Fina García Marruz
3 Poemas de Fina, 2023
Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía
One of 100 copies.
2847
Near-miniature. 10-panel cascading accordion, with printed borders so that the whole mimics a film strip. The evocation is poetically and materially appropriate: Marruz's first poem considers the nature of silent...
Near-miniature. 10-panel cascading accordion, with printed borders so that the whole mimics a film strip. The evocation is poetically and materially appropriate: Marruz's first poem considers the nature of silent film, and whether silence is an absence or a presence. Cuba has long possessed a distinct film culture, and with the offerings highly mediated by government oversight early cinema reached the island's audiences long before anything contemporary. At the vanguard was Charlie Chaplin, whose "Little Tramp" character offered an image of an "everyman" that was sympathetic and cathartic. He features here with his bowler hat at the top of the accordion, his oversized shoes at the bottom, and his bowtie and cane affixed to the belly band. His entire silhouette appears at the final panel, with a spirited flame at his center. Cuba's own contributions to 20th-century "Third Cinema" adopted a tragicomic manner much in Chaplin's shadow; protagonists fumble along under the communist regime, proving in one way or another invincible to the slapstick blows struck by an oppressed environment. A near fine copy, with only stray bumps to corners.


