Update Aug 12: Cross-posted at Val Prieto's Babalu Blog, where it's BlogCuba Day! Git on over there -- after reading the good stuff here.
by Jerome du Bois
To my faithful readers: I want to thank (both of) you for your patience with this mango baby we're giving birth to. "La Pionera and The New Mango" was supposed to be the seventh in the Cuban Art series I was writing. It was supposed to be short and snarky. I was going to attack real Cuban artist Sandra Ramos by fictionally assigning her to interview real Cuban art student Yasmani Oliva, who made a poster saying "Down With Fidel!" In their interview, this sixteen-year-old young man would point out the weaknesses and stagnation in her art. And I would make some other points as well. I was using this fictional format because the sixth piece, which was a surrealistic fantasy set in Lisa Sette's art gallery, was a hit with a lot of readers, including me.
So Catherine and I got to talking, and I began to do a lot of reading and looking, and now we've got a big mango growing here. A very brief summary:
"La Pionera and The New Mango" is the story of how four smart Cuban teenagers, in the near future, manage to tangle up, stymie, and flummox the Cuban authorities in Havana in the name of something called the New Mango, and they use material no more substantial or threatening than slips of paper, words, plastic bags, disposable lighters, and juice bottles. And their connections. It's about the power of ideas and the power of art. And not even they foresee the spinoffs and consequences once the public -- especially the art public nexus, including American collectors -- gets involved.
Short note about form: it is what I call an "espio-epistolary" novel: it uses surveillance technology to tell most of the story, along with diary entries, e-mails, and cell-phone intercepts.
You can read Parts One and Two on the sidebar; scroll down to the mango. The Interlude is just below. There will be three more parts. Part Three will be called Chismorreo, which means Super Gossip. For now, though, right after the jump, you can find an evolving, incomplete cast of characters, with lots of hints of upcoming episodes.
Cast of Characters, so far:
The four main characters are:
Flash No More / Erasmo: 18, student of printmaking at the Instituto Superior de Artes, Havana. Orphan, raised at Oliva Farm in Santa Clara. Parents lost / unknown. Well-known tattooist among hip young Cubans. He may also be a manifestation or representation of Chango, the Yoruba god of dark justice.
Beny Arcibaldo Manach, 16, another Prodigy Program student. An accomplished machinist (taught by his father), he is a true prodigy in engineering, physics, mechanics, computers. Plus, he is an expert in making portable places to hide contraband. He dreams of going to Mars someday.
Marta O'Gorman, 16, student at Santa Clara Arts Instructors School, concentration in literature and speech. Santera apprentice and by family lineage; writer. Member of the new Prodigy Program for gifted students.
Yasmani Oliva, 16, student at Santa Clara Arts Instructors School, majoring in visual arts although his main interest is oceanography. Father a balsero in Miami who sends remesas. Mother runs the fairly successful farm. Brothers are dollar-Cubans in the tourist trade, but on the clean side: e.g., no jineteras, just lobster, marijuana, gambling, and monetary exchange. A Prodigy Program student also. Pseudonym: La Fuerza.
Before we get to the other human characters, there are two other nonhuman ones we need to introduce:
The Abakuá Derivations is a series of twelve intricate woodblock prints created by Flash No More which seem to have strange effects on their viewers: hypnotic, healing, hallucinatory.
The New Mango: what is it? Hint: Una Fuerza Neuva, which can take myriad forms.
Alphabetical list of (most) other characters:
Jikary Altamira, 18, is a student at ISA, majoring in multimedia. As a conceptual stunt, and under the influence of The New Mango, he creates a model of a forbidden structure: a library.
Rosa Blanca Azul, 33, successful Cuban artist of the New Inventado Movement. Modeled after real-life artist Sandra Ramos. Just as she gets her first solo show in the USA, she is restricted to the island. She also feels, after her interview with Yasmani Oliva, that her talent may have, in her word, "plateaued." In the meantime, Carlos Lage has a job for her. In fact, he ends up having two jobs for her.
Abel Barroso is a real Cuban artist. I have appropriated his name and some of his reputation for this fiction.
Yoan Capote, also, is a real Cuban artist, some of whose characteristics I have taken for my purposes. For example, in my story he is a government snitch. (If he or Barroso wish to legally object, they may contact my attorneys: Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, and Short. They're in the Yellow Pages.)
Fidel Castro, 78, needs no introduction. He appears briefly in Part Three as an electronic voyeur.
Distinto, 28, is a fictional Cuban musician I made a member of Charanga Habanera, creators of the musical hit "El Mango." Stimulated by the little white printed cards, he writes "The New Mango," which becomes an underground hit.
Ana de Palma, 18, is a student at ISA, majoring in multimedia, as are most students there nowadays. A lifelong diabetic, she relies on the privelege of being an ISA student for reliable medical supplies.
Nelson Fox, 19, is a student of multimedia at ISA. He is also an aspiring playwright, screenwriter, and film director.
Guillermo Gorgojo, 45, President of the Instituto Superio de Artes in Havana. Ten years before he launched the New Inventado Movement, which includes artists included in this list. Disillusioned now. Bound to Carlos Lage and Kiku Ybarra (see below) by the past.
Carlos Lage, 51, is a real man. He is the Interior Minister, and head Minister of the Council of Ministers. One of those whispered to take over. In this novel he is a refined sadist who enjoys the fact that he can keep the psychologically-disturbed artist Kiku Ybarra in asylum-prison. He is also a lifelong diabetic like Ana de Palma.
Lazaro Lizardo is a juice and taco peddler, and also a member of the CDR (The Committee for the Defense of the Revolution -- or el comite -- for the neighborhood around the Art Institute.
Ted Player, 62, a friend of Lisa Zeitgeist, is an Arizona art collector and Cuban culture vulture who is ready to saddle up with Flash No More moments after meeting him.
O.T. ("The Omnipotent Tourist") is an amalgram created by Val Prieto, proprietor of Babalu blog. I have stolen the notion and refined it into a man, an avid Cuban art patron who manages to start a frenzy of collecting the New Mango "business cards."
Kiku Ybarra -- "Kiku the Cuckoo" -- 43, is a "psychologically-disturbed" Cuban artist, ex-lover of Guillermo Gorgojo, romantic enemy of Carlos Lage, imprisoned in an asylum for ten years after her last performance, Derrumbé, in which she literally walked the walls. Ana inspires Guillermo to visit Kiku in prison. Afterward, he is changed.
Lisa Zeitgeist, 60, is an Arizona museum curator, collector, and Cuban-art power broker for twenty years, with fingers in Cuban art's economic pie. She has managed to finagle a yearly lecture at the ISA which is commands mandatory attendance.
Thank you for your patience and patronage. Much more to come, as soon as possible.
Posted by Jerome at August 11, 2004 05:05 PM | TrackBack