Dialogando Sobre Independentismos. Parte I (Entre Votos, Consignas Y Trincheras) & Parte II (la Nueva Lucha), 1890-1980
2013; University of North Carolina Press; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1538-6279
Autores Tópico(s)Cuban History and Society
ResumoDialogando sobre independentismos. Parte I (Entre votos, consignas y trincheras) & Parte II (La nueva lucha), 1890-1980 Produced by Mariel C. Marrero, Directed by Freddie Rodriguez San Juan, Producciones Zaranda, 2010 210 minutes; $45.00 [4 DVDs]Documentary and film making in Puerto Rico is always a tortuous enterprise. In addition to the inherent artistic challenges filmmakers face in presenting a visual narrative of a complex historical era, they also lack a supportive infrastructure for documentary or non-commercial creative film productions in Puerto Rico. So to be able to produce, finance, and research a voluminous historical and political documentary (four DVD's) that is countercultural to the main political narratives that are dominant in Puerto Rican society is quite an accomplishment. Dialogando Sobre Independentismos, parte I y II takes us through 90 years of the complex development of the pro-independence movements in Puerto Rico from 1890 through 1980. Its title, which suggests there are more than one pro-independence movements in Puerto Rico, is appropriate and challenges the monolithic view that some historians and the United States intelligence agencies have had about the independentista movement. This documentary is designed in segments that correspond to the various stages of the development of the independentista movements in the Island. This film could be a great resource for courses in Puerto Rican political science and history. One limitation for its use in the U.S. is that the interviews and the films are in Spanish. There are no English sub-titles in this version.Such a massive project, with 17 documentaries organized in four DVDs, cannot be summarized in a brief film review. What this review will attempt to do is focus on some of the highlights of the many hours of film and interviews and will focus on some aspects of Puerto Rican political history that, while known to specialists, are not popularly understood.The documentary is divided in two main segments, Part I covers Puerto Rico's independentista political history from 1890 through 1959, and Part II from 1960 through 1980. Part one is titled Between votes, slogan and trenches; it shows in seven documentaries the shift in tactics and ideologies that have influenced independence supporters as social, political and economic conditions changed in Puerto Rico and how United States' geopolitics shifted in the early years of U.S. domination. Part II, titled New Struggle, captures the period following the Cuban Revolution and the intensification of demands for the decolonization of Puerto Rico, as well as detailing the rise of new tactics, ideologies, and organizations that gave a new dynamic to the anticolonial struggle in the Island. This is the most extensive part of the project and the one that reveals the most intriguing information about internecine independentista political struggles and details about the underground armed struggle, which had not been revealed publicly before. This is also a period of intensification of federal surveillance and repression of pro-independence organizations and individuals. During this time, 1960-80, important grassroots struggles developed in Puerto Rican communities in the continental United States. The growth of Puerto Rican communities in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States as a result of the large-scale emigration of Islanders after World War II, provided another fertile soil for the pro-independence movement. The experiences of racism and ghettoization provided concrete experiences of oppression to the immigrants that lent credence to the anti-imperialist discourse of the independentistas. It also provided a space for the expansion of pro-independence organizations that participated in community struggles, antiwar efforts, feminist and labor struggles, and armed activities against corporate and government targets. The diasporic experience will be the focus of another forthcoming project Part III by the producers of Dialogando. …
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