Diseccionar los laureles: Los premios dramáticos de la Revolución Cubana (1959-1976) by Emilio Gallardo Saborido

Abstract

Reviewed by: Diseccionar los laureles: Los premios dramáticos de la Revolución Cubana (1959-1976) by Emilio Gallardo Saborido Bretton White Gallardo Saborido, Emilio. Diseccionar los laureles: Los premios dramáticos de la Revolución Cubana (1959-1976). Warsaw: Instituto de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos, 2015. 416 pp. A nation's awards for artistic expression can stand as a record of national values in yearly installments. Similarly, awards can also put power structures into sharp relief, showcasing what those in power consider to be important. In Diseccionar los laureles, Emilio J. Gallardo Saborido's examination of Cuban drama awards from the first days of the revolution until the heart of the quinquenio gris, the dynamic between selection committees—often featuring foreign selectors—and the revolution's increasingly stringent approach to artistic expression is in constant tension. This history of Cuba's theatre awards from 1959 to 1976 offers a layered understanding of the socio-political pressures upon the artists, critics, and scholars involved in the awards selection through meticulous research about the decision-making processes and politics surrounding the prizes. Throughout, Gallardo Saborido interweaves literary criticism, pertinent theory, and interviews with the protagonists involved to give [End Page 220] readers insight into the complexities of awarding prizes in times of growing suspicion about artists considered to be less concerned with showcasing the revolution's ideals. Organized chronologically, Diseccionar los laureles focuses on the Casa de las Américas prize in theatre and UNEAC's José Ramos prize, the two most prestigious in Cuba for theatre. Additionally, Diseccionar traces the attitudes of Cuban cultural institutions toward their own works with the UNEAC prize and toward international works with the award from Casa de las Américas, giving the reader insight into domestic and international tensions surrounding Cuban cultural production at the time. This investigative work on the part of the author, then, makes for a valuable resource for those considering the impact of each award on the field of theatre, as well as those studying theatre's broader societal impact during this historical period. Although a broader thematic focus beyond the bestowal of national prizes does not emerge in the work, at times the author does link works across stylistic categories of theatre, such as in the first chapter with absurdist theatre, or those works connected via what Gallardo Saborido terms the "núcleo épico-bélico del teatro revolucionario cubano" (96) during the late 1960s, in response to, in part, the absurdist theatre that preceded it. As the author notes in his extensive organization of quotes from other critics (including Cubans Norge Espinosa, Ileana Boudet, and Esther Suárez Durán), absurd theatre was not in line with the revolution's goals because it was too malleable to be understood unilaterally. Other parts of this main section further prove what was indeed successful in this period leading into the quinquenio gris, mainly, identifying the revolution's current threat. Thus, the author includes a subsection on award winners that treated the Lucha contra bandidos, referring to the period from 1959 to 1965 when counterrevolutionaries were suppressed by Castro's troops in the years preceding their victory at Playa Girón. There is another subsection on works that deal with Jehovah's Witnesses. While Gallardo Saborido doesn't always give the reader his conclusions about these groups and trends, he does amass the voices of many others—from the winning texts, but also from interviews and writings with critics—that will help scholars looking for detailed information about the critical dialogue surrounding the works. Especially valuable is how Gallardo Saborido is able to bring readers back to the dialogues surrounding prize selection. Utilizing contemporary interviews with those involved in the selection committees together with critical writings from when the prizes were awarded, Diseccionar is able to recuperate a balanced perspective on this difficult period in the history of Cuban culture. Further, by grounding the manuscript in yearly awards, readers are able to dig deeper into the officially approved works of the period, and can reach conclusions about particular omissions in the awards' trajectories. An obvious example of an overlooked group would be female award-winners—only one winner in the...