Video from my Cuba visits

timberamayor

timberamayor

Son Montuno
Putting it under this thread because my videos will be a mix of music/Dance/everyday life so seems the non-salsa thread was the best choice. Hopefully it will be interesting to people who are interested in Cuba in general.

This first video is from a neighborhood in Guantanamo called San Justo. There is a song by Buena FE called La Zanja, from their first CD. It is about a ditch atht ran through Yoel's neighborhood and was filled with yucky run-off water from rain, household run off etc. Full of frogs, bugs, mosquitos etc. the kids used to play in it all the time etc. The ditch was eventually filled in (after the song became so popular) but I wanted to find the street where it used to be. SO while I was in Guantanamo I asked a lot of people if they knew where it had been. Finally a guy who is like the PR guy from the Tumba Francesa group in Guantanamo said he could take me. So we walked from La Loma Del Chivo to San Justo under the burning Guantanamo sun. When we reached the street Jesús del Sol he said this was it. We walked the whole street and he old me stories about it and also took me to meet an 84 year old man who talked about what it was like. So really I put this video together for other Buena Fe fans who would think it was cool to see the street in Yoel's old neighborhood where la zanja used to be. No subtitles on this video. It's 11 minutes long

 
This is an older one from Yateras in the mountains outside Guantanamo during the 2007 Festival del Changüí. It's Pipi, the bandleader of Estrellas Campesinas talking about when he met Elio Revé Matos and also talking a bit about what the old changüí parties were like. The music in the background is changüí, of course.

 
Finally did something very touristy on this trip and went to see El Cañon de Las Nueve, the canon that is fired every night at 9pm at the Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña. The fort was completed in the late 1770s I think and the canon was fired at 4:30am and 9pm every day to announce the closing of the city walls and the hanging of the chain that blocked the entrance to the port. Haven't done anything with that video yet. But afterwards we went to a fast food place called La Juliana that is in China Town on the corner of San Nicolas and Zanja. It has been open for about 2 years I am told and is always packed with people. I go there for the chocolate shakes. We were there about 10pm on a Thursday night. So just a bit more of the feel of Havana for those who are interested.
 
These are fantastic videos, Michelle. You really capture the essence and vibe of your subjects. I remember seeing the video from 2007 before. I couldn't watch the entire La Zanja video ( not yet, anyway ) and I have trouble understanding the 84 year old man, but he is intriguing and this is great footage. Good video/audio quality and nice editing job with the music overdubs, etc... you may have missed your calling as a Cuban music documentary film maker ( well, it's never too late ).
 
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groovetpt said:
These are fantastic videos, Michelle. You really capture the essence and vibe of your subjects. I remember seeing the video from 2007 before. I couldn't watch the entire La Zanja video ( not yet, anyway ) and I have trouble understanding the 84 year old man, but he is intriguing and this is great footage. Good video/audio quality and nice editing job with the music overdubs, etc... you may have missed your calling as a Cuban music documentary film maker ( well, it's never too late ).
Click to expand...
I have a long way to go before I could do professional quality video. Step 1 get one of those things you put your camera in so it doesn't shake all around when you walk :) I have a lot of video from the bicitaxi in Guantanamo but talk about shaking around. I had bruises on my arm from bouncing against the bar that holds the little roof up.

One of the things I find interesting in Guantanamo is that there are a lot of mototaxis. You don't see that in Havana. But people hop on the back of motorcycles. So at rush hour you can see lots of motorcycles carrying 2 people, bicitaxis, cars, buses, horse and carriage and trucks full of people standing in the back.
Modes of transport in Guantanamo:
cowboy.jpg


El embajador del cariño
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Mototaxista repairing his vehicle
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Not Hell's Angles, just rush hour for mototaxis
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Here we see many modes of transportation at once. that Truck is full of people standing in the back
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Recently Buena Fe had their 15th anniversary concert and they took up the subject of the ridiculous prices that the government is asking for cars now that people are allowed to buy them. They had some '97 Peugeot minibus for 250000 CUC in a country where people make 20 CUC per month. Every person I talked to about it in Cuba said it was "a lack of respect for the Cuban people". So anyway, the band gifted Dairon, the guitarist, with a rikimbili, i.e. a bike with some sort of motor attached (lawn mower, fan, who knows) and he made some comment about how he hopes that everyone who does an honest day's work should be able to save to buy at least a rikimbili.
rikimbili.jpg
 
Nice shots... and speaking of modes of transportation, I loved the horse drawn flat bed passing by at about 2:00 in the La Zanja video.
 
Back to Guantanamo for a trip around La Loma del Chivo by bicitaxi. If you’ve listened to much Cuban music , you have certainly heard of La Loma del Chivo. After many years of hearing its name I imagined it as an outlying neighborhood or suburb of Guantanamo, with idyllic hills and grazing goats. On my first trip to Guantanamo in 2007, I was surprised to find out that it is a flat, somewhat poor neighborhood with no visible goats. You can imagine my consternation. But it is also home to the Casa del Changüí, Casa del Son and Casa de la Tumba Francesa as well as an outdoor stage where many concerts are held (although it has been redesigned since my 2007 visit and now lists the names of great musicians from Guantanamo who have passed away.

On 9 January 2014 I took a bicitaxi around the city to film various landmarks. Here is a clip from La Loma del Chivo, including a man who was able to tell me the story of how the neighborhood got its name.
 
OK not MY video, but video from Yanesito of Soneros All Stars listening to the radio and driving through Marianao in Havana with Sinsonte from El Niño y La Verdad - Maykel Blanco y su Salsa Mayor on the radio new song Mi Mulata en la Habana. Nothing special just a look at everyday Cuba with agood song on the radio and good company at his side.
 
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