Abstract
Guamá is a graphic humor online publication and an outstanding Cuban cultural phenomenon in exile. It’s creator, Alen Lauzán Falcón, was born in Cuba in 1974, and before he managed to escape the Castros' island, he had already had a successful career in the field of graphic humor. What followed was astonishing for the whole Cuban Diaspora. Upon his arrival in Chile, where he remained, working for and inspired by the graphic humour style of The Clinic, a popular Chilean humoristic publication, he created his own online journal, adopting the name of the most known Cuban aboriginal fighter against Spanish conquistadors. Through incisive and constant “politically incorrect” humour Lauzán Falcón have been ridiculing the majority of the Castroist publications through spicy comments and upturned Cuban propaganda slogans. This became a kind of creative ‘translationese’. His efforts are significantly contributing to criticizing and redirecting the meaning of Castroist ideological indoctrination concepts – efforts enriched with a strong flavour of Cuban Aboriginal (Taíno) and Afro-Cuban humour. Lauzán Falcón aimed to show a critical perspective on Cuban affairs for Cubans, and for anyone else who can feel and understand the Cuban situation and show solidarity with the difficulties of the people living under the longest-running extreme-left-wing regime in Latin America. In this article, I will first analyze the ‘translationese’ phenomenon from a Complexity point of view, meaning, historically and culturally rebinding of the Cuban study case to the historical antecedents of ‘translationese’. Second, I will analyze ten graphic Guamá ‘front pages’ (satiric imitations of Castroist publications), published by Lauzán Falcón between 2008 and 2014 in his eponymous blog, starting with the main banner of Guamá itself. Third, I will operate a complex rebinding of the results demonstrating that the same spirit of creative resistance that the Taíno and African slaves showed in Cuba during more than five centuries, is still in action today in Cubans’ efforts to deal with the consequences of a long-lasting extreme-left-wing regime. A selected glossary of Guama’s Afro-Cuban words and expressions analyzed here will appear at the end of the article.
Highlights
In this article, I link the Cuban cultural tradition of mockery, called el choteo (Ortíz 1993 [1913]), with the ‘politically incorrect’2 translationese of Cuban Aboriginal and Cuban African origin in ten graphic ‘front pages’ from Guamá, which are Cuban Exile satiric imitations of Castroist publications
I show how the critique that Fernando Ortiz expressed in his early work on this feature of Cuban identity, one that in his opinion impeded at that time on the social and economic progress of the new nation, no longer carries the same weight because today’s Cuban context is radically different
Guamá’s cyber-humor in exile building of a new language and identity, and choteo as a cultural tradition that expresses the paradoxical nature and present condition of the Cuban people, which was created through the worst social engineering of modern times
Summary
Guamá est une publication en ligne d’humour graphique et un phénomène culturel cubain exceptionnel en exil. Alen Lauzán Falcón, est né à Cuba en 1974 et, avant d’avoir réussi à échapper à l’île des Castros, il avait déjà mené une brillante carrière dans le domaine de l’humour graphique. Ces efforts ont contribué généreusement à critiquer et à réorienter le sens des concepts de l’endoctrinement idéologique castriste, le tout avec une forte saveur d’humour autochtone (Taíno) et afro-cubain. Troisièmement, je vais opérer la recomposition complexe des résultats en concluant que le même esprit de résistance à la créativité que les autochtones (Taíno), et les esclaves africains ont manifesté à Cuba pendant plus de quatre siècles est toujours en vigueur dans les efforts contemporains des Cubains pour faire face aux conséquences d’un interminable régime d’extrême gauche. Mots-clés: Traductionese; Guamá; Alen Lauzán Falcón; Taíno; Identité afro-cubaine; Pensée critique; Cuba. Tal como hacéis y os conducís vosotros en Iberia – según criticáis en vuestra original ‘Vida de Don Quijote y Sancho’-, y es que Cuba, en no pocos aspectos, es más española que España’. (Ortíz 1986, p. 13)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
