Group A Responses and New Questions

What kind of effects on Cuban cinema and society did US aid have at the turn of the 20th century?

·      Havana’s population exploded to half a million

·      The first projection of cinema in this bustling, transforming Havana were scraped together affairs. Moving pictures were sometimes shown infront of “legitimate” theaters.

·      The Reciprocity Treaty in 1903, which dissolved Cuban trade and investment barriers, would eventually include significant reductions in duties and taxes charged to US film companies

How did the culture of Hollywood (in the 1920s) influence the way Cuban women dressed and behaved, and how did this Hollywood culture in Cuba help to sell US products?

·      Many Cuban women fought nature and exhausted bank accounts for sex appeal, glamour, and flapper like looks. Also thinness, lightened skin, blondness, up-to-date fashions and updated kitchen through U.S. imports.

·      U.S. products often relied on Hollywood salesman ship. Hollywood culture not only sold U.S. products but also inculcated ‘consumerist forms of social identity.’

What was the “Grupo Minorista”, what were their political views, and what was their goal/purpose?

·      A subsection of the Generation of ’30 colleagues. Its members were cultural critics and radical activists, leading the charge of mass organization and protest. Their policies called for the transformation of Cuban consciousness through the ‘revision of false and wasteful values.’

·      Endeavored to speak to and for the majority, forward a vision of an independent Cubanland

New Questions for "Mea Cuba," February 12th:
How is the film PM a study about textures
How does the primitive form of production reflect Cuban life and place within modernity?
How did censorship and extortion effect available media and reflect political agendas?
How did Castro exert power through television?
How did  television and print agencies threaten Cuban ideals?