The Holy USA family

Kabir Vega Castellanos

HAVANA TIMES — I have always liked films, especially dramas and animated movies. The last one I saw, copied off a flash drive of course, is the not so recent “The Boss Baby”.

For those of you haven’t seen this movie, it can be quite entertaining for both children and adults. It deals with a typical subject, families, but with a certain degree of sarcasm. Those who have enjoyed the privileges of being an only child for a while until their younger sibling comes along and hoards the most part of your parents’ attention and cuddles, might identify themselves with the story.

It is also a classic US animated movie, full of characters who are caricaturist in excess and with as many flashy car chases as the script could take.

However, the plot of contemplating family values is what caught my attention, because even though it’s a melodrama, the amount of romanticism that is used to paint everything is actually quite sickly. It is sappy propaganda and hypocrisy.

It’s obvious that individualism exists in the United States and in other capitalist countries. The same system conditions you and instills in you the need to not depend on anyone, and this also distances people.

There are many young people who as soon as they become independent, move to another state with their problems. There are parents who spend years alone without hearing from their children, some who die without having any contact with their descendents. Relatives and friends only find out thanks to social services responsible for contacting them.

Emigres we know tell us anecdotes that talk about the dimensions that individualism takes on in countries where it is deeply rooted, they feel like it has radically changed their view of life, both in a positive and negative light.

Some films that illustrate what I’m talking about are:

Still Life

Time Out of Mind

99 Homes (Based on real life events, a shocking story, I highly recommend it)

I’m not saying that a strong and sincere union doesn’t exist in some families, of course it does in some, but the truth is there aren’t that many. Many Cubans even experience how their relationships gradually weaken or break over time with relatives who leave the island.

Film is an art expression not just an entertainment business, and therefore it’s in its nature to provoke opinions and concepts. Unfortunately, the bare truth doesn’t sell, although it can stir something within you.

And the masses prefer to believe that the family is sacred, even though they don’t prove this in practice.