Educational Media Reviews Online

In the summer of 1994, amid protests over ever-deteriorating economic conditions, Cuban President Fidel Castro announced that the Cuban Coast Guard would no longer intercept any Cubans who tried to sail to the U.S. Before Castro finally agreed to stop the exodus, thousands of Cubans had made the attempt to cross the Florida Straits to come to America. Balseros looks, over a seven-year period, at six Cubans who successfully made the crossing and how they fared in their new home.

The six are introduced talking about their reasons for wanting to leave Cuba (mostly economic, although one man is determined to be reunited with his young daughter in Miami). Then the would-be emigrés are shown crafting makeshift rafts out of anything that will float. (Although not specifically defined in the film, “balsero” is a Spanish word meaning rafter, and at least one Spanish-English dictionary gives it the meaning of one who escapes a country via raft.)

The rafts are launched with great fanfare, as those left behind gather to cheer on those who will make the journey. But President Bill Clinton orders the U.S Coast Guard to intercept Cuban rafters and take them to Guantanamo Naval Base. After several months, some of the rafters are finally allowed to take residence in the U.S.

The second half of this two-hour documentary is devoted to showing the adjustment process for the six Cubans who are the focus of the story. It shows them in their first year in America, then picks up their story again after five years have elapsed.

We watch as they get jobs in various cities around the country, work to afford a car and a house, and sometimes start new families. We also see the families left behind in Cuba. Some have regular contact with their relatives in America, while others have none.

The story of one couple, Juan Carlos and Misclaida, illustrates the differing fates of emigrés. Juan Carlos works long hours to better their lot, but Misclaida misses the Cuban nightlife and feels ignored. She has an affair with another rafter, and Juan Carlos eventually gives them money to go to another city.

While Juan Carlos assimilates to the point where all but one of his friends is non-Hispanic, Misclaida pines for Cuba and has difficulty adapting. She ends up in Albuquerque, involved in the drug trade and with a fatalistic attitude about her life.

Interestingly, Balseros, which is mostly in Spanish with English subtitles, was not made by U.S. or Latin American filmmakers, but was instead produced for a Catalonian television network in Spain. The documentary has an intriguing style. There is no narration, and each of the six emigrés has a sort of theme song, based on a phrase they have spoken in the film. And there’s a double use of the video shot for the documentary. Families left behind in Cuba are seen watching their relatives’ lives in America, while the emigrés watch footage of their Cuban relatives.

Balseros is an absorbing visit with six new Americans and the relatives they left behind. Although it did not win the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2004, losing to The Fog of War, it deserves its nomination and would have been a worthy winner. This video is highly recommended.

Awards

• Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Feature