Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui: Aché for Daranas

July 17, 2019

Journalist Paquita Armas Fonseca interviews Ernesto Daranas about his recently completed documentary on Natalia Bolívar.

With the work now finished, ready for its premiere, Paquita talks with Daranas:

- You return to documentary: a break between two fiction films?
-Not exactly, this is something I've wanted to do for years, but the right moment hadn't come. Natalia is among the friends I love and enjoy most, so the documentary has been a good excuse to spend time with her.

- Why Natalia Bolívar Aróstegui?
-In Natalia, many essences of what is Cuban converge. She comes from one of the most aristocratic genealogies in this country, and at the same time she was a distinguished member of the Revolutionary Directorate. From a very young age she was connected with the most select of our culture: Lezama, Lam, Portocarrero, Rita Longa, Titón, Monsignor Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and many others. But at the same time, she was passionate about Afro-Cuban religiosity, a world she discovered through her nanny Isabel Cantero and through Lydia Cabrera herself. That background explains why, after 1959, she became director and founder of several of our main museums and why, over the years, she became one of our most important authors on Afro-Cuban topics. But above all that, Natalia is an eternal nonconformist; a fun, controversial, rebellious woman and always honest. That's the part of her that interests me most.

-How do you capture such an intense life?
-It's impossible. At least I wouldn't know how to do it and I think that very thing explains why the documentary ends up being so simple. I limited myself to visiting her some days and filming several sessions of the writing of her autobiography. It's work that Natalia shares with her daughter Natasha and in which the presence of Buby, the other daughter who lives with her, also weighs heavily. That's all you'll see in the documentary: an unusual house, Natalia's living together with two of her daughters, three very nice dogs and some random moments from the process of forming that book. So you know, maybe I made a prologue instead of a documentary.

-How long is the piece?
-73 minutes and it was made by a team composed of Adriana Moya, Joel Ortega, Rafael (Felo) García, Laura Daranas, Jorge Fernández, Alejandro B. Moya, Luís Tejera, Roberto González, Pedro Suárez, Osmany Olivare, Miguel Quevedo and Jorge Céspedes. The music is by Magda Rosa Galbán and Juan Antonio Leyva.

-Tell me the premiere date
-I don't know it exactly yet, but it will be next August. If it's held in a large venue, admission should be free. Natalia is very beloved and many people follow her, so I'm sure she would love a premiere where she can share with everyone who wants to be with her.