\u3cem\u3eFresa y chocolate\u3c/em\u3e: A Subtle Critique of the Revolution in Crisis

This article uses Paulo Freire’s theories to illustrate Gutiérrez Alea’s attempts to continue a dynamic, Cuban revolution in light of what he depicts as a static revolution that has ceased to evolve. In fact, the film under study seems to present the achievements of Castro’s revolution as counter-revolutionary since the movement has suffered from bureaucratization, sloganism, and the banking model of education, which are all characteristics of an oppressive regime

Tras el cristal: Reflejos, reflexiones, refracciones de lo perverso

Villaronga\u27s 1986 film, Tras el cristal, epitomizes the horror genre in its abject cruelty and perversion. It details the experiments of a Nazi doctor who immigrates to Spain after World War II and continues to abuse young boys there. One of his former victims presents himself to work as a personal nurse after the doctor is confined to an iron lung when his suicide attempt fails. This study will analyze the inversion of roles as the torturer becomes the tortured and vice versa. I will use Derrida’s notions of deconstruction to interpret the film as a reflection of learned habits, a reflection on one’s actions, and a refraction of images that distort reality

TV or not TV: Reality and Fiction in the Depiction of Family and Aliens

This study examines the depiction of families and aliens throughout the history of American sitcoms. The first part will deal with the portrayal of family life in single-parent households and progress to the blending of families to give a sweeping overview of the movement from homes with a father-figure raising children, which goes against all logic given that the U.S. was involved in WW II, Korea, and Vietnam during the time frame of the sitcoms studied. Given the number of men killed during these wars, mothers should have been the parental figure raising children. U.S. Census Bureau statistics will be used to show if Hollywood was skewing the data to present a paternalistic perspective of American life during this time period. In addition, Hollywood has a long history of presenting the alien as a magical being, supernatural entity, social misfit, extraterrestrial, gender bender, or racial other. This part of the study will focus on this depiction as a subtle push toward social acceptance through the use of humor to reduce the threat of otherness in society at large. Finally, the third part of the study will examine the interstices of family and the alien to show how society has evolved (or not) over the years to move beyond the paternalistic/patriarchal/patriotic model of what constitutes the American population

También la lluvia y Cumbite: activismo, actores y agua

In this paper, I will explore the quest for water as presented in Tomás Gutiérrez\u27s 1964 Cuban film Cumbite, set in Haiti, as well as in Icíar Bollaín\u27s 2010 film También la lluvia, which is set in Bolivia. Both films depict the dire poverty of Afro-Caribbean people, in the case of Haiti, and indigenous people, in the case of Bolivia, who struggle against pervading neo-colonialist policies that impede their struggles for self-sufficiency. By analyzing the different responses to the problem of obtaining water, I plan to show how a collective and collaborative approach to solving the problem is also a subversion of the institutionalized social hierarchy with its inherent racist and class discriminatory practices that uphold the oppressive infrastructure