Memories of Underdevelopment (Memorias del Subdesarrollo in Spanish) is one of Cuba’s most celebrated films and has won several international awards. Released in 1968, the movie is the fifth directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and usually considered his most famous in terms of an international audience.
The film begins with scenes from a large and happy party where people are dancing and live music is playing. For unknown reasons, a man is suddenly shot and, as the people gather around to see, the band keeps on playing. This scene is used to introduce the theme of large scale migration from Cuba to Miami in the 1960s.
The story is told through the perspective of an aspiring writer, the wealthy Sergio. Although his wife and friends escape from Cuba, he stuck to his guns and remained there. Scenes from his life in the past and present are interspersed as Sergio is reminded of the Cuba of yesterday. While some shots include Sergio, others are seen through his eyes to emphasize the highly subjective nature of the movie and create the sense of a memory.
La película comienza con escenas de una fiesta grande y alegre, en donde la gente baila mientras tocan música en vivo. Por razones desconocidas, alguien le dispara a un hombre y – mientras las personas se reúnen alrededor para ver qué sucede – la banda sigue tocando. Esta escena se usa para introducir el tema de la migración a gran escala de Cuba a Miami en la década de 1960.
La historia se cuenta desde el punto de vista de un aspirante a escritor, el acaudalado Sergio. Aunque su esposa y sus amigos escapan de Cuba, él se mantiene en sus trece en su decisión de quedarse. Se entremezclan escenas de la vida en el pasado y en el presente, según Sergio recuerda la Cuba de antaño. Si bien algunas escenas incluyen a Sergio, otras se ven a través de sus ojos, para así acentuar el carácter altamente subjetivo de la película y crear la sensación de un recuerdo.
SPANISH LESSON
“…él se mantiene en sus trece en su decisión de quedarse” the expression ‘mantenerse en sus trece’, if translated literally would be ‘keeping to his/her thirteen’, but the actual meaning is ‘keeping to his/her guns’
It is believed that this idiom was originated from an ancient game of cards, in which the maximum number of points to win the game was “fifteen”. It happened frequently that when the player reached the thirteen points, for fear of going over the ideal number, he refused to take another card and stuck to that number. Whatever the origin of the expression, ‘mantenerse en sus trece’ passed into popular speech as a synonymous of stubbornness and persistence in maintaining an opinion or to fulfill a given task.
Examples: “Me alegra que te hayas mantenido en tus trece sin hacer de lado tus ideales”. (“I’m glad you stood your ground and did not set aside your ideals.”)
“Cristina se mantuvo en sus trece, no quiso regalar a los gatitos”. (“Cristina held her ground, she would not give the kittens away”.)