Shine the floor, Teresa!

Posted on September 6, 2008
Filed Under networked society, postmodern condition |

Just have the weirdest flashback from the late seventies (ok, I wasn’t even a teenager there, but never mind). Back from a short vacation and in need of dragging myself back to the gym, I resumed my swimming program. At the pool I met this guy from India who was doing a similar routine.  We started talking afterwards (he is a History and Law professor) and somehow the conversation veered towards what it was like growing up in the  age of the Non-Aligned movement–ok, I know, not your typical poolside conversation but certainly something we had in common…

So, it turns out that while we in Cuba were being brought up on Soviet apple sauce and shown socialist-block cartoons (a.k.a “muñequitos rusos”), in India they were also watching movies from the USSR and, surprise surprise, Cuba. I guess that may have been cheap TV programming, as it was shared also with cultural and ideological purposes. It is also one of the building blocks of the current global networked society, I’d say.

Then, my friend started to tell me that he remembers this Cuban film about a woman who struggles to reaffirm her identity and takes a stand against her husband’s macho attitude.  Of course I knew immediately that he was talking about “Retrato de Teresa,” directed by Pastor Vega.   But the truly odd thing was when he said that he specially remembered a song… and then I could see it coming!  I could barely believe it but his vivid memory was of a tune that became very popular at that time, and it even turn into an expression to talk about either good housekeeping or machismo: “sácale brillo al piso, Teresa,” (shine the floor, Teresa!). Obviously my friend could only remember the subtitles, not the melody. Just as well. That was odd and amusing.

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