Los Abuelos Se Rebelan: TV from Cuba, Island in Goliath’s Sea

The Stone’s Throw Series was made in response to Tele Marti in 1989. We transmitted one hour of the compilations on the Deep Dish satellite, in our counter programming to what the US was sending to Cuba-- illegally according to international telecommunications regulations. In addition to the satellite transmission we put together 4 programs that were installed and/or screened in a variety of art/film places-- Artists Space, Wexner Center, ICA Boston, etc.

I always loved this telenovela.

One of the best written (and shot) programs we saw when Monica and I screened some 200 hours (sometimes in fast forward) of Cuban dramas, comedies, concerts, kids shows and news programs.

This is a comedic and rather subversive look at the Cuban housing crisis during the “special period".

Now that I am a grandmother I wince at some of the heretofore humorous tensions.

I hope Sol Maria looks at this and remembers that it was sometimes hard but also sometimes fun when I used to have to sleep on her “canapé” for my housing while I was teaching at UCSD.

The Literacy Campaign

Sol's mother Kenia was one of the youth who worked with the literacy campaign in Nicaragua. When the Sandinistas came to power in 1979, they initiated a program to send teachers to the rural areas. Within five months the illiteracy rate in Nicaragua dropped from 50% to 12%. This is a trailer from a film about the Cuban literacy campaign.