So, yesterday I watched this rental, The Lost City. I got it because it was a story about Cuba and then I remembered that the whole thing was filmed in the Dominican Republic back in 2004. This one is not a short one, be prepared to see it in two sittings. What you’ll get is an expatriate’s view of the revolution and magnificent views of my beloved Quisqueya, its colonial district, beaches, and some shots of the Arturo Fuentes tobbaco plantations in Bonao. What I got from this film was a few tears and my blood boiling in anger at all the atrocities committed in the name of a “revolution”. Andy Garcia should have been able to film this in his home country. I guess for some, freedom is only a word. Damn you you ill-groomed, cigar-smoking dictator. Damn all of those who let you lead on.
Cultivo una rosa blanca
En julio como en enero,
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca.
Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo,
Cardo ni ortiga cultivo,
Cultivo una rosa blanca.
Jose Marti
I cultivate a white rose
In July as in January
For the sincere friend
Who gives me his hand frankly.
And for the cruel person who tears out
the heart with which I live,
I cultivate neither nettles nor thorns:
I cultivate a white rose.
