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Daughter of Cuba
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| Marissa ChibasŐ autobiographical one-woman show Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary runs Jan. 16-21. Her father was a former compatriot of Fidel Castro. Photo by Steve Gunther. |
Marissa Chibas' Revolutionary One-Woman Show Debuts at REDCAT
by Lea Lion
It is an unseasonably warm winter day in Los Angeles and actress and playwright Marissa Chibas is sitting at a rickety table in the outdoor courtyard of a Los Feliz cafe. She looks comfortable, casually dressed in blue jeans and a cardigan sweater, intermittently sipping from a coffee mug.
There are no outward clues to suggest Chibas' past. She is the daughter of a Cuban revolutionary, Raul Chibas, who co-authored, with Fidel Castro, that country's first guerilla manifesto in 1957. She is also the niece of Eduardo Chibas, a well-known Cuban politician who was a contender in the presidential race of 1951, before he committed suicide during a live radio broadcast.
Chibas' prominent family history is the topic of her one-woman show, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, premiering in Downtown Los Angeles at REDCAT on Jan. 16 and running through Jan. 21. In the production, Chibas weaves together the voices of her father, her uncle and her mother, Dalia Chibas, who has her own claim to fame as the runner-up in the 1959 Miss Cuba pageant. Throughout a dream-like series of monologues accented with audio and video recordings, Chibas' character morphs into her relatives, animating childhood memories and invoking long-forgotten events.
"Finally, I am telling the story that I have been trying to tell for many years and is really in many ways about reclaiming my family's place in the history of Cuba," Chibas said.
According to Chibas, the creation of Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary has covered a great distance and spanned many years. Shortly after writing the revolutionary manifesto, Raul parted ways with Castro and fled Cuba by boat for the United States. The family settled in New York, where, she recalled, their political past was not often discussed.
"I didn't know details until I was an adult and said to myself, 'Why don't I know this?'" Chibas said. So in 1993, she traveled to Cuba for the first time to learn more about her past, an experience she likened to "going back to a place I have never been."
Returning for the First Time
When Chibas arrived in Cuba, she discovered an unsettling juxtaposition of forgetting and remembering. She contacted long-lost family members, who treated her like visiting royalty. She stopped people on the streets to ask if they knew Eduardo and they would tell her stories.
But when she visited the Museum of the Revolution in Havana, she discovered to her dismay that her father's name had been removed from a list of rebel commanders. When she searched for his face in old photographs at the Cuban National Archives, she found that his image had been airbrushed out.
At first, Chibas planned to tell her story in a documentary film, but the stage veteran and head of the acting program at CalArts soon realized that theater was the ideal medium as it allowed her to embody the characters she knew so well.
"She goes through a lot spiritually and emotionally and physically in the transformations, but it is something she is able to search for and find," said the play's director, Mira Kingsley. "It is her family so in a way it is already born in her body, it's in her muscle and in her bone. So a lot of the piece has been searching for that history that is already living in her."
Chibas could not agree more. In the final scene of Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, she delivers her own de facto manifesto in the cascading rhythm of a spoken-word poem.
"I am the daughter of Raul y Dalia. I am the daughter who sprang from the thoughts of Eddy Chibas," she says. "I am the daughter of Afro Cuba."
History of Revolution
Located off the coast of Florida just 90 miles from the United States, Cuba could not be more different from its neighbor to the north, thanks to a series of revolutions that have rocked that country since its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
The modern chapter of Cuba's history began in 1955 when Castro went to Mexico with some friends, including the Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto (Che) Guevara, to plot an overthrow of the Cuban government. After years of fighting, Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba took power in 1959. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with the island nation in 1961 and declared an economic embargo the following year.
The relationship between the two countries has not significantly changed in the ensuing decades (in part because of Cuba's long ties to the former Soviet Union). Some hoped for change when Castro's poor health forced him to hand over the reins to his brother, Raul, last July.
Back at the cafe, far from the volatile world of Cuban politics, Chibas muses about what Castro's recent illness and shift of power means for the country.
"People are always asking me, 'What do you think is going to happen in Cuba?' I really have no idea," Chibas said, speaking in quiet tones that still manage to convey a sense of urgency. "I read an article in the L.A. Times recently where a lot of people in Cuba were interviewed and there is a real feeling of hopelessness, of things not changing even though power was handed over from one Castro to another. That was a very painful article to read, but I am hopeful. I can't help but be."
Other customers steal glances towards Chibas' table. "Who is this woman tossing around names like Fidel Castro so casually?" they seem to wonder.
What they don't know - at least not yet - is that she is the daughter of a Cuban revolutionary.
Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary runs Jan. 16-21 at REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., (213) 237-2800 or redcat.org.
Contact Lea Lion at lea@downtownnews.com.
page 15, 1/15/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
There are no outward clues to suggest Chibas' past. She is the daughter of a Cuban revolutionary, Raul Chibas, who co-authored, with Fidel Castro, that country's first guerilla manifesto in 1957. She is also the niece of Eduardo Chibas, a well-known Cuban politician who was a contender in the presidential race of 1951, before he committed suicide during a live radio broadcast.
Chibas' prominent family history is the topic of her one-woman show, Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, premiering in Downtown Los Angeles at REDCAT on Jan. 16 and running through Jan. 21. In the production, Chibas weaves together the voices of her father, her uncle and her mother, Dalia Chibas, who has her own claim to fame as the runner-up in the 1959 Miss Cuba pageant. Throughout a dream-like series of monologues accented with audio and video recordings, Chibas' character morphs into her relatives, animating childhood memories and invoking long-forgotten events.
"Finally, I am telling the story that I have been trying to tell for many years and is really in many ways about reclaiming my family's place in the history of Cuba," Chibas said.
According to Chibas, the creation of Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary has covered a great distance and spanned many years. Shortly after writing the revolutionary manifesto, Raul parted ways with Castro and fled Cuba by boat for the United States. The family settled in New York, where, she recalled, their political past was not often discussed.
"I didn't know details until I was an adult and said to myself, 'Why don't I know this?'" Chibas said. So in 1993, she traveled to Cuba for the first time to learn more about her past, an experience she likened to "going back to a place I have never been."
When Chibas arrived in Cuba, she discovered an unsettling juxtaposition of forgetting and remembering. She contacted long-lost family members, who treated her like visiting royalty. She stopped people on the streets to ask if they knew Eduardo and they would tell her stories.
But when she visited the Museum of the Revolution in Havana, she discovered to her dismay that her father's name had been removed from a list of rebel commanders. When she searched for his face in old photographs at the Cuban National Archives, she found that his image had been airbrushed out.
At first, Chibas planned to tell her story in a documentary film, but the stage veteran and head of the acting program at CalArts soon realized that theater was the ideal medium as it allowed her to embody the characters she knew so well.
"She goes through a lot spiritually and emotionally and physically in the transformations, but it is something she is able to search for and find," said the play's director, Mira Kingsley. "It is her family so in a way it is already born in her body, it's in her muscle and in her bone. So a lot of the piece has been searching for that history that is already living in her."
Chibas could not agree more. In the final scene of Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary, she delivers her own de facto manifesto in the cascading rhythm of a spoken-word poem.
"I am the daughter of Raul y Dalia. I am the daughter who sprang from the thoughts of Eddy Chibas," she says. "I am the daughter of Afro Cuba."
Located off the coast of Florida just 90 miles from the United States, Cuba could not be more different from its neighbor to the north, thanks to a series of revolutions that have rocked that country since its discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
The modern chapter of Cuba's history began in 1955 when Castro went to Mexico with some friends, including the Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto (Che) Guevara, to plot an overthrow of the Cuban government. After years of fighting, Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba took power in 1959. The United States broke off diplomatic relations with the island nation in 1961 and declared an economic embargo the following year.
The relationship between the two countries has not significantly changed in the ensuing decades (in part because of Cuba's long ties to the former Soviet Union). Some hoped for change when Castro's poor health forced him to hand over the reins to his brother, Raul, last July.
Back at the cafe, far from the volatile world of Cuban politics, Chibas muses about what Castro's recent illness and shift of power means for the country.
"People are always asking me, 'What do you think is going to happen in Cuba?' I really have no idea," Chibas said, speaking in quiet tones that still manage to convey a sense of urgency. "I read an article in the L.A. Times recently where a lot of people in Cuba were interviewed and there is a real feeling of hopelessness, of things not changing even though power was handed over from one Castro to another. That was a very painful article to read, but I am hopeful. I can't help but be."
Other customers steal glances towards Chibas' table. "Who is this woman tossing around names like Fidel Castro so casually?" they seem to wonder.
What they don't know - at least not yet - is that she is the daughter of a Cuban revolutionary.
Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary runs Jan. 16-21 at REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., (213) 237-2800 or redcat.org.
Contact Lea Lion at lea@downtownnews.com.
page 15, 1/15/2007
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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