Abstract: Jorge Perugorria played the part of the homosexual,
David, in the film, 'Strawberry
and Chocolate,' by Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio.
Although not prepared to admit
that Cuban society has learned to accept homosexuals as part
of the Revolution, Perugorria claims
that Cubans have matured enough to accept the reality of homosexuals
in the community.
Intolerance against homosexuals forms the central point in the
film, a subject which Cuban
audiences felt needed to be dwelt upon.
Cuban actor Jorge Perugorria was interviewed in Havana in May
1994 by Johannes Birringer, who
also translated their discussion for publication.
Cineaste: Would you comment on your character in the film and your
preparation for the role?
Jorge Perugorria: I was interested in the idea from the moment I read
the story because I saw the possibilities of the characters and I thought
it
was a very important and necessary subject. I auditioned for the role of
David, not Diego, because he was the character closest to me and the
one who represents my generation. Diego represents an earlier
generation. I also thought David was the character I would be able to
do. But Titon [Gutierrez Alea's nickname - JB] said to me, "Look, I
have a lot of options for David and I'm looking for an actor
who can do Diego for me. Would you
like to try out for that part?"
I was scared, but I was also tempted by the complex nature of
that part, because everything Diego
stood for was so much richer, and so I tried out. I told myself
"I'm a very young actor, it's a big
responsibility, so it'll surely be given to a much more mature
actor who has a lot of film
experience." I never expected Titon to give me the opportunity
to play the part, but he liked my
audition and gave it to me.
It's a really exciting part for an actor, one of those roles you
hope to come across in the course of a
career, but usually it doesn't happen. We discussed the point
of view of the characters, what Titon's
point of view was, and we had some big disagreements. Finally,
however, we ended up agreeing.
Titon introduced me to several of his friends who are intellectuals
and homosexuals, and who he
thought had something of Diego's character in them. I started
to work with them, to put myself a
little in their world, their life experience. I did the same
with friends of mine who are gay, in my
theatre group and my neighborhood, and I began to put myself
in that world, to discover how they
relate to each other as well as their ways of seeing things.
I began to select from each one some
detail, some story, some quotation, and slowly I was able to
formulate Diego's role.
Cineaste: I understand that the film's story represents your experience
as an actor, an intellectual
and a homosexual. Are you gay?
Perugorria: No, I am heterosexual.
Cineaste: Wasn't it difficult, then, for you to construct this character?
Perugorria: Titon was the one who really had the experience. He
began trying out gay actors for
the character, and something really strange happened: when a
homosexual interpreted the role, he
wasn't convincing. It was like a psychic phenomenon in the actors
he auditioned - something didn't
work. It was very strange, but he couldn't find the truth that
he wanted, so he decided to give the
responsibility to a nonhomosexual actor.
Cineaste: Could you comment on the history of intolerance or discrimination
against gays in Cuba?
I understand that a lot of gays and lesbians left the country
because of this hostility. Do you think
the situation has changed now?
Perugorria: I'm going to answer that question in the following
way: I think the super-objective of
the film is intolerance. Rather than being a film only about
the problems of gays, it is about
intolerance. There were stages in the history of our society
when the phenomenon was more
complex, when intolerance was stronger, as in the early Sixties,
or the time of the UMAP [Military
Units to Aid Production - JB], when gays, or even people with
long hair, or people who listened to
the Beatles, were persecuted. In that sense, our society has
matured. But there are still
manifestations of intolerance, which is why the movie is so important
for us and why it has been
successful in Cuba.
I think that in this regard we still have a lot of work to do.
Maybe now we don't persecute
homosexuals, but we still haven't achieved the political maturity
to give equal opportunity to
everybody regardless of political, ideological, or other differences.
Society still doesn't give these
people a chance to help save our homeland. The film argues for
a reconciliation of all Cubans.
As the film points out, in spite of our being different as human
beings, from a political point of
view we can all live together and give each other that embrace
that David and Diego share in the
film. In that sense, the message is very important: for the Cubans
who are here, or in Europe, or in
other parts of the world. It's time to join together, to accept
our differences, because only by
uniting and accepting our differences will we be able to save
our country from this economic crisis.
Cineaste: Then this movie is for the people in Cuba as well as
for an international audience of
Cubans?
Perugorria: Yes. We made the movie because as creators we felt
committed to making a work that
could be important for our society. We never thought that it
would be liked so much, and win a
prize in Berlin, or be so well received in Europe and the U.S.
The passion that made us make the
movie came from the belief that we had something important to
say in our country.
Then what happened? The key moment was our surprise, after having
arrived in Berlin, of seeing
the audience on its feet cheering for ten minutes. At that point
we realized we had gone beyond our
expectations, and we began to analyze the reasons. No society
has yet conquered differences
through intolerance. In this sense, I think the movie has a universal
message: accept differences
through friendship.
Cineaste: Different parts of the movie had prerevolutionary music
on the soundtrack. It wasn't
nostalgic, but evoked memories of another time. Why?
Perugorria: Not only music but also what is said about writers.
Diego is a very good representative
of artistic values, especially in literature and music. He tries
to rescue and keep alive writers and
musicians who were alienated by the very problem of intolerance
following the triumph of the
revolution. In other words, since these people did not represent
the 'New Man' the revolution
wanted to create, there was no interest in advancing their art.
Diego feels personally responsible
for trying to communicate to young people the knowledge, the
Cuban spirit, which he feels is
valuable and an important part of our heritage.
Cineaste: What exactly is the contradiction between being Cuban
and being homosexual? Why is
homosexuality considered counterrevolutionary?
Perugorria: It's really difficult for me to give you a valid answer
about that because I am not gay,
nor do I understand the thinking of those who say that homosexuals
have neither the right to
contribute to the country nor to represent it. I don't know what
excuse they can come up with. In
the early years of the revolution, as I explained, they wanted
to create this New Man. The model,
the prototype that society wanted, did not allow for the possibility
of his being homosexual, or even
religious. As a result, a lot of people, especially homosexuals,
were marginalized, which is really a
bit illogical. In my opinion, homosexuality is quite simple:
you are talking about two people of the
same sex who love each other. But they are men, like others,
like us. So I don't understand the
excuse or justification for creating antihomosexual policies.
Cineaste: What is the relationship between your character and
your neighbor, Nancy, especially in
terms of her practice of the Afro-Cuban religion of santeria?
Perugorria: In the early Sixties and Seventies, as part of the
Cuban revolution's effort to encourage
the development of the New Man through Marxism-Leninism and materialism,
religion was
denounced. That was a period when people didn't reveal their
religious beliefs. People always
believed, but they kept quite about it. Now it's accepted and
society tolerates religious people and
believers, whether they are Catholics or Santeros. In this sense,
government policy has changed.
Today, when the crisis has become more acute, people need something
that gives them faith,
something that helps them get through these difficult times.
All beliefs and religious tendencies are
on the rise. Even the Catholic Church has seen an increase in
church attendance among young
people.
Cineaste: Is the practice of Afro-Cuban religion, or the connection
between homosexuality and
religion, considered subversive?
Perugorria: No, but it is noteworthy that many gays - something
I've seen all my life - seek refuge
in religion.
Cineaste: Are there meeting places in Cuba - such as clubs, bars,
or restaurants - for homosexual
men or women?
Perugorria: There are no open places like that for meetings of
gays and lesbians, but there are
places where their presence is felt very strongly. If you go
to the Garcia Lorca Theatre, for
example, which is the theatre of the Cuban National Ballet, there
are a lot of homosexual ballet and
dance aficionados. You might also go to a tea house and discover
that it serves as a meeting place
for gays. So they meet that way. They go to a play, music concert,
or ballet that interests them and
then go to have tea. These places aren't regular, but, at the
same time, there aren't any places that
could officially operate like that.
Cineaste: Do you know of any lesbian or gay directors or screenwriters in Cuba?
Perugorria: Look, what happens here is that there are directors
who might be bisexual or
homosexual, but, since they don't admit it publicly, I can't
give you their names. If I knew one who
admitted his or her homosexuality, I'd give you the name. But
gay Cuban directors aren't open
about it because of all the problems they have had for so many
years.
At one point, when revolutionary policy was very intolerant toward
homosexuals, many gay
directors and writers got married and had children as a cover-up
so as to be able to continue
working and living in the society. In that way, they couldn't
come and tell you that you couldn't do
this or that work because there was no official law permitting
persecution of homosexuality. People
are still very much aware of that period of our history.