All language subtitles for Black.And.Cuba.2015.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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- [Voiceover] What comes to
your mind when you hear Cuba

on the news, in conversation,
stuff like that?

Negative, positive, what?

- Negative. Cigars.

- [Voiceover] Why?

- It's like a place that you
don't wanna go to travel to.

- Not a resolved issue,
but a non-issue right, like

right now, that our country's
not even focusing on it.

- Fidel Castro.
- [Voiceover] What about him?

- We don't like him.
- [Voiceover] Why?

- 'Cause he's, a dictator?

He's probably cruel?

- People there aren't happy,

or see better opportunities
elsewhere.

- I don't really think about
things

that I don't know a lot about.

I feel like I need to
educate myself first,

before I decide how I feel.

- They're communist, and...

That's pretty much all I know
about Cuba, basically.

- I'm thinking about Fidel
Castro.

What about Fidel, he's been
in power for a long time.

- I know I passed it
on a cruise to Jamaica!

And (laughing) we pointed at
it but couldn't get too close.

- [Voiceover] OK.

- I heard they don't
have no freedom in Cuba.

- Cuba is a very revolutionary
country to my knowledge.

- I think communism is a good
thing!

- 90some percent of the
population can read.

Medical school is free.

- Everything we got,
they probably don't have.

- It's the only place that's
safe for the Black man.

One of my veterans, Sister
Assata Shakur,

who's on exile, is in Cuba right
now.

- I think they need to
lift all their embargoes,

just open it up!

It's about time, it's been
going on for too long.

- Che Guevara was the
one that was pro people

living and appreciating
the beauty of Cuba.

- The greatest resource to
any nation is its people.

It's the people that make
125th Street flourish.

If you wanna read further,

you can read this paper
here, The Final Call,

it speaks about Cuba: The Good
Samaritan.

- When I think of Cuba I think
of

a place that kicked out
imperialists

and made a country for
the people, by the people.

Even though it's not perfect,

that country embodies what all
nations

should be trying to strive for,

some type of equality,

you know, education, medical
coverage,

you know, equality in housing,
and so on and so forth.

And of course I think of
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara,

and all of the other great men
and women

that contributed to that
struggle.

("Balicky Bon" by Hypnotic Brass
Ensemble)

- Graduate students at Yale.

- Came together as a Black
Resistance reading group.

They struggled to create
the ultimate field trip:

- They ventured to Black Cuba

in search of their revolutionary
selves.

("Balicky Bon" by Hypnotic Brass
Ensemble)

This documentary is a mix-tape

of a community's historical
memory,

the travelers' intimate
recollections,

- It's very moving
being here on this spot.

- and the salvaged footage they
found

from their journey from the
Ivy League to a rebel state.

- [All] We are the narrators of
this film.

- [Voiceover] What does it mean
to you

to be a Black student at Yale
University?

- Um, I find that question
very difficult to answer.

- [Voiceover] Are you
mad, I mean you know --

- I'm very, I'm very angry.

I'm very angry and lonely.

(piano music)

- I did feel like an outcast at
Yale.

On the one hand,

I have the community of
color that I was raised in,

which is very working class.

As I would walk around campus,

I never at all identified
as being part of Yale,

even though I was in
Yale's power and privilege.

- I had a certain anxiety,
I guess I would say,

you know, being a person of
color too,

being Black, well mixed
race, and going to Yale,

and also the class issues,

of not having been trained

in elitist kind of Ivy
institutions.

- I found Yale to be a place

that was really exciting
intellectually,

but I felt sometimes that the
institution is not for me,

as a person of color and a
person from,

a middle-class background,
single-parent background,

I mean, it's a place that's for
the production of the elite,

it's for the future CEOs
and the future senators

and presidents and Supreme Court
justices.

(soulful music)

- You end up building up a lot
of cash.

- And I saw where your
Board has amply rewarded you

for that success.

(laughter)

- I never saw myself in that
vein,

so in some senses I've felt
alienated

at times from the institution.

(piano music)

- Yale University was founded in
1701,

however, the first African
American

wasn't admitted until 1850.

African Americans weren't
admitted

in groups until the 1960s.

In spite of this long
history of racial exclusion,

Yale is consistently ranked

as one of the top three
universities in the nation.

Along with two of the
other wealthiest schools

in the country, Harvard and
Princeton.

- A lot of the people of color

were coming from middle-class
households,

where they may have been

third- or fourth-generation
college students.

And even for the people

that were first-generation
college students,

there's really this
idea of, like, economics

as being the purpose of an
education.

I have an entire family or
community

to support when I get out of
here.

- I grew up in just sort of, I
don't know,

maybe ten-block radius
that included my school,

my church, my family.

My mom and my godmother worked
very hard

paying next month's tuition
bill.

And I just, sort of constantly
feel that disconnect here.

- I was one of two or three

Black grad students in residence
in the History department.

I was at a reception
towards the end of the year,

and I looked around the room...

And I looked at the
portraits on the walls,

and I thought, I've gotta get
out of here.

And it was just sort of this,

and I still don't have the words
for it,

but at that moment it was so
oppressive,

the extent that there was nobody
here,

or there, then, for me to talk
to.

And it wasn't that

there wasn't anybody
Black for me to talk to,

there was nobody there

who was interested in what I was
doing.

- It's difficult to know, I
think in this day and age,

how to be political and feel
like you're on the one hand,

in solidarity with
movements of resistance,

but on the other hand
so clearly in a position

that makes you at least
tangentially complicit

in a lot of stuff that's
going on in the world.

- [Voiceover] Why are you
staying?

- Um.

I'm staying because, you know...

It's almost, I feel a need,

you know, to stay here
and get that degree,

'cause I think that's very
important.

I'm also staying here, you know,

'cause I like school.

I like my work.

- [Voiceover] There's
some people who would say

that Yale simply doesn't prepare
you

to cope with Black reality.

- Um, and?

- [Voiceover] And that
you are actually becoming,

not educated, but
miseducated or whitewashed.

- I think that's...

I see that as rhetoric almost,
you know.

That...

You can educate yourself on
campus

without going to class.

I mean, you cook up tutorials,

do what you want to do.

I mean, people here are
not feeding you stuff.

They're not feeding you
knowledge.

I think that's a general
misconception that people hold
to.

You know, you do what you wanna
do.

The place affords you that
freedom.

- My experience at Yale has
been that if I hadn't been

in the African American
Studies department,

perhaps I would have felt like
an outcast.

But I didn't,

because the department
very much became a home.

- African American Studies is
also known as Black Studies,

Africana Studies, and
African Diaspora studies.

It's an academic discipline

that focuses on the history,
culture, and politics

of communities of African
descent.

Beginning with the Third World
Strike,

at San Francisco State College
in 1968,

coalitions of students,
teachers, and community members

demanded the hiring of
African American professors,

and classes that reflected

the experiences of people of
color.

- [Voiceover] The education
that Third World people need

is one that sees the dignity
and the worth and the pride

of the people from which the
come.

To enable us to in turn go
back to our communities,

increase and develop the
level of consciousness

of our people and why they live
in poverty

and why racism is
continuing as a mainstay,

of keeping Third World people
poor.

(police yelling on bullhorn)

(protestors chanting)

- Now African American studies,

no matter what it's called
or where it's taught,

is politically informed at its
roots.

As far as a research-driven,

quote, traditional liberal
arts, kind of program,

that's what Yale has in
African American studies.

That trajectory's very
different from, say,

those programs that were started

with students with
shotguns in their hands,

literally armed struggle.

They have a legacy of a
different kind of practice,

other than African American
Studies.

Now, which is better?

This is up to you to decide.

- I got to a point where I felt
like

I couldn't spend the rest
of my life as an activist,

because it's just really
grueling, emotionally,
physically.

I was working as an activist
with this organization

called Pastors for Peace.

Its motto is a people's foreign
policy.

We would organize
humanitarian aid caravans

to Chiapas and Nicaragua
and El Salvador and Cuba,

and I loved that work,

but I wanted to make a
contribution in some other way.

My interest in, sort of, protest
politics,

and the interest that I shared
with other graduate students,

led me to found this Black
Resistance reading group.

As a way to get us motivated,

to sort of exploring works that
were about anti-colonialism,

or anti-racist politics.

- I think this was an
opportunity for us, you know,

people who were like-minded,

to exercise some agency over
our education, you know?

And we had a diversity of
people,

and classes, and colors, and
politics, within our group.

But at the same time I
felt like we were all,

in some kind of odd way,

feeling alienated for similar
reasons.

- In Black communities around
the world,

reading groups have continued

the knowledge-sharing tradition
that began with slavery.

- Revolutionary Africans
would meet secretly

to learn each other's languages,

teach each other to read,

and develop resistance
strategies.

It can be sort of formal,

like the legendary Dark Tower of
Harlem,

hosted by hair-care
heiress A'lelia Walker.

- Reading groups can also be
grassroots,

like the Black Panther Party's
political education classes.

- When you look at struggle,

this depends on the
education thing, you dig?

You understand what I'm saying?

With no education you have
neo-colonialism

instead of colonialism,

like you've got in Africa now

and like you've got in Haiti.

So what we're talking about

is there has to be an
educational program.

That's very important.

As a matter of fact, reading
is so important for us

that a person has to go through
six weeks

of our political education

before he can consider
himself a member of the party

able to even run down
ideology for the party.

Why?

Because if they don4t have an
education,

then they4re nowhere,
you dig what I4m saying?

- The reading group initially
started off fairly diffuse.

There wasn't a particular
theme beyond resistance,

and that we wanted it to be
global,

that we weren't just talking
about the United States,

that we were talking about the
diaspora.

- A diaspora is a community of
people who remain connected,

although they have been
dispersed from their homeland

due to forces outside of their
control.

The African Diaspora names
a world-wide community

of millions who claim African
heritage,

and deal with the every-day
reality of anti-black racism.

- I got interested in diasporic
issues

when I went to Oxford.

- Fuck fees, fuck fees,
education should be free!

- And met a lot of Black
people from around the world,

Caribbean, West Africa,
most predominantly,

and I realized that
African American issues

weren't the only game in town,
basically.

- It was through our discussions

that I really began
thinking about Cuba again.

It's like, you know, Cuba
is a revolutionary country,

and it's a socialist country,
and it's a Black country.

- The rest of us had,
probably more latent interest,

and less experience with Cuba,
but were intrigued by it.

- [Dalton] I think one of my
earliest recollections of Cuba

was reading some of the
speeches of Malcolm X,

I think By Any Means Necessary,
in one of those collections,

there's talk about Castro's
visit to Harlem, 1960.

(cheering)

- [Translator] Remember that

in those days when I came here
first,

those were the days of the Cold
War.

(speaks Spanish)

The revolution was practically a
newborn.

That was in the year 1960.

(speaks Spanish)

Injustice was obvious,

discrimination was obvious to
me,

I knew that here I would have
the heart

of the neighbors of Harlem.

(applause)

We have shed our blood.

We have shed our blood to
fight against colonialism!

And to defend independence!

(cheering and whistling)

- Yes let us pray,

for the salvation of all of
those

who live in that totalitarian
darkness.

They are the focus of
evil in the modern world.

- [Josh] My early
understandings of communism,

growing up in the 1980s,

when the Cold War and
kind of anti-communism

was so pervasive in popular
culture.

- You tell your guys
in Miami, your friend.

It'd be a pleasure.

I kill a communist for fun.

- [Josh] And understanding
communism

as being something evil.

- Not gonna stop this
fight, no matter what.

(explosion)

- [Josh] We went from that to
reading

about the relationship
between Malcolm and Castro,

and also Patrice Lumumba,

all that kinda wrapped up
together,

starting to offer kinda an
alternative

to these other understandings

of what communism might be
about,

or what a socialist
society might be about.

("After The Rain" by Little
Dragon)

- Socialism is an
alternative to capitalism,

and aims to develop relatively
equal power relations

in a society.

Communism is a form of
socialism.

It simply endorses the
public collective ownership

of things like factories,
technologies,

and natural resources.

- Its also part of our struggle,

to see that the amenities

of life in the 20th
century reach our people.

You know Mr. President
that we are very very far

from achieving the goal of
raising those standards of
living

without which the struggle for
independence is not enough.

- Our Friend Angela.

(cheery music)

(applause)

- I can envision no more
profound honor

for a communist,

than to be considered a part
of an educational system

which puts knowledge, science,
and reason

at the service of humanity's
material

and spiritual well-being.

That is not only to be able
to understand the world,

but to apply that
knowledge in changing it.

(applause)

- The idea came up as, we
should take a field trip!

And sort of, the ridiculousness
of equating Cuba,

thinking of Cuba as a field
trip,

but we were completely serious.

Once we started to discuss it,

to me it kind of clicked as in,

of course I want to go to Cuba.

It just seemed like a logical
next step

for this reading group,

to move from the sort of,
theoretical,

into really seeing

how Black resistance is lived.

- [Besenia] Oh, I see what you
mean.

- [Voiceover] Yeah.
(laughter)

- [Dalton] Gotta get used to it.

I'm just playing with the
camera.

- We understood ourselves

as going, almost as emissaries,

you know, from Yale,
African American Studies,

and that we kind of represented
a larger group of people

who may have wanted to go,

but were not able to go.

- The video would
probably be most important

as an educational tool,

how does Cuba impact our
thinking

about a variety of
different things, you know.

- This is really lacking out
there,

just dialog and people talking,

sort of, off the cuff about
Cuba.

- Well I think it's important

to kinda talk a little
bit about the process

of actually getting ready to go,

'cause there were a lot of
obstacles.

- US government's economic
embargo

bans Americans from
freely traveling to Cuba.

- There are some
exceptions for researchers,

students, journalists,
artists, and Cuban Americans.

- The US remains the
only country in the world

to have any restrictions
on trade or travel to Cuba.

- We wanted initially
to raise enough money

to have all of our expenses
funded for the whole group.

And that began to seem

like something that would be
impossible.

- Each of us going to
the discretionary funds

of our separate departments,

outside of African American
Studies,

and asking for moneys.

- The money thing was a huge
obstacle,

and it was a constant reminder

of the kind of antagonistic
space we were in at Yale.

- There are a lot of pots
of money around the campus,

but they're more for, we
discovered,

planning conferences, or
bringing speakers to campus,

or things like that,

and not sending a group of
students

off to a forbidden country.
(laughter)

To explore socialism and
radical Black politics, so.

- Even while I was
participating,

I was kinda like, this ain't
gonna work.

This isn't gonna work.
(laughter)

They said, we don't have the
money,

you know, and it's true.

They did not, people were not
forthcoming

with money for this trip,

and there's some surprising
people

that you would think would be
supporting.

But Robin was very clear
that we were going to do it

and it was going to happen.

- We were able to throw some
fundraisers,

we had a film festival,

and we also just asked like
every little

organization, fiefdom, whatever,

at Yale that we could for some
money,

and we were able to cobble
together enough funding.

- There was never a sense of,

these are the people that have
funding and can go to Cuba,

and these are the people that
can't.

It was very much a sort
of community ethos,

of, well, what's the point
of me being able to go,

if this other person can't go?

And how much of a conflict is
that

if we proclaim to be

interested in a socialist
society,

and visiting it and
participating in that
experiment?

- Who packed up the bag?

- [Robin] Everything's in there.

- We got all the Radioshack
stuff?

- [Robin] Yeah, everything's in
there.

- The topic was 1968 to 2002,
Are We Still Radicals, right?

Every sngle one of these
panelists

was basically saying
yes I'm still a radical.

This one woman said that,

just her being one of the 1.5%

of Black tenured faculty at
Oberlin, she is a radical.

- [Robin] Oh please.

- And I was like, OK,

let me see where she's going
with this.

And she goes, just me being
part of that 1.5% of the faculty

who goes into a board meeting,

or goes into a department
meeting, I am being a radical.

And I was like, OK, so that
means that Clarence Thomas

is being a radical by
going to the Supreme Court,

and Colin Powell are being radi
--

And Condoleezza Rice?!

I was like, that's some
bullshit!

And everybody in the
audience was head-nodding,

I was like OK,

these are all conservative
Black folks right here.

- [Robin] So Theresa,
you were going to tell us

something about your parents?

- My father, he's kinda
like a quasi-intellectual,

he taught math for many years,

he's extremely well-read,

he watches like five different
newscasts. (laughter)

One summer vacation,

we went to Myrtle Beach, North
Carolina.

And while everybody else
was out on the beach,

having a good time, like
throwing the Frisbee,

my father made us sit

and watch the Iran-Contra
hearings.

- [Voiceover] But it was
designed

to be kept a secret from
the American people.

- I think that growing
up in that environment

makes me question things.

And I think that's a
really important link,

in terms of how people become
politicized

or think about politics.

- [Robin] OK, you were telling
us about

how having Thayden radicalized
you in a number of ways.

- Oh, yeah, being a parent
has really radicalized me.

You know, being a parent
has really radicalized me.

To me, at the heart of
revolutionary struggle

is a concern for the conditions
in which

we socially raise our children
and our future generations.

I don't think that revolutionary
struggle

is just something that
one does for themselves.

- [Robin] And we're on our way
to Cuba.

Are you excited?

- Do you believe it?
Of course I'm excited.

(laughter)

Cuba means a lot to me.

It's very mythological.

I wanna show solidarity
with the Cuban people,

I'm very proud of the Cuban
people.

I feel like Cuba's a piece in
the puzzle, a missing link.

I'm already inspired, I
haven't left the airport.

("Mugambi" by The Souljazz
Orchestra)

Day one, first impressions.

No corporate restaurant chains.

No strip malls.

No McDonalds or any of that,

completely changes just the
physical landscape is stunning.

- I remember being very struck,

all the billboards that you
would see,

and there weren't that many,

but they were talking about
history,

and the nation's history,

and you could say they
were propagandistic,

but they seemed to me to
be much more valuable,

than advertisements for Bacardi
Rum,

or (laughing) Absolut Vodka
or something like that.

- Alright, so good morning.

(murmured responses)

And I'm sorry because of the
rain,

and so we're going to
have rain for you all day,

but we were praying to have
rain,

because we are in the
middle of our dry season,

and we were praying so
much, probably that's why.

(group laughs)

Alright, so I'm going to be
going through the program,

so that you can know what is
going on.

- I know that this is important

for the Afro-American people,

and also for Cuba because

the link between Malcolm X

and Fidel Castro and our
revolution.

We always maintained the hopes

that this relation could be
possible.

This is the opportunity for you

to get it clarified about our
revolution.

- Education of Caribbean
history.

Cuba is a Caribbean country.

The Caribbean

is a very controversial region.

The definition of "Caribe"

is not only a geographical
definition.

It's an ethnological definition,

an historical definition.

This is more important.

The similarities

are made by colonialism.

- Colonialism is a practice of
domination,

which involves the subjugation
of one people by another.

This domination increases
economic gain,

and political power.

- Most of the indigenous people
of Cuba

were Arawak or Guanajatabey.

They fought against Christopher
Columbus,

Diego Velasquez, and other
representatives of Spain's
elite.

- [Voiceover] The Spanish
colonizers

used advanced military weaponry
and professional troops.

This regime also developed

an arbitrarily violent
criminal justice system,

which disproportionately
punished indigenous people.

- The vast majority of the
indigenous people of Cuba died

or were marginalized within
100 years of Columbus' arrival.

- Spain's takeover of Cuba,

along with the subjugation of
Hispaniola and Puerto Rico,

gave Spain the political
and economic monopoly

in the Caribbean.

- The lack of environmental
regulations

and trade restrictions

allow for the Cuban elite

to form two lucrative
interdependent enterprises.

Industrial agriculture, and
slave labor.

Slavery is the system where
people are treated as property

and forced to work.

It exists for the purposes
of lowering labor costs

and increasing profits.

- Between 1511 and 1865,
nearly 1,000,000 Africans

were kidnapped, sold as
if they were property,

and forced to work in Cuba as
slaves.

- Cuba became the largest
slave-importing colony

in the Caribbean.

Cuban plantation owners
constructed homes and slave
quarters

so that laborers were under
surveillance at all times.

They were forced to live in
barracones,

which are walled-in villages,

where men and women are
separated with a courtyard.

Those who tried to escape were
dismembered

or hunted down by slave-hunters
called rancheadores.

(emotional jazz music)

- In spite of the risk,

Cuban slaves frequently
disrupted the authority

of plantation owners.

- They organized armed revolts,

and lived in maroon
communities of escaped slaves

that raided plantations,
destroyed property,

and liberated other slaves.

- This is the monument for the
maroons

that escaped from their slave
masters

that used to live in this area.

All this area was covered by
woods.

And this is like a symbol,

praying for their god to help
them,

and so in that way they
have this big casserole,

there was like smoke coming
out of the casserole,

and that smoke was a sort of
guidance,

for where to go and where
not to go, you know.

To continue to freedom.

- [Dalton] Joshua?

- Si?

- [Dalton] Habla.

- This is intense, because
there are so few monuments

in the world to the struggle,

to the horror of slavery,

but also the struggle against
slavery.

And this, to have this monument
here

that's a symbol of this
resistance,

along side of every
other part of this town

and this community that was
built

out of the struggle of the
revolution,

the Cuban Revolution,

to see these two things together

really united both in...

Historical memory but also
living reality,

and to see those two
things together is intense,

and also sort of spiritual

because we're here in the
mountains, in this valley,

and you can feel the unity of
nature

and it's intense, and it feels
good.

(fast-paced drumming and
singing)

- [Voiceover] Cuban
slaves would also engage

in cultural resistance using
song,

dance, folk tales, religion,

and that validated their
humanity and community.

(fast-paced drumming and
singing)

The plantation is a pivotal
aspect in the Caribbean history.

The plantation not only
organized the economics

of all of these countries,

but organized the society, too.

The society where the whites
were at the top of the society

and the Black Africans,

slave or free

at the bottom of the society.

(trumpeting)

(patriotic orchestral music)

- 30 years.

The Cubans were fighting 30
years

in order to obtain their
independence.

(fast-paced drumming and
singing)

- Imperialism is a system of
domination

by which a country exercises
power over another,

through settlement, political
rule,

military force, or indirect
mechanisms of control.

The patriot that began the war,

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes,

he freed the slaves, in order

they fight in an equal
situation, as a citizen

in order to obtain independence.

And the majority of the soldiers
at the end of the war

were Black or mulatto.

For example, Antonio Maceo
is the paradigm

because he's the biggest.

- The US declared war on Spain
in 1898,

in order to gain imperial rule
over Cuba.

In most American classrooms,

we learn to call this conflict
the Spanish American War.

In Cuba, they call it the US
intervention

on Cuba's War of Independence.

- As a result of the war,

the US was able to gain
dominance over Cuba,

as well as Puerto Rico,

Guam, and the Philippines.

President of the Republic of
Cuba, Tomás Estrada Palma.

I'm talking about 1902.

When he was selected
as the president of Cuba,

he just decided to represent the
American interests in our
country

and not the Cubans anymore.

That's why we consider him as a
traitor.

And because of him,
we still have the military base,

Guantánamo military base.

He's the one who signed the
amendment, called the Platt
Amendment,

which allowed the American
government to have military
bases in our country.

(fast-paced singing and
drumming)

- [Voiceover] Political
corruption is the abuse of power

by public officials for private
gain.

- In the early 20th century,

the US installed and supported
Cuban government leaders.

(fast-paced drumming and
singing)

- [Voiceover] The US used its
influence

to increase the profits of
private American companies,

which dominated the island's
economy.

US companies owned about 40%
of the Cuban sugar lands,

almost all the cattle ranches,

90% of the mines and a mineral
concession,

80% of the utilities,

and practically all the oil
industry.

- With US military
support and economic aid,

these leaders suppressed
social movements and rebellions

that would oppose their
corruption.

(fast-paced drumming and
singing)

While African Americans were
rising up,

Cubans began their own
revolution.

A coalition of students,
workers, farmers, and armed
forces

called the July 26th Movement

used non-violent civil
disobedience

and guerilla warfare to combat
the corrupt Batista regime.

- [Voiceover] The armed wing
of the movement included:

Juan Almeida,

Raul and Fidel Castro,

Celia Sanchez,

Che Guevara.

- So 61 marchers.

And these are some of the
tortures

that were applied to this group
of men,

as well as some tools that
were used for torturing.

And many persons that had
nothing to do with this action

were tortured here as well.

("Taijite" by Hypnotic Brass
Ensenble)

- [Voiceover] After years
of organizing and bloodshed,

Batista and his supporters
surrendered.

The leaders of this movement

took power over the Cuban
government

on January 1st, 1959.

("Balicky Bon" by Hypnotic Brass
Ensemble)

- [Voiceover] Once they came
into power,

they started to make changes
US elites didn't like.

The new government
ended private education,

nationalized private property,

and made racial discrimination
illegal.

- [Joshua] Standing in front of
Moncada,

what's it like, what are you
thinkin'?

- I really feel like this
is our revolution, you know?

I feel like this is more than
just the revolution of Cuba,

I really feel like it's the
revolution

of a lot of principles.

Just the fact that now
it's a school, you know?

And seeing the children come up
and down,

the way they've kept
those principles alive,

I wanna go back to the States
and help

bring some life to this
idea of revolution,

and try to imbue it with
some form that like,

revolution is possible,

that's something that I'm
gettin' from this space.

I mean, that revolution is
something that can be made,

and that it's something
that can be sustained

on a daily basis.

That's something that I'm
really feeling is lacking

from our communities.

And I'm just really feeling
honored

to be on this spot right here.

And I feel like there's a
real reason why this blockade

is trying to not just obstruct

political relations and
economic relationships

between the United States and
Cuba,

but it's also trying to stop our
people

and our communities from coming

and seeing this spirit of
resistance,

that people actually believed in
something

so solid and so hard,

that they would put
their lives on the line,

and they would dedicate
themselves

to social justice and change.

- The spirit in which
the embargo was created

was really an attempt to
completely isolate Cuba

as much as possible.

During the 1950s and '60s,

when communism was growing,

when the Soviet Union was
becoming a world superpower,

and Fidel Castro was gaining
power,

Cuba started nationalizing a
lot of US companies in Cuba.

This upset the Americans,

and so what this resulted in

was a complete economic,
commercial,

and financial embargo against
Cuba.

- Will consider lifting the
embargo

only if the Cuban leader
embraces democracy.

The president offered
this list of demands:

Free political prisoners.

Allow opposition parties to
organize and speak freely.

Hold competitive national
assembly elections next year,

international monitors.

Allow a national referendum
to gauge Cuban support

for free speech and other civil
liberties.

- Then, and only then,

I will explore ways with
the United States Congress

to ease economic sanctions.

(applause)

- Good afternoon.

Today the United States of
America

is changing its relationship
with the people of Cuba.

These fifty years have shown

that isolation has not worked.

It's time for a new approach.

We are taking steps to increase
travel,

commerce, and the flow of
information

to and from Cuba.

This is fundamentally about
freedom, and openness,

and also expresses my belief in
the power

of people-to-people engagement.

(chanting)

- [Voiceover] Over 80 people
were arrested over the weekend

at peaceful anti-Wall Street
protests.

- They maced five women.

The captain stepped up, maced
their faces,

and then tried to run away.

And avoid cameras that were
around.

(chanting)

- It's not a practice
of Amnesty International

to compare one country to
another

and say, you know, country
X's human rights record

is much worse than country Y.

Just because a violation is a
violation,

an abuse is an abuse.

The embargo has been in
place for over 50 years,

and there's been no evidence

that shows that the embargo
has improved the human rights

of either Americans or Cubans

or anyone residing in both
countries.

In fact, Amnesty International
research

has shown quite the opposite,

it's been quite detrimental
to the human rights

of individuals in the
United States and in Cuba.

- Viva Cuba libre!

(cheering)

- [Joshua] So how does it
feel to be standing here,

under Che?

- Feels good.

To be at the

Ministry of the Interior
where Che worked,

this is where his vision

of Cuba appeared.

- [Voiceover] The Cuban
government provided support

and solidarity to independence
movements

in Algeria, Angola, the Congo,
and South Africa.

- [Voiceover] Medical and
military aid from Cuba

helped Algerian rebels,
and their children.

- [Voiceover]
Che Guevara and a small group

of Afro-Cuban rebels

helped the Congolese
National Movement's attempt

to continue to struggle
for self-determination.

The struggle had been thwarted

after the CIA endorsed the
assassination of Patrice Lumumba

Cubans sent military
instructors, special forces,

as well as
millions-of-dollars-worth of
advanced weaponry,

which enabled Angola to defend
itself

against foreign occupations.

- [Voiceover] Cuba also
played a major role

in the fight against
apartheid in South Africa.

- Africa for us

is part of our being.

Africans were brought here

and what we are is because
they were brought here.

- In the United States,

we usually see Cubans who look
like this:

(singing in Spanish)

? Come on shake your
body baby do that conga ?

? Go white girl, go white girl ?

In fact, 60% of Cubans are
Afro-Cubans,

who look like this:

(drumming and singing in
Spanish)

- One difference about Cuba,

in terms of issues of race,

is that people not of
obviously African descent

could talk about being of
African descent,

because they're in a mixed-race
country.

Even if you seem like a white
person,

or you're read as a white
person,

you have been impacted by
the history of slavery,

and all of the other migrations
throughout the Caribbean,

and throughout the world, into
Cuba.

So I think there's a kind of
openness,

to talk about race, to talk
about Africa,

that there isn't in the United
States.

I think there's a kind of
complacency

that people have in this country
of,

well you're white you
just wouldn't understand,

or you're not of this experience

so you just wouldn't understand.

- One thing is very important,

is the feeling the Cubans have

that we are closer to African
Americans

than to Americans in general.

That we have more understanding.

- Cuba supported and
provided political asylum

to several committed
African American activists,

including Robert F. Williams,
and Assata Shakur.

A political prisoner is
someone who is prosecuted

because of their political
activism,

or because they committed
politically-motivated crimes.

Robert F. Williams encouraged
Southern African Americans

to legally defend themselves

against white supremacist
terrorism.

- Negros must be prepared
to repulse attacks,

and they must be willing to
fight,

they must be willing to die
and to kill if necessary,

that there was no law,

no 14th Amendment to the
United States Constitution

of equal protection in the
South,

and that therefore they
didn4t have any deterrent,

so they would have to create
the deterrent force themselves.

- Receiving political asylum
from Cuba

between 1962 and 1965

allowed Williams to communicate
to his grassroots base

through a program called Radio
Free Dixie.

He founded the Crusader,

a progressive newspaper,

and became president of the
Revolutionary Action Movement.

Assata Shakur, who
describes her slave name

as Joann Chesimard, was a
student activist

at Borough of Manhattan
Community College.

She became a leader of the
Harlem chapter

of the Black Panther Party.

Later, she was associated with
the Black Liberation Army.

- Freedom, justice, equality.

Decent living, for people,

is, if there's a complete
change,

a complete change,

everything has got to be turned
around,

and that's the revolution,
a complete change.

- Assata, along with fellow
activist

Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata
Acoli,

were pulled over while driving
on the New Jersey Turnpike

on May 2nd, 1973.

One of the New Jersey
State Troopers on the scene

later admitted that the police
pulled over these activists

because they were Black while
driving

a car with Vermont license
plates.

- [Voiceover] There was a
confrontation

in which Assata Shakur was shot,

in her arms, shoulder, and back.

State Trooper Warner Forrester

and Zayd Malik Shakur were
killed.

- Although the medical experts
at trial

supported Assata's version of
events,

she was convicted by an
all-white jury,

and sentenced to life, plus 33
years.

- The Hands Off Assata campaign

asserts that she was framed

for the murder of Zayd Shakur
and Warner Forrester

because of her political
activism.

After spending two years

in a maximum-security federal
prison,

while in solitary confinement,

fearing she would be murdered,

Shakur escaped.

She lived underground for five
years,

until Cuba granted her
political asylum in 1984.

- When it was prison, prison was
hell.

It was a new kind of plantation.

I feel like, I feel like a
maroon woman.

I feel like an escaped slave,

because what I saw in the United
States

in those prisons was slavery.

It was Black people with chains,

in cells.

It was just poor people, you
know,

I mean just stepped on and
smashed.

I'll never forget what I saw.

I'll never forget what I've
lived through.

I'll never forget what my
people have lived through.

- The FBI currently offers a
reward

for assistance with her capture.

The activists who were convicted
in the US

of helping Assata with her
escape,

Marilyn Buck, Mutulu Shakur,
Sekou Odinga,

and Silvia Baraldini,
incarcerated, or died in prison.

- One of the first things
done by the revolution

was to give same
opportunities for everyone.

Legally, it was stated
that the color of the skin

or the gender, or whatever
difference,

is not to be used for giving
privilege to different people.

And for a long time we thought,
that's it.

Every problem is solved.

But then with time,

we started to notice that it's
not enough

to say that we are the
same in front of the law.

Race issues are very touchy
issues here for Cubans.

Unity is very important.

For Cubans, unity is our weapon

to defend our country.

So if I start to...

bring out differences,

I might be regarded as
attempting against unity.

- Like, the other day I was
walking

with these friends on the
streets,

I was asked for my ID,

and then I asked why are
you asking me for my ID,

I can't walk freely with
a phone here in Cuba?

I'm Cuban.

And they said no no no,
but you know why we asked.

I don't know why you're asking
for my ID,

so I need to know.

They say, you know, come on,

you're a Cuban, he said, hey.

Well I gave him my ID and what
are you do?

I'm a tour guide and I'm also
writing

(mumbles)

from the Ministry of Foreign
Trade.

Are you telling me that's what
--

It's just because I'm Black, you
know.

That's the problem.

And the police, we also need
to educate the police as well.

We need to educate certain
fields within the society.

I mean, I'm talking
about my own experience.

Probably you ask some other
people,

they will tell you different
things.

But I'm telling you about my
own experience, and I think

most of the Black people
feel the same way, that way.

(solemn piano music)

- Some people let's say make a
joke

in which a Black person looks
stupid.

And I go and say, listen.

This is racism, what you're
doing.

And this person says no,

I have many friends who are
Black

and there's no problem with
that.

It's just a joke.

And this person doesn't
understand

that it's teaching this
just a joke to children,

and it's conveying a way
of understanding life.

Culturally we have been using
certain kind of language

there are things that just go
invisible.

- We have been given the same
opportunity,

as any other citizen here in
Cuba.

Some people have taken it,

some other don't.

Some other haven't, I mean.

But I think that it's not a
matter of having opportunities

or having an important
post within the society,

sometimes you find people that,

they say hey you speak
English, you speak French,

you are not Black, you are
white.

That's a little, small
comment I wanted to make.

OK, ready to eat?

- Hola, amigo, hola!

- [Dalton] Hola hola hola!

- Video!

- [Dalton] Bueno!

- Every society is a
society of contradictions.

United States, we have
the same kinda thing.

You can go to an expensive
restaurant

and it's down the block,
around the corner,

from more humble places.

Cuba, for all of its struggle
and everything, it's the same.

It has the same contradictions,

or similar, parallel
contradictions,

and this is another
manifestation.

- [Dalton] So sit down, enjoy
the meal.

- Sit down and eat and, you
know, reflect.

- Reflections on my whiteness,
um.

You know, a lot of the tourism
in Havana,

are European tourists and white
tourists,

and being here,

I think it's really important

and something I am conscious of
right now,

is that, and rightfully so,

people, probably their
initial reaction to me

is gonna be one of skepticism

or maybe even deeper than that,

knowing what or how
maybe the vast majority

of the European tourists
handle themselves here,

their power relationship
with people in Cuba,

but people of color
really all over the world.

(upbeat dance music)

- We're at this wonderful beach
resort

catering to the European tourist
market.

Playing this wonderful, how
shall we say?

European dance music.

I offered Tucker $20 if
he could get them to play

a Black Star CD, Talib Kweli and
Mos Def.

He tried it out, he returned
unsuccessful,

so it looks like that wasn't
really

the niche they were going for.

- They don't have a CD player,

so we're gonna try some tape.

(dance music)

(instructor speaking Spanish)

- [Voiceover] After the Soviet
Union dissolved in 1991,

Cuba made some capitalist
reforms

that increased its dependence on
tourism.

- I see if like the tourism,
it's bringing resources

if money's coming back
into Cuban civil society,

that towns are improving
and hospitals and schools,

and people's homes, too, home
life,

is improving through this,

people are paying whatever,
$200, $250 a night,

whatever it is to stay here.

But if that's not being seen,

this is a potentially ticking
time bomb.

Of a route to go.

And I mean, I'm trying not
to critique it too hard,

I don't, I talk...

I believe in socialism,

but as Dead Prez says,

"Livin' and breathin' it, not
just fuckin' believin' it."

We don't, on this trip.

None of us, as much as --

And I think there's a lot of
people

who are contemplating that,

what it means to do that.

It's a pity that here
in the tourist industry,

when you are working with
clients,

you are not able to take them
to your homes.

It's not possible.

If you come some other time,

you can visit my family, you'll
see...

They live in what we call
"cerrades."

It's like apartments
one next to the other one.

I was raised up in there,

it's a poor part of Havana.

My mother's a nurse,
and now she's retired.

Little by little, they started
coming to the capital

looking for a better life.

in terms of supporting a family,
helping a family,

it's a good time to do it now.

Sometimes people say, "Hey,
Alejandro, you're going too
fast!"

And I say I have to take
advantage now when I'm young.

That's my life in a way.

Responsibilities that I have.

What you're saying is really

the same reality a lot of
Americans or African Americans
live.

That one person may go off to
school

and become the professional
of their family

and takes care of the younger
cousins or siblings

because it's real difficult to
transition

when your family is living
in what we call "the projects,"

which seems similar
to where your family lives.

- My dream when I was a little
kid

was to get into university,

because I remember that I saw
lawyers with their cars,

you know, very elegant, very
respected,

you know, he's a lawyer.

You know, he's a doctor, he's a
teacher,

but now, you know, opposite.

You got like people working
in the tourist industry,

like they make more
than any other, lawyer,

being a doctor, being a teacher,
whatever.

You need to change it!

You need to prioritize good
things.

I wasn't forced, but I said hey,
I have to work.

No matter what but I loved my
profession

as an English teacher, as a
translator,

but I need to do this because
it's the only way to help.

- To know that yeah, you know,
I am in a socialist state,

but I'm still wondering, you
know,

I love to acknowledge that this
is here,

but I feel like really, you
know,

there's still, there's distress.

Bellies hungry, you know, you
need more.

And that means that there's
some other level of change

that still needs to be dealt
with.

(rapping in Spanish)

- There were this group
of MCs, it was two MCs,

these two guys talked about,

if they were in the United
States,

they could just wake up in the
morning,

go downstairs to their studio,

lay down some tracks,

and be able to like put
out a video the next day.

And we were like, I don't, that
--

We live in the United States,
you can't do that!

And one of the things
that really struck me was,

their idea of the United States.

It really reminded me of kids
that I,

my cousins, or my little
brother,

kids from the neighborhood
that I grew up in,

in the Bronx,

this ideas that there is a kind
of a...

It's an alternative
American dream, in a sense,

that's not the like, if you work
hard

you can pull yourself
up by your bootstraps,

it's the sense that comes

from the media,

about what life is like
in the United States,

and the idea that life
can be like that for you.

Even though food and people

can't necessarily travel
easily between the US and Cuba,

these images in the
media of popular culture

do travel really easily.

People do get cable over there,

and see MTV and BET,

and have these ideas promoted by

a lot of the really famous

hip hop artists in the United
States

and they accept that as
being a kind of news report

on what it's like in the US.

("Edem Chante" by Creole Choir
of Cuba)

- In the United States,

many African American and
Latino families are coping

with the severe economic
realities of the Great
Recession.

- [Voiceover] Yet, executives
at the four larget

global media conglomerates
continue to use images

of African Americans and
Latinos spending frivolously.

- [Voiceover] The majority
of these executives

aren't even African American or
Latino.

- [Voiceover]
The African American and Latino

home ownership rates are about
25% less

than they are for whites.

- No one's race determines
their work ethic,

yet African American and
Latinos were hit hardest

by the decline of construction
and manufacturing industries.

African Americans and Latinos
have significantly higher

unemployment rates than any
other race.

("Edem Chante" by Creole Choir
of Cuba)

- [Voiceover] Since the
Revolution,

Cuba's government has
provided subsidized housing,

universal public education,

and a comprehensive jobs
program.

- In Cuba, more Blacks
own their own houses

than anywhere in the world.

Their unemployment rate
is consistently 2%.

- [Voiceover] In the United
States, the racial segregation

of educational opportunities
persists.

- [Leader] Fight fight for
schools!

- [Crowd] Fight fight fight for
schools!

- [Voiceover] Although
race doesn't determine

a person's intellectual
capabilities,

African American adults

have higher rates of
illiteracy than whites.

- [Voiceover] African American
children

are tracked three times
more than white children

for special education programs.

- [Crowd] Fight fight fight for
schools!

- [Leader] Fight for schools,
fight fight for schools!

- [Crowd] Fight for schools,
fight fight for schools!

- [Voiceover] The quality
of public education in Cuba

improved radically after
the revolutionary government

ended private education,

and launched a nationwide
campaign for adult literacy.

Over 50 years later,

Cuba still has nearly
a 100% literacy rate,

and they have equality of
basic educational opportunities

across racial lines, and class
divides.

("Balicky Bon" by Hypnotic Brass
Ensemble)

(children chattering)

(ball cracks)

- There's obvious poverty,

but in terms of misery,

I didn't see the kind of misery
that I see right out here in New
York City.

- [Doctor] The state
doesn't want to spend money

on our kind of patients,

because they're Black, and
brown.

- [Voiceover] Because they're
Black,

or because they're poor?

- Both! Both.

If you look at whites,
poor whites, and poor Blacks,

poor whites have worse
healthcare than richer whites,

but even if you look at them,

compared people on the same
income level,

non-whites have worse
healthcare.

They have less access to the
system.

- We African Americans
have higher death rates

for stroke, cancer, diabetes,
asthma,

and HIV/AIDS, than whites.

- Alcohol is probably the
leading cause of disease

in patients who are
admitted to this hospital.

And why, the question why a
community,

and why a community's more
prone to be into alcohol,

is purely social,

it's related to their inability
to survive in the setting,

the economic and political
setting

of this city at this time.

And it's more than this city,

it's related to this country
also.

- [Voiceover] That seems to
suggest

that something like half the
adult community around here

is seeking oblivion one way or
another.

- Yeah, I would have no trouble
saying

that 50% of the patients

have some type of drug-related
problem,

if you include alcohol.

- [Voiceover] In Cuba,

there's free public
health care for everyone.

- [Voiceover] Afro-Cubans
are the healthiest

Black population in the
Americas.

(emotional choral music)

- In the US, there are
relatively lax rules

about purchasing and owning
guns.

Murder is the leading cause of
death

for young African Americans
since 1978.

1978!

While no one's race determines
their desire to live,

in the US, I'm 10 times more
likely than a white man,

to be a victim of homicide.

(gunshot)
One time.

(10 gunshots)
10 times!

- I'm nearly 30 times more
likely than a white woman

to be a victim of homicide.

(gunshot)
One time.

(30 gunshots)
30 times.

In Cuba, there are more
restrictive gun laws,

and less killing.

The homicide rate there

is less than a third of what
it is for African Americans.

(chattered greetings)

(chanting)

(upbeat Cuban music)

- Neighborhood Association
put on a performance for us,

and they had their children
singing and dancing.

(rapping in Spanish)

- We were invited to the Block
Party,

and it was just really awesome!

You had all these kids doing
this great song and dance,

you know, performance piece,

in not a community of means, you
know.

The performance is with like one
lightbulb

that they like string from
inside somebody's house,

but it's like they make it into
a stage,

and it's amazing, you know!

In order to show us the
best of who they were,

they showed us their children,

and what they teach their
children about being Cuban,

and being a part of that
community.

And it occurred to me that
giving people

the resources they need to
take care of each other,

to take care of their children,

is how we will overcome.

- Time has come to say goodbye,

but I think that it's
not going to be forever.

I think that it's going to be
for a short period of time,

because they're going
to be back very soon.

I am humbled that you
have learned about Cuba,

so that you can help us from now
on,

knowing our reality and
knowing the way we are,

it will be great if you can also

tell to the people in the
States, how is the Cuban
reality.

The things that you have here,
seen,

by yourself, that hasn't been as
tourists.

It's just something that you
have checked by yourself,

because there is also a saying
that says,

seeing is believing,

and I guess that now you're
going to believe more

in our country.

- [Voiceover] So you don't
think that Yale is sincere,

that Black students at Yale are
sincere.

Think they're just there for a
front?

- They just there for a front.

Until they realize why they got
there,

how they got there.

- [Voiceover] Do you think
they're being trained to be
leaders?

- They're being trained to be
leaders,

but I don't think they're
being trained to be leaders

to come back in the Black
community.

- [Voiceover] Well even where
they go,

can they help Back people where
they go,

as they're trained now?

- They could, they could, true
they could.

But will they?

- This is a group that said,

we're gonna try something
that's gonna be hard to do,

traveling from the US to Cuba is
not easy,

and this is our intellectual
project,

and boom.

You guys went.

And you actually made the
transition

from being book smart,

to trying to figure
this out on the ground.

So it actually reinforced to me,

as I thought about it,

the idea that when people say,

oh, well this won't happen,

or they're gonna say no,

or just, you know, they
don't even try, basically.

That's the one way to guarantee
you'll never get anything.

- There are many of our people
who are thinking more deeply,

and more broadly,

and are beginning to see the
importance

of lifting it out of the
national context.

And the only way this can be
done,

is by internationalizing the
problem.

Instead of it being called
civil rights in the future,

we're going to have to label
it a human rights struggle,

or the struggle for human
rights.

It becomes a world problem.

- Any form of discrimination,

including racial discrimination,

is a violation of human rights.

It's on all of us to really
call on our policymakers.

A world in which everyone can
freely enjoy human rights,

is certainly possible.

- African Americans are in the
middle

of a struggle in their country.

And we Cubans are in the
middle of a struggle too.

That brings us together.

- There's nowhere that you
can go in the United States

and see a predominantly Black
community

that doesn't have serious
issues with poverty,

serious issues with drugs,

serious issues with violence.

It's hard to convince yourself
that there can be anther way.

But there's another way.

("Vamo a Vencer" by Krudas
Cubensi)