"The Mulata, seeing it was hopeless..." "No, Francisco, do not go on." "No, no no - you have to know the truth." "We cannot get married, my darling." "Why?" "We have always known that we would return to Havana with our daughter to serve the Mistress." "She will forgive me." "We will be together again." "Together." "Yes, you are forgiven, but no, we will not be together." "I did all I could." "I will return to Havana with the Mistress and you will stay here." "Here." "Is this something new?" "I can do no more, Francisco." "I cannot suffer any more." "I did all I could to save your life." "To save your life, I had to give myself to the Nińo Ricardo, and now I do not deserve your love." "I don't belong to you." "I don't belong to you, Francisco." "That's what he wanted." "He wanted to kill you." "I want you alive, even if I never see you again, I want you alive." "Forgive me God, forgive me Francisco." "In the afternoon, Ricardo and his overseer noticed the flight of a large flock of vultures, and saw a Negro hanging." "His tooth had cut his lip." "He was swollen, half rotten, and partially eaten by the vultures." "This Negro was Francisco." "For a long time, neither Mrs. Mendizábal nor Dorotea knew what had happened to Francisco, until eventually Ricardo wrote to inform them of his death." "And the Mulata, broken by her sorrow, was slowly consumed by grief." "Until after the passing of a few years she died." "In 1838, at the literary salon of Domingo Del Monte, they celebrate the advent of the first anti-slavery novel written in Cuba." "Its author, Anselmo Suarez-Romero." "Just as other young intellectual authors of his times," "Suarez-Romero takes refuge in the closed circle of the salon to manifest openly his feelings against slavery and the traffic of Negroes, and at the same time to propagate his ideas of social reform." "Domingo Del Monte, a bourgeois intellectual at the head of this reform movement, an organizer of this literary salon, had suggested to Suarez-Romero that he pen a novel that would expose the real conditions of the slaves." "The work would be presented to the English commissioner, Richard Madden, who was in charge of investigating the violation of the Anglo-Spanish Treaty prohibiting the traffic of slaves in the Islands." "Its objective: that he form a true criteria of slavery in Cuba, and showcase the horrors of the institution." "The rejoicing at the reception of the novel is proof that it satisfies the intentions of those ideologues." "But is it real, the view of the slave that the author offers us through his character, Francisco?" "We will see if this rejoicing was or was not justified." "In the novel, "Francisco", was there another Francisco that the author does not show us?" "THE OTHER FRANCISCO" "No sooner had Ricardo gotten up, (a good-looking young man," "(son of dońa Delores Mendizábal, an illustrious and wealthy lady from Havana) when he directed himself from his home to the mill, where their overseer was." "And after greeting him, "Good morning," he said "Listen, Mayoral..."" "Good morning, Nińo." "Did the blood flow?" "Did it ever - like the sea, like the sea." "After each kiss of the spurs, he let out a groan." "I told him he had to keep his own count, that they were 50, and then he started, "One, two, three," and that if he made a mistake the party would begin again." "And after 8 lashings, he made a mistake and we started again." "How many did he get?" "Well, just imagine - the nigger got angry and refused to keep count." "He bit the earth with his gross lips and he was spitting blood." "By the time the count reached the 50 that your lady mother had ordered, it had turned into 80, with all the shenanigans" "And then?" "Then?" "Well, after that a good scrubbing in the gashes with urine, salt, White lightning and tobacco." "Scrub, scrub..." "He was as quiet as a deer." "Then I put him in irons and sent him to work the cane fields." "But tell me, Nińo, what did he do?" "Did he get fresh with the Seńora?" "Did he get drunk?" "Did he run away?" "Did he steal?" "No, no, nothing like that, Mayoral." "Imagine - he knocked up Mama's seamstress, knowing that she was the apple of my mother's eye." "A Negro that my mother rescued very young from the quarters, that she raised like a son - well fed, well dressed." "He even learned how to read and write." "A Negro that never in his life had received a whipping." "And look at you, what payment!" "Making pregnant a servant that was greatly esteemed." "And then he asked for forgiveness." "Well, but now he's feeling the pinch." "The lash - that's what the motherfucker deserves, Mayoral." "The lash." "Listen, Mayoral... at the slightest fault that he commits, the lash." "And if he does nothing, the lash anyway." "But however, I don't want you to kill him." "I want him to suffer slowly." "At a slow boil, do you understand me?" "What are you doing there, trying to help him?" "Put your back into it, put your back into it!" "Who do you think you are?" "You went to Havana and fucked up!" "You went to Havana and fucked up!" "Hey, but what's happening here?" "What are you looking at?" "Where do you hurt?" "Your belly?" "Your side, your waist?" "Does anything hurt?" "Talk, talk." "No, doctor, I lost my head at the farm." "You fainted." "That's what happens when you get drunk." "Open your mouth." "I don't drink, Nińo." "Open your mouth, open wide." "It's true, you're not drunk." "You're too strong to have fainted, and the lashings are healed." "I know - there, stick out your tongue." "Your tongue!" "Your stomach is filthy, filthy." "Maria, give an emetic to the seńorito, and a laxative tomorrow and the next day also." "Among all the servants of Dońa Mendizábal, he shone for being loyal, a good worker and his lack of vice." "That was Francisco." "Taken from Africa when he was 10 years old, it was easy for the lady to mold him to her wishes." "There was in the house a Creole Mulata, daughter of the wet-nurse to the child, Ricardo." "Her name was Dorotea." "She performed the services of a seamstress and maid to the Mistress." "Because of her fragile beauty, honesty and chastity." "She seemed to Francisco a worthy companion to alleviate his sufferings as a slave." "He asked his mistress the necessary permission to marry and she refused to give it, alleging a multitude of reasons." "But secretly and without hope, for two years they continued to adore each other, till the natural fruit of their love revealed the slaves' disobedience." "The noble Havana lady, accustomed to being obeyed by her servants, refused to hear the lovers' pleas, and determined to punish their offense." "She assigned Francisco the punishment we have witnessed, and the Mulata she sent to the house of a French woman as a laundress." "Francisco and Dorotea respond to the romantic frame that the author assigns to them." "But the real condition of love in slavery was different." "Sexual love between slaves was limited by the disparity in number between the sexes." "The few female slaves of the sugar mill were utilized for the enjoyment of the White laborers, or paired with other slaves for reproduction purposes." "The pregnant slave was obligated to produce her quota of labor - a thousand pounds of cut cane daily until her 9th month of gestation." "And the same as the men, she was not exempt from punishment." "The infant mortality in the sugar mills, being close to 100 percent, made it impossible to augment the work force by way of natural reproduction of its Black women." "Also, the slaves' repulsion to have children in the same conditions of exploitation that they were in made them try to avoid getting pregnant." "All the normal human sentiments were forbidden to the Negro in slavery conditions." "The rigor of work that he was not accustomed to, the ferocity of the overseer and the hatred of Ricardo, youngster who he had grown up and played with in other times, running around, fishing and playing in the batey" "prostrated Francisco during his 2 weeks in the infirmary, but he eventually felt better." "When he left, he walked to where the gatekeeper lived, the only person in the sugar mill who had shown him some affection, and who understood his feelings." "What are you doing, cimarron?" "Here comes a chicken." "Here you are talking with the Marquis while the horses are trampling all the new plantings in the field." "And do you belong here, motherfucker?" "Yes. massa, I'm going." "And speaking of something, who let the filly loose from the paddock?" "Not I, massa." "You shut up!" "Here you are talking to this one while the Negroes are cutting the cane." "I was ill, sir" "You shut up, shut up!" "Come here!" "So you were sick, huh?" "Well, I'm going to give you a remedy," " No, massa, no..." " now that we're cooking the cane juice." "Hail Mary" "Full of grace" "The Lord is with you" "That's ok..." "And blessed art thou amongst all the women" "Forgive me for interrupting you, Nińo" "Did you give this slave permission to stroll through the forest?" "No, I didn't." "Well, that's where I found him, sitting down like a Marquis, talking to the gatekeeper." "Why wasn't he working?" "So, you didn't know?" "His highness had a fainting spell while cutting cane, and the doctor has gotten into his head that he has to be purged every week." "I think that that little doctor wants to cram everyone into the infimary, but then it won't be my fault if we don't finish the cutting by the time the rains start in August." "Do you think he is well and healthy, Mayoral?" "If he has strength to loose the mares from the paddock, then he has it to cut the cane, no?" "Oh, but are you telling me he did that?" "No, no, no, then put the irons on him and throw him into the cane field." "And listen, I want him to work from morning till midnight." "The circumstance of his being Black and a slave kindled a burning hatred in Ricardo's breast against Francisco." "It was because they loved the same person, only that the passion of the slave was candid and tender, while the owner, more accustomed to violence and sadistic games, chose to revenge himself, something that was not possible to him in Havana." "Just think how happy he was to see Francisco arrive at the sugar mill." "Go, go, titsucker, go!" "Let's go!" "When I talked myself into the job of overseer of a mill in '24, people told me that I was nuts, that the Negroes there were rebellious." "That they had killed the Mayoral, and I don't what else..." "But did I get scared?" "I took the dogs, a musket and a huge orange branch 2 inches in diameter, and I went to work on the little niggers." "When I finished, they behaved like tame fawns." "It's your way, Antonio." "When there is trouble, they chicken out." "And how they do turn chicken!" "Look, I got there and I assembled all the Negroes." "In the early morning I dealt with 14" "At 11 I whipped six, at noon five, and in the evening a Black one got saucy and his head went into a vice." "But that year I made a thousand boxes." "And the next one 1500." "And the one after that 2000." "And how they loved me, the bosses." "How they loved me!" "And they would say, "Don Antonio" and just melt." "What's happening with my little niggers, that they quiet down when I show up?" "Didn't you like that I come?" "Naa - let's see." "Let's see you play the drums." "To screech again." "Screech again." "I want to listen to music, music!" "And see who's here - a nigger in irons?" "Come here, cocksucker." "Gentlemen, this little nigger is going to dance a minuet." "I don't know how to dance a minuet." "Why not?" "Do you need the violins and the clarinets?" "Well, then, you're going to dance to the drums." "Let's see, play the music, play!" "Come - dance, dance!" "Everybody dance!" "Turn around, turn around." "Come on, laugh, everyone laugh!" "That way, that way." "Don't knock her down, don't knock her down." "Let's see you lift the handkerchief." "Not with your hands, with your mouth, with your mouth." "Let's see if you can also do it to a hat." "Kiss her, kiss her on the mouth." "On the mouth, on the mouth." "Yes, yes, well, this is over with, it's finished!" "Christmas arrived, and the Dońa Mendizábal visited the sugar mill to spend the festivities with her son, Ricardo." "She also had another purpose - that Francisco and Dorotea hear their pardon from her own lips." "And she asked Ricardo to end the punishment of the slave, and to employ him in the proper labors of a servant." "Your blessing, Mistress..." "There you have him, Mama." "I cannot believe what they told me about you." "Not only was he guilty of disrespect to the overseer 3 times, but as if that weren't enough, he also loosed the mares from the paddock." "And incited several other negroes to set fire to the bagasse house." "If we had not..." "He was such a submissive Black, so humble." "The devil has entered your body." "It has been hard for me to believe the damage that you have tried to do to us." "I see now that you do not deserve my pardon and the marriage license I had planned to give you." "You have become evil indeed." "Listen, Mother, with the Blacks you cannot be lenient." "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile." "You only have to look at them to understand that they're descended from the monkeys." "Look at those fat lips, the big nose, the flat forehead and the kinky hair." "And then, they're lazy and ingrates, like the beasts." "And you're still feeling sorry for them." "Don't say that, son." "Ricardo had never followed the merciful orders that his mother had given him in regards to Francisco." "So the happiness brought by the beneficences of the Mistress was not lasting in Dorotea's heart." "It was but a moment of happiness in the misery that awaited her." "We shall then relate the events that transpired during that Christmas of sad memory." "Francisco!" "And whose fault is it that our plans have failed?" "Not your Mistress', nor yours." "Francisco is the guilty one, doing not just one, but many bad things." "Ricardo can inform you of the details - ask him" "It seems like a bad dream, a Negro so submissive, so humble." "Hey, my Mistress, have pity on me, feel sorry for me, please, God." "Pity?" "And you still doubt what he's done?" "But what more can I do?" "You came full of illusions To marry Francisco, and you find that he's a shadow of his former self." "It's understandable that you mistrust everyone else, but why me?" "Mistress, I do not mistrust your mercy, ever." "And I don't mistrust you either." "That's why I would be very happy if you did not persist in loving Francisco." "He does not deserve it." "And also remember that marriage is for a lifetime." "It is better to suffer for a short while than to be unhappy forever." "I'm advising you, Dorotea, forget him." "Yes, Mistress." "I will not see him again until he mends his ways." "And when that happens" "I will have no problem giving you my blessing for your marriage." "I am very pleased with your decision." "Now go get my purse and my fan - Don Antonio is waiting for me." " Go on." " Yes, my Mistress." "As soon as Dońa Mendizábal left Dorotea, after their talk, she informed Ricardo of his milk-sister's humility." "He listened to the news with great rejoicing, and with more interest than his mother could fathom, ignorant of what had transpired between the Mulata and her son, because had she known she would not have tolerated that" "Ricardo had fixed his eyes on a slave, much less a household slave." "Don't be afraid, I'm not going to eat you." "The Mistress will see you, Nińo." "No, the Mistress is at the mill having a good time." " You and I are here alone." " Please, Nińo, let me go!" "I want you to treat me with less formality." " I will not try, you are my master." " That's because you want it that way." "Look, Nińo, I am a slave." "Yeah, I know you're a slave and I'm your master, but I'm tired of waiting." "Today I will give you your freedom" "How are you going to do that, Nińo?" "It's $600." "What does $600 mean to me?" "I'll give it to mother, and tomorrow you'll be free and mine." "Mine." "Oh, Nińo, let me live in peace." "I beg you in your mother's name." "I will set you up in a house in Havana, with a Black woman to serve you." "I will buy you clothes." "You will be my princess" "No, no - you don't lack for anything." "You come from a good family." "How can you lower yourself by falling in love with me?" "A Mulata, a slave." "Please, Nińo, in the name of God, leave me be." "Leave me be!" "Come here, bitch!" "It's my fault for treating you with such delicacy." "How do you figure?" "What's all the bullshit about virtue?" "Or is it that you've forgotten what you did with Francisco, when you were rolling with him in Havana, and the belly that he made you?" "Have you forgotten, bitch!" "?" "And you still love him!" "Shut up, shut up!" "Hey, Dorotea, you're gonna be sorry for treating me like a nigger." "This Christmas you're gonna come to me crying tears of blood and sorrow, and begging me." "You didn't want to please me the easy way, so now you'll please me the hard way." "It was I who destroyed Francisco." "I - because I wanted to!" "He is mine, so I can do whatever pleases me, and I will continue destroying him every day, every day, until you become mine, bitch, or he dies!" "The mill was almost destroyed by a piece of machete blade hidden in the cane cuttings, or that a Negro had placed there on purpose." "And Ricardo didn't hesitate to take advantage of the situation to blame in on Francisco." "Convinced that only through the use of force could he change Dorotea's mind, he started to persecute him, away from the house, so that Dońa Mendizábal couldn't intercede on his behalf." "The Dońa, as was her custom, went to the infirmary to alleviate when she could the conditions of her Negroes, by making them remedies and giving away the leftovers from her table." "In the novel, Ricardo acts moved only by his passions." "But, was it only his passion that led him into provoking the unhappiness between Francisco and Dorotea?" "Did there exist other motivations as a plantation owner of the times?" "In another Ricardo that the author does not show us..." "Well, that change represents a savings in oxen - that's an advantage." "Well, I'm still of the opinion that a good ox-driven mill is more adequate to this economy." "Are you denying progress?" "No, not a all." "I am cautious." "Last year we made 700 boxes of sugar, and with this machine I expect to do more than 1000." "And the Negroes?" "What about them, Padre?" "Well, can they withstand such rigors?" "They rest very little." "That rhythm of work will kill them." "Listen, Padre - while a dead Negro can be substituted for a new one, it is cheaper to replace him than to care for him." "But in a certain way they're still human beings." "Are they, Father?" "Well, if we give them a good religious education and we make them go to mass on Sunday and Feast Days, we can dominate that which is savage in them, and salvage that which is human." "Well, well, but taking the whole crew to the church?" "It would result in an enormous loss, Padre - almost a whole day of work." "It would be a loss to exist without fear of God, like savages." "Without women, given to sin, to Onanism, to sodomy." "Listen, Padre, there's no need to exaggerate." "The sugar plantation slavers woke up to the capitalistic world, with a strong class consciousness." "The introduction of the mechanical steam-powered mill accelerates the production but at the same time increases the exploitation of the slaves." "The Cuban plantation owners look for means to make the productivity of the Negro more efficient." "The relationships between owners and slaves were fundamentally one of production." "The mill of Foster, Preston and Co. works coupled to a 12 horsepower steam engine." "The three large horizontal bars permit a greater crushing of the cane and eliminate the mutilation of arms and hands, frequent among the Negroes." "The demonstration, please." "It is very strong, and produces more effort than that of the slaves, and extracts 75 percent of the cane syrup." "You can move in 12 hours what you used to do in 24 with oxen." "Children of the unfortunate, I have not come to reprimand thee, to punish thee, but to bring thee the Word of the Almighty." "One of the most sublime maxims of our sacred Gospel consists of the perfect acceptance of God's will - in the resignation to the labors and hardships of life." "My poor ones, do not be afraid of the penalties that you have to suffer as slaves." "Your body may be enslaved, but your soul is free to fly some day to the perfect mansion of the chosen." "Do not forget, to arrive in Paradise, thou must pass through the Calvary" "To cry and to suffer is the destiny of the Disciples of Jesus." "And whenever one of my Negroes died," "I had to send him to the cemetery with the customary cortčge." "So I had five less pairs of arms to work." "I thought of sending the Negro alone in a wagon to the cemetery, but I realized that if it was a woman, what would not that wagon driver think of in the solitude of the road?" "Of what excessive sexual acts would he not be capable?" "Then what did you do?" "Now I bury them in the batey." "May the Lord take pity on you." "That's sacrilege!" "Yes, that's possible, Padre, but at least they have the dead person nearby, and they don't leave the farm." "Don't you think so?" "So, when all the sugar mills are mechanized there will be no need for slaves?" "What did you say?" "Continue." "I say... that as long as the mill is mechanized and produces more sugar per day than the Negroes are able to cut, then we will need to double the amount of slaves that we already have." "And on top of that, they break their tools." "They pretend to be sick, and even dead, if you let them." "Very well." "You will need a bigger budget for their maintenance, more food, more clothes, more medicines." "And to pay... to pay for catching them when they escape." "But we know all that." "And who will cut the cane?" "Us?" "I don't understand what your solution will be." "To pay." "To pay the Negroes for their work, instead of buying new ones." "But that would mean giving the slaves their liberty." "The same as the English have done in their colonies, their former slaves are now their employees, who they neither have to maintain or care for." "Only pay a small salary, and they can manage as best they can." "Meanwhile, we, with the introduction of new techniques will achieve the total mechanization of our mills and the incremental increase of our gains." "To summarize, we need transcendental changes." "Your ideas are not without merit, but I don't think those changes can be made..." "What do you mean by transcendental changes?" "Changes." "Changes that will end all the hypocrisy, all that is antiquated, all that interferes with the economic development of the Island." "Be careful, youngster." "Be careful with those incendiary ideas." "I see behind them the danger of a revolution." "Across the sea there arrived to the coast of Oriente the beating of the drums, and do you know what those drums spoke of?" "Of death." "Of death and destruction of the White Man, his wife, his children, of everything that smelled of White." "Also, there arrive the first survivors of the catastrophe, and along with them the stench of the corpses." "Thousands of them, rotting under their plantation houses, cut up in small pieces by the machetes." "Bursting from the venom, consumed by the fire that swept and destroyed the flowering French colony of Saint-Domingue, that Negro republic that they now call Haiti." "That is what we have experienced with those transcendental changes." "And I don't think that would interest either you or me." "Francisco, by express order from Ricardo, had not received any severe punishment since the Mulata had visited him in his room." "From that day, Dorotea had not seen Francisco any more." "But on the eve of her return to Havana, she went to say goodbye to him." "The basis of this novel is the sexual triangle that provokes the tragic end of Francisco." "But, is this attitude representative of a typical slave of that epoch?" "Could Francisco have acted only because of his love for Dorotea?" "The author left us enough documentation to answer this question." "Senor Suarez-Romero, when did you begin to write your book?" "September of last year, during my stay at Puentes Grandes." "Then, for economic reasons" "I had to move with my family to the sugar mill, where I finished it." "A sugar mill that you own?" "It belongs to my family, but its administration in the hands of creditors." "But it was there that I could better study the customs that are born of slavery." "Since you're a slave owner, how is it possible that you did not realize before the scope of the situation?" "I have always been aware of this terrible reality." "But then I was too young to conceive of such misery." "Considering the rigid Spanish censure, where do you plan to publish?" "For the time being, I hope it will circulate amongst those susceptible persons who are willing to improve their conduct towards their slaves." "Do you believe that Francisco is a typical slave?" "No." "Not in any way." "No one moaning under the vise of slavery could be so peaceful and humble as Francisco." "Francisco is a phenomenon, a singular exception that helps me denounce the horrors of slavery, and to showcase the contrast with the cruelty of the owners, you see." "I have always wished that everyone's life be serene and peaceful, that they never have to listen to a lament, or a sigh of pain." "And because my character is a friend to suffering these vicissitudes with patience," "I put myself in Francisco's place." "I graced Francisco with that serenity and Christian resignation that is so difficult to find in slavery." "Suarez-Romero recognizes that Francisco is a unique exception, that the image of a peaceful and resigned slave is not typical of slavery." "But then, how do we explain the rejoicing with which the novel is received in the salon of Del Monte?" "Is it possible that behind the good intentions of Suarez-Romero, and other anti-slavers, there moves the class interest that tries to improve the image of the slavers towards their slaves?" "It is possible that the objectives of the bourgeois ideologues and the British empire, in suppressing the Negro trade were not purely philanthropic." "We can signal the novel of "Francisco" as a starting point to know the real slavery situation and the true image of the slave in a sugar mill of the times." "Shit!" "So you wanted to escape again?" "I don't know why you all have such large wings." "You all think that you can fly." "Fly!" "You, nigger - get up when I talk to you." "Are you listening to me?" "See, you're going to get a good beating." "You're going to go in the stocks." "We're going to bell you so we know where you're at." "And every time you look at me, the Mayoral from the farm, you'll say who you are." ""I am Crispin, the one that fled to the hills, the wild pig."" "That's so you won't forget it, you know." "And so I won't forget it, also." "Well, to work, to work." "Do you understand me?" "Go, go!" "Go, go!" "What are you doing here, lazy one?" "Move your butt!" "Crispin, you're so full of rage!" "Things are not that way." "These are not things just for us, but things that belong to all the Negroes." "Remember, if rain doesn't fall, corn doesn't grow." "What are you plotting there?" "Come on!" "Move, move motherfucker!" "If you don't eat, you will die." "So what?" "For the life that we lead?" "You have been twice to the infimary." "Next time, Nigger, you won't come out alive." "It doesn't matter to me." "You are a Negro who has a brain." "A Negro who has learned lots of good things in Havana." "And what good has that done me?" "You and I are very different." "You are the son of Lucumi from the slave quarters." "And I am Mina, born in Guinea and raised in Havana." "And we both still have the same life - miserable!" "You're a good Nigger, even if you are from Havana." "You will not snitch to the Mayoral." "But one day you and I are going to be free." "And when is that going to happen?" "Whenever you want it." "When everyone wants it." "Because every day is the same." "But every day is different." "On the other side of the hills, there is a land that is like Guinea, where the Black lives free and lives with his wife and son, and there is no owner who says what the Negroes have to do." "And where is that at, Crispin, in your head?" "Just like the tales of the old men, that when you kill yourself you go flying to Guinea?" "Don't you believe me?" "And do you believe Andres Lucumi?" "Andres Lucumi was in the Palenque?" "Andres Lucumi was there a long time ago." "It was a large, large and pretty, pretty land, with big hills that the White Man cannot climb." "In those lands are the Oricha, and the Jilu speak tongues, and the voices reach to here." "And they speak of war." "And on top of the heavens there is a serpent of many colors." "And there the Black man can plant what they want to plant." "And whatever is planted is for everyone, to all the world, to all the skulls." "And what is left over they exchange with the peasants in the hills." "There all the world is the same." "There is no Mayoral, no Submayoral." "The Blacks are owners of their lives and of their hearts and their thoughts." "Andres Lucumi was there till he came down from the hill and the slave catchers found him." "If you want to come tonight to the dance, I will show you the way to Guinea." "I can't, Crispin." "Don't be afraid, man." "You're getting beat up for nothing;" "you may as well get beat up for something." "You'll see that those beatings don't hurt." "I'm thinking of someone else." "Yeah, I know, you're thinking of Havana." "But there, to Havana, you will not return, until the Mayoral skins you." "There, there..." "Come tonight." "Here is Crispin, who fled like a wild pig." "Since the Whites have bought the new mill, the Negroes cannot live." "The Whites all think that Negroes work, work, work, and the Negroes are all like little drums, going to die." "And their wives are going to die, and their children are going to die." "But the hens are going wild because there is no time for us, there is only time to work for the Whites and to work for the Whites, and to work for the Whites." "And the Black are always dreaming." "And the dreaming Blacks work, eat and sweat, and the hearts of the Blacks are as hard like a stone." "But the balls of the Blacks are soft, like the cane that the wind blows, and the Negroes are tired of dying and not going to the Whites' heaven." "Lucumi, give us strength to kill the Masters!" "Lucumi, show to all of us the way to Guinea." "Ogunde..." "Arere..." "So that the White man is separated from the Negro, so that Lucumi is not against Arara, so that Arara is not against Mina, so that Mina is not against Mandinga, so that Mandingo is not against Congo," "and the Congo against the Carabali, and so that they will not mistrust each other." "Ogunde says" "One hand washes the other and the two hands join to wash the face" "We will seek that land, but before we do that we have to purify the land of the Masters." "Because while the Masters are strong, while the Masters are standing in our way we will have to fight, or the road to the Palenque will be closed to all of us." "In the hills there are lots of free Negroes who are willing to use their machetes for freedom." "There is a land that the Negroes call Haiti, where the Negroes are free." "The Whites had to flee from the top of the ashes of their houses," "And the Negroes cut the cane so that the Masters will have their head and the same machetes that cut the cane will be the same machetes that will cut the heads!" "The Blacks and the Whites are at war!" "When there is no time to sleep, to eat, to work, or to die, then the war will have started." "Ogude says that they will be with us..." "The jutia will be with us" "The seashells will be with us" "Everything will be with us" "Tonight when the sky turns red, we'll head for the hills." "The Freedom aspirations of the slaves never interested the bourgeois ideologues much because they relied on the masses of Blacks and free mulatos and some poor Whites." "In a secret questionnaire presented by Richard Madden," "Don Del Monte manifests the interest of the ideologues for the Treaty." "What's the number of slaves that have entered Cuba illegally since the signing of the agreement?" "Close to 100,000." "And in those figures, do you include the daily losses?" "We're sure that there is at least one fifth loss of the cargo, and in the worst scenario, one half." "And what is the net gain on a shipment of 500 slaves?" "From $120,000 and $130,000." "And what is the average price of the Negroes?" "A male adult between $350 to $400." "An adult female from $250" "A child of 10 years from $150 to $200." "A Creole child before birth, $25." "And 8 days after birth, from $50." "We know that the Negroes are bought on credit and in cash" "Both ways, but mainly on credit, with 1 percent interest monthly." "Tell me Del Monte, how many Blacks and how many Whites inhabitants on the Island?" "300,000 whites and 500,000 colored, and of those, 350,000 are slaves." "What will be the consequences of the abolition of the slave trade to the sugar industry?" "Well, so far the slaves have been necessary." "But now, with the process of mechanization, the importation of new slaves will go against progress." "If the problem was in your hands, what would be your solution?" "First, the immediate cessation of the trade." "Then gradually, to abolish slavery." "As far as the intellectual Creole, how do they view the independence?" "All words in favor of independence have with them the cessation of slavery." "Right now it would provoke the hatred of the white population." "Smoke?" "You have to remember that even the poorest families have slaves." "Does Spain have the power to suppress the traffic in the Island?" "Yes, it has the power." "And the will?" "None." "It is the fear of the Negro that hampers their impulses towards independence." "Yes, it is that fear." "This one hung himself when the dogs corralled him." "And what about the one that's missing, Mayoral?" "They're being rounded up, Nińo, they're being rounded up." "That's what you said to me last year when the two Mandingas escaped and disappeared like the earth had swallowed them." "Mayoral - that nigger Francisco had murmurings with this one." "Listen, come here." "The Submayoral said that this nigger was in cahoots with the other two," "murmuring in the corners." "But he has not loosened his tongue." "But I am in an untenable position." "Antonio." "Yesterday four of these wild pigs escaped." "They burned the bagasse house, they killed 3 farm dogs." "And you're telling me that he won't talk?" "Listen, Don Antonio - what do you think we have to do?" "Tell me, are you going to wait quietly while the devils rebel?" "But Nińo, it is not for lack of care." "Yeah, but you're always careful, and something new always happens." "Listen - these two you will put in the stocks after they finish the work of the escaped ones, and if they want to sleep, they have to ask heaven for a day of 30 hours." "The rest is up to you." "Listen well to what I'm going to tell you." "That I do not want to repeat it twice." "The Negro who moves from here, the Negro sets just one foot off the farm" "He'll be sorry." "And he'll remember the day his mother whelped him." "And all will pay - the one that did it and the one that didn't." "I want him stiff, like this one." "In the hills, in the fields, or under the earth." "You have to flush them out, Don Antonio." "And then I don't want to hear anything about that tale that they killed themselves, hung themselves or swallowed their tongue, thinking that they're going to wake up in Africa." "Look, you cut him up in pieces." "We're going to see who flies and who doesn't." "Don't worry, Nińo, this one will have very little desire to resuscitate." "Bury him!" "Candelario, bury him." "The rest to cut cane." "To the cauldrons, to the mill, to the dryers!" "Get going!" "Step lively!" "I don't want to see your feet." "Cunts, move!" "Between 1837 and 1839, Richard Madden, agent of the British Empire, visits various sugar mills in the Western part of the country in search of information about violations of the Treaty that obligates Spain to suppress the traffic in Blacks." "His true objective - to suppress the traffic in slaves, to obtain an economic equilibrium that allows the expansion of English capitalism, and once slavery is abolished, to obtain a large distribution of his machinery in the Island," "and a new mass of consumers for his export products." "From what I can see, this is a well-worked farm." "I suppose that requires practice." "Yes, lots." "I know my profession well." "In 1924 I became an overseer for the first time, in a sugar mill close to Matanzas." "And what does your job consist of?" "Well, in reality I do everything." "I am the chief of production, the administrator, the one who handles all the controls." "And really, all the work of the sugar mill depends on me." "The majority of the time the owners live in Havana, and hardly care for their property." "But that doesn't seem to the case here." " No, no, not here, no." " Coffee, sir." "The Nińo Richard, the owner of the sugar mill, resides here." "That explains the high productivity of the mill." "Yeah, sure." "Listen, last year we made 700 boxes of sugar." "This year with the machine we think we'll reach 1000." "But nevertheless, there is need for more Blacks." "Do the owners sell their slaves?" "No." "They do not sell." "But neither do they buy new ones." "Last year five died, and there were no births." "Of the 98 Negroes remaining, there are 30 that are not good for anything." "They are old, malingerers." "There is a group that doesn't leave the infirmary, and that's no way to get work done." "In other sugar mills I have seen Negroes work long hours." "No, but here, no." "Here they work that which is normal." "They only work 16 hours per day in the fields." "And that's all?" "No." "At night, 4 more hours in the cauldrons or the mills, until another shift spells them." "That is every day of the week, including Sundays." "That means 4 hours of sleep." "Yep." "That seems insufficient to me." "Yeah, they're sometimes asleep in the fields, but the lash revives them." "That's what it was invented for." "I believe that with all that excess of work you're shortening their lives." "That's what they pay me for." "I have seen the Negroes today in the stocks." " Yes." " How long have they been there?" "Two months." "But they're rebels and conspirators." "Two months seems an excessive punishment." "In your shoes I'd put them to work again." " Yes." " It seems logical to me." "In reality, we're short of hands." "But it is also necessary to punish them, to teach them a lesson." "Because if we don't..." "Is there any law that protects the Negroes?" "Well, by law the Blacks cannot receive more than 29 lashings." "And if they receive more?" "Then they have recourse to the law." "You're going to tell me that they can leave the farm to seek redress each time?" "No... oh, no..." "Another one." "Good day, doctor." "Good day." "Listen, don't you think you've had enough time to straighten out all the Negroes that you have here?" "But, do you know what we're faced with?" "They have diarrhea and bleeding, and I can't do anything." "Well, then, figure it out." "Figure it out, because in less than 4 days you've lost 25 Negroes." "The mill is suffering because of all the men you have here." "This disease is produced by the rains." "Produced by the rains." "And what the fuck do I care about the rains!" "?" "Listen to me, little doctor, if you want to keep on earning your $25 a month, you'll find a way to put all the Blacks you have here on their feet." "Are you listening?" "But, Don Ricardo, I'm telling you, it's not my fault." "And I want them all in the fields!" "Do you understand me?" "I don't know what the devil is happening with you, since we arrived, you're more clumsy than ever." "Stop, Dorotea, chica." "Give me the cologne." "Hurry up!" "See what you've done, stupid!" "Don't get upset, Mama." "But have you seen what she's done, Ricardo?" "Don't just lie there." "Move it, pick it up!" "Dear God, they just don't learn." "Look how I sacrificed myself to teach her, but she has hands made of rags" "Well, it's not that bad." "And you defend her!" "But I know what's happening with her - she's surely gone to see that nigger." " No, mistress, no!" " Shut up!" "Are you not satisfied with the belly he made you?" " And now you're paying for both." " Forget that, Mama, and see how things are." "Listen, son, it's too complicated - please explain it to me." "Certainly." "That is, that if we continue this way we'll have to mortgage the cane fields." "May God help us." "But why?" "Don't we have a new mill?" "Yes, we have a new mill, but the cane cutters screw it up." "They don't want to learn anything new." "Besides, we can't buy any new Negroes till the harvest is done." "And look, we have 30 in the cutting, 8 in the mills 10 in the cauldrons, 10 in the wagons, and 2 in the dryers." "In total, 60 Negroes standing." "And do you know where the rest are?" "In the infirmary or under the earth." "Every day this gets more complicated." "Before, everything was easier." "The Blacks lasted longer, they hardly every got sick, they were not thinking about escaping, and much less not to respect their master." "I do not know what we can do." "We can't lose a single day of work, Mama." "Not even an hour." "Grind, grind, from sunup to sundown." "Dorotea, give me my purse and my fan." "Come on, hurry up, Don Antonio is waiting for me." "They're not crushing on Christmas Eve?" "Yes, it is necessary." "But son, that is a sacred day." "I have talked with Father Juan, and paid the indulgences, Mama." "I still don't understand it." "We will not be ruined by stopping for a day." "Look, Mama, I could be in Havana right now courting pretty Mulatas, or living off the rents, just like any other young blade of the capital." "Nevertheless, I am here, pleasing you by running the farm." "Yes, my darling, who better than you to care for our interests?" "Then understand me, Mama, and allow me to do what I have to do." "Stop worrying so much about the Negroes, they can rest any day of the year." "Those beliefs of yours will cause us to lose production." "I'm not denying your reasons, but do not forget that we must do everything possible for their salvation." "For that, we brought them from so far away." "No?" "It was with this, Nińo." "How long until it's fixed, engineer?" "At least a couple of days - the break is fairly serious." "Then we can continue crushing with the old mill, no?" " Yes, ma'am." "And how much will be the loss?" "Well, I'm not sure, we'll probably only be able to do around 20 wagons per day." "20 wagons?" "But look at that sons of wh" "Find me the guilty one, Mayoral." "Well, you know that to get these guys in shape there's no one like me." "I know their malice like the palm of my hand." "It's possible that any one of them is guilty." " Any one." " No - you have to find me the guilty one, because we have to make an example of him in any case." "Francisco." "Francisco." "Well." "But, you get to him hard, so he never forgets." "Don't worry, Nińo." "He will cry blood." "If this is the reality of the slave, is it consequent that Francisco commits suicide?" "The novel, in spite of the idealized vision of the slave, was censured." "Its publication was impossible in the Island for those years." "But was it possible that Francisco hung himself, and specially for his passionate love?" "Suicide was one of the forms of rebellion by the slave, but there existed others." "Fire, fire, men!" "Before Suarez-Romero wrote his novel, a wave of rebellion had shaken the Island haciendas." "1802:" "Rebellion in the sugar mills of Puerto Principe, Holguin, Bayamo, Trinidad and Havana captained by the Black freeman Jose Antonio Aponte." "1825:" "Rebellion in the sugar mills and horse farms of Matanzas, with a total of 25 mills sacked, 15 White and 40 Blacks dead." "1830:" "Rebellion in the coffee plantation of El Jagual." "1835:" "Rebellion in the sugar mill Carolina and the coffee plantation Jurato." "1837:" "Insurrection in Manzanillo and several mills in Trinidad." "1842:" "Insurrection in the sugar mill in Managua, and coffee plantations in Gunilla." "1843:" "Jan 27 and 28." "Rebellion in the sugar mills of La Alcancia that also spread to the mills Louisa, Trinidad, Nieves, Aurora, the Blacks of the coffee plantation Moscow, of the horse farm Ranchuelo, and the laborers of the train tracks from Cardenas to Jaruco" "Nov 5th of the same year: more rebellions in the mill Triumvirate that brought in the slaves of Acara, Concepcion, San Miguel" "San Lorenzo and San Rafael." "Many horrors happened till the revolutionary vanguard broke the colour barrier." "Cespedes, Agramonte, Marti, Maceo, Gomez and many other patriots united Whites and Blacks and fused all the forces in the fight for the liberation and independence of the Island, in their struggle to create our nation." "Subtitles by Adis Fernandez Suarez Dombu"