“Was I like him, before? It’s possible. Although it may destroy me, this revolution is my revenge against the stupid Cuban bourgeoisie, against idiots like Pablo. I realise that Pablo isn’t Pablo. It’s my own life. Everything I don’t want to be. It’s good to see them leave. Just as if I threw them up. I remain lucid. It’s a disagreeable lucidity, empty. I know what’s happening to me but I can’t avoid it. He, Laura, everybody.” - Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Memories of Under Development - Tomás Gutiérrez Alea

“One of the things that really gets me about people is their inability to sustain a feeling, an idea, without falling apart. Elena turned out to be totally inconsistent. It is pure alienation [deterioration] as Ortega [y Gasset] would say. She doesn’t relate one thing to another. That’s one of the signs of underdevelopment: the inability to connect things, to accumulate experience and to develop. It is difficult to produce here a woman shaped by sentiments and culture. It’s a soft environment. Cubans waste their talents adapting themselves to every moment. The people aren’t consistent. And they always need somebody to do their thinking for them.”