On July 29, I followed the sounds of murmuring and laughter to where the sun set on a group of people. Blankets were laid out over an open field, and people bunched together, flitting from one group to another. Some guests bought Cuban souvenirs and made donations at a table draped with the flag of the 26th of July Movement famously led by Fidel Castro. Fairy lights framed an open projector, and we waited patiently for the long sun to set.
The event began as Vancouver YCL co-organiser Rylee welcomed attendees to the screening, and spoke of their own experience in Cuba during the recent Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade in April/May of this year. A paramedic student, Rylee was enamoured with the Cuban healthcare system, describing their tour of the primary care clinic located in the rural mountain village of Jibacoa.
“We got to tour the facilities that catered to the people of this village free of cost. The doctors said that around 70% of the country’s budget goes to healthcare and education, and that anywhere there might be one person living, a doctor will be there. I remembered home in that moment, and I recalled how the day we left, all the hospitals in Victoria were at full capacity; I remembered how our free Canadian healthcare isn’t really free,” said Rylee. “I left Jibacoa feeling angry. … I saw what is possible and I was angry that our Canadian government refuses to do the same.”
Rylee next introduced Tyson Strandlund, a YCL member recently elected to the executive of the Canadian Network on Cuba, who similarly praised Cuba’s role in combatting the pandemic globally, and drove home the importance of the Cuban solidarity movement here in Canada.
Communist Party of B.C. leader Kimball Cariou then greeted the crowd. Kimball reminded us that just before his time, this field was a thick patch of woods, a creek once running through where we sat now. Only two lonely trees survived, watching from the corner. With Kimball’s storytelling, it wasn’t hard to imagine.
After the speeches, with the sky sufficiently dim, the film began. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) is based on the actual diaries of the young Che Guevara. The film reenacts his journey riding across South America with Alberto Granado, from the bustling Buenos Aires to the isolated leper colonies of Peru. The duo offers the help of their medical degrees to those they meet — seeing firsthand the horrors left by colonization and capitalism. Through this voyage, we see the seed of radicalization being planted in Guevara’s mind, as the young medical student comes to realize that the last and only path to freedom is revolution.
I realized I hadn’t watched a movie with strangers since before the pandemic. It was a chance to say our hellos and check in on one another again. Whether it was chatting between friends in quiet moments, or sharing food or blankets, this event reminded me of the community we already have, and of the comrades we already take care of. I was thankful to spend this hot July night with friends under the stars.