History, Reconstruction, Circulation: Slavery in Cuban Cinematography

Since the 1970s, the rehabilitation of history and the reflections about history have been one of the aims of Cuban cinematography. In this context, the history of slavery in Cuba was reviewed and, presented in other ways different from the past. In this historical reconstruction of the facts, the current research and the filmmakers’ ideological position, embedded in a revolutionary process that was at its height, nurtured the cinematographical representation of this period of the colonial history. These films have reached non-professional audiences; consequently, they have contributed to the Cuban’s current thoughts about this period of the National history. Throughout the analysis of the most important films on slavery in the 1970s and 1980s, this paper aims at identifying the representations associated with the circulation of ideas, objects and beliefs found among slaves and the groups or communities that took part in decisive historical feats such as slave rebellions. By discussing the role of the three continents that participated in the Atlantic slave trade, the analysis of film works, situated between history and fiction, will allow us to understand the social and racial relationships marked by slavery and, particularly, the role of Spain and Africa in this historical process.