take a look around Havana now and you find that at least for some party time is back.

01.05.13
Tropicana Sign Music
V/O: More and more tourists are coming here to take a walk on the wild side. Music.

01.05.20
People dancing
V/O: Tropicana was the nightspot in the forties and fifties. And so it is again. Now the naughtiness is tinged with a dramatic political history that jaded western eyes seem to find irresistible.

01.05.34
People lining up to pay
V/O: It costs sixty dollars here just to see the show – no meal – that’s for a Cuban about five months work.

01.05.58
Group playing Che song

01.06.08
Tourists
V/O: Every Cuban here is working the room – trying to make a dollar out of foreign tourists. Tourists who didn’t exist ten years ago. Every local here has something to sell

01.06.32
Girl looking at camera
V/O: This girl here is selling the only thing she has – herself.

01.06.47
Girls standing around
V/O: Working girls are known as Jinoteras – riders of the horse – but it is not a sexual connotation. Everyone who makes money on the side from foreigners is a Jinotera.

01.06.55
Jochi and Doctor V/O: Like Jose – known as Jochi –a wheeler and dealer. Jochi has found a doctor from Puerto Rico holidaying here in Havana to indulge his passion for salsa. 01.07.08
Jochi is an immediate salsa expert and guide – in return he’ll make a few American dollars. And he needs them 01.07.21
Shot of dog (barking in background) 01.07.29
Jochi’s neighborhood V/O: Johci and his wife live in a typical Havana neighborhood – you don’t get tourists here 01.07.33
Jochi and wife enter shop V/O: Here there’s a totally different economy working – but one that’s increasingly dependent on the US Dollar. 01.07.41
Jochi at counter V/O: The people here get a ration book - the Libretto. The state gives products at Cuban peso prices. Every family gets a share 01.07.48
Jochi goes through ration book Jochi (subtitle): the number of people in the house, their names, ages – male or female. 01.07.59
Man carrying carcassShots of meat V/O: But increasingly the rations are not enough, you need dollars if you want something like meet and even then you can’t by beef – that’s reserved for the tourists. 01.08.0901.08.14
Jochi and wife walking Jochi (sub.): when you work here they pay you in Cuban currency – with dollars you can buy things you can’t get with pesos. 01.08.31
Jochi’s mum V/O: Jochi’s mum Eva was a single mother with seven kids. She worked as a receptionist and a cleaner – earning about 5 dollars a month she brought up her children 01.08.43
Jochi’s brother V/O: Jochi’s brother Larazo is just visiting. He now lives in Mexico –he hasn’t been here for 6 months. Even in that time he’s noticed the economy slide. 01.08.58
Larazo (sub): It seems like a tornado has passed over here. Everything is worse. There is more suffering and misery. 01.09.09
Man at window clapping V/O: Jochi was actually bought up by the people across the road. Eva’s house was just got too small. 01.09.17
The Congoro house - V/O: Carlos Congoro and his wife Bahilda took in Jochi as a 7 year old child. Now that he’s married his wife Jacqueline lives here too in this tiny house. Everything is shared. 01.09.24
Carlos and photos V/O: Carlos saw the old regime as brutal and corrupt so as a young man he joined the revolution. 01.09.42
Carlos (Sub): Before it was a dictatorship where people got killed on the streets – every morning you could see dead people, people hanging filling the cemeteries now that doesn’t exist anymore. 01.09.49
Carlos and Bahilda V/O: But things are not going that well for Carlos. His wife Bahilda is ill. 01.10.03
Carlos and Photo. Carlos (sub.): Look how well she is here and now see how she is. 01.10.11
Jochi and fan V/O: Although he’s fearful of the future he’s proud of Cuba’s socialist past. 01.10.17
Carlos: The hospitals in Cuba don’t charge you anything not even medicine, the bed - the operation earlier out. Even a heart transplant is free. 01.10.22
Shot of green tabletsBahilda weeping V/O: It might be free but they can’t get the right kind of medicine because of the American blockade. And Bahilda is getting worse. 01.10.35
Van on road Music. 01.10.46
Driving V/O: There’s a music festival at the other end of the island. Cuban taxis may be romantic but they don’t last the 900km to Santiago de Cuba. So we’re travelling in a state owned vehicle. 01.10.55
Shot of Winston V/O: Our driver Winston earns about 10 dollars a month, in pesos. 01.11.10
Side Mirror- van with Cubans in back V/O: Last night Castro announced new charges for electricity and phone. Without US dollars many won’t be able to pay. 01.11.16
Winston V/O: Winston wasn’t very happy but he wasn’t going to talk about it on camera. Not that he could have that much to say. Winston’s been waiting 28 years for a phone. 01.11.24
Cubans on the street, clapping Music.V/O: For 6 days and nights the town of Santiago stops to celebrate Carnivale they’ve always celebrated the 26th July. But now it has a double meaning. 45 years ago during the confusion of these celebrations Castro’s guerillas came down from the mountains and attacked the government garrison. It was a disaster. Hundreds died. Castro was imprisoned. But it was the birth of the revolution. 01.11.3701.11.51
Sebastian Zapata Sebastian Zapata: Around 4.30 in the morning I was arriving here to rest I heard the gunfire. 01.12.22
V/O: Sebastian Zapata was a young man of 33. But he well remembers the celebrations that year and Castro’s doomed guerilla attack. 01.12.29
Sebastian Zapata: Many people thought it was just fireworks organised for July 26th. 01.12.38
Dog Barking 01.12.50
Sebastians Niece (Arelys) gets dressed V/O: Sebastian's niece has been elected queen of their neighborhood. She’ll represent her people in Carnivale. For her it’s the biggest day of the year. 01.12.54
Arelys by mirror Arelys (Sub): For us it’s a big party. The one day of the year. Everybody waits for this day to arrive. 01.13.06
Carnival shots V/O: Finally I have found Cuban music for Cuban people – but even here foreigners get the best seats. For a week the party continues. Night after night of music dancing and drinking. 01.13.26
Shot of 2 women and then security V/O: But on the 26th itself there is no procession. Castro has come to town. Security is high. They might be celebrating it but nobody wants a repeat of what happen 45 years ago. 01.13.45
Fidel Castro – people applaud V/O: Fiddle Castro is 73. Deserted by his old Soviet allies, he now faces his countries economic woes alone. 01.14.13
Castro (sub.): For the battles that decided the triumph of the revolution. 01.14.24
V/O: There have been persistent rumors about Castor’s health. Almost in defiance he speaks for almost 5 hours. 01.14.35
People nodding off V/O: determined to outlast lesser mortals. V/O: Not until Fidel goes can the party really begin. 01.14.4601.14.55
CarnivaleTourists watch onCarnivale Music.V/O: The cold war failed to unseat Castro but this new threat to Cuban communism is more serious. If it is to fall it won’t be to ideology or to military force but to tourists armed only with a fistful of dollars. 01.15.12
END 01.15.59

A report by ABC Australia