The Medium is the Message

For decades, the iconic image of the Cuban Revolution has been set in Havana's 'Revolution Square', with thousands of Cubans thronging to hear Fidel Castro speak. This portrait undergirds a primary assumption about the Revolution: that many Cubans came to embrace it by basking in the euphoria of Fidel's live presence. For the Revolution's crucial early years, this article proposes that we should reimagine this archetypal conversion experience, setting it not only under Cuba's hot sun in an hours-long rally but also in front of a television (or radio) set. From 1959 to 1962 and beyond, the interactive drama of revolutionary conversion would be constantly staged and actualized on the small screen. The early years of the Cuban Revolution thus offer a compelling window onto political life lived with and through television

Art · Art history · Drama · Front (military) · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Portrait · Sociology · Visual arts · Cuban History and Society · Engineering · History · Law · Political and Social Dynamics in Chile and Latin America