Jesus had slaves?!?

In our reading this week regarding the film, La Ultima Cena, directed by Tomas Gutierrez, was pleasantly surprising when compared to the derogatory article last week over The Mission. In his article, Recasting Cuban Slavery, John Mraz, writes in a respectful tone about the direction and flow of the movie. Mraz points out to the reader that the film parallels the construct behind the Moreno Fraginals book, The Sugarmill and integrates other historical attributes found in researching the subject of Cuban slavery. He also apparently rightfully argues that movies must either directly or indirectly engage in the subject matter of history being portrayed. Mraz also agrees that the film accurately depicts life on a Cuban plantation; though the film’s storyline and actual events were about one hundred years in reality. Some of the themes running throughout the film included: Christianity, violence in the spread of Christianity through witnessing, Jesus and his slaves, parallels between slavery and Christian parables and the convenience of being a Christian, only when it does not interfere with profits. There also seems to be an underlying theme running through the discourse of the political scene of the 1970’s which parallels the historical issues during Cuban slavery.

Gutierrez brings several interesting themes into play. The plantation owner is portrayed as symbolic image of Jesus; though it should be noted the image of Jesus was through the mind of the plantation owner’s mind. He decides that he will use the parables of the Christian gospels to “re-educate” the slaves so that they understand their place and how benevolent their master. His statements about Jesus‘s disciples’ actually being his slaves rather than his contemporizes was just plain hilarious; even the slaves were perplexed by such a contradiction. The film could also be used as great propaganda for not preaching and drinking at the same time (an idea that might be very useful in the Bible belt of the south), since the owner commits several societal offenses during his drunken binge at his recreation of the last supper while intoxicated. The master is being condescending to the slaves and the slaves are making fun of him while he is doing it. However, all the Christian benevolence is thrown out the door when it comes to the welfare of the slaves. Profits from increasing sugar production are more important than God. Putting slaves in their place is more important that God. Social hierarchy is more important than God (Gutierrez also has a running theme of repetitious dialogue). God’s message is misused to keep society’s lower classes in their places rather than uplifting them. There is also a hidden theme in the film that Mraz never addresses, though the subtle hints run, much like the character of Sebastian, throughout the entirety of the movie… freedom. Who is free? Is freedom spiritual or physical? Who decides which is right? Who defines it? In reality, the plantation owner was not exaggerating when he sat the slaves down to eat with him as equals, for he was as tied to the slaves as they were to him. He was indebted to money, shackled to capitalism and greed. The slaves, while physically tortured and abused, mentally retained their freedom and dreamed of a day when their bondage was broken regardless of the manner, like suicide or receiving documented freedom papers as Kristen Schultz addressed in her article, in which their freedom was obtained. The owner, like that of the overseer, were tied to a social hierarchy for which they could only escape if they, ironically, thwarted the social expectations of the time and took up a socialist lifestyle similar to that attributed to Christ himself. The eleven slaves, whose heads end up on pikes, were freed. The overseer, who was justifiably murdered for his brutal, but authorized behavior, was physically freed at death. Sebastian, took his chance and ran for freedom, Don Gaspar, the craftsman over the actual sugar production, left the plantation as the slaves were hunted and killed; owing only a debt to his soul. All of the scenes simply reinforce the master’s statement that freedom was only truly obtainable in ones physical death.

The only negatives found in this film were the minuet roles which women played, domestic slaves who were subservient to their men, and the manner in which they were dressed; or rather how they were not dressed. Why is it that both of the films we have watched so far depict the indigenous or slave women as constantly baring their breasts? In La Ultima Cena, it seems this was a mere afterthought of the director; reminding us of boob baring natives from the pages of a National Geographic magazine. It appears that women, regardless of their status as slave or non-slave, are treated as social pariah and deemed lesser subjects of interest then the male character. One has to wonder if the usage of the pig (which a kosher Jew like Jesus would have never eaten), really symbolizes the male chauvinistic behavior found during both the colonial period in Cuba and the time period of the 1970’s…