Small look at the sugar workers’ feeling when they see their sugar cane mill dismantled. In Guantanamo, very close to the U.S. Naval Base, stood the Central Paraguay sugar mill. It was initially the Las Cañas sugar mill, built in 1877, and after passing through several owners, was purchased in 1909 by the Guantanamo Sugar Company. After the nationalization of foreign companies brought about by the Revolution in 1959, it became Central Paraguay. And in 2002, following the restructuring of the sugar industry, its demolition was decided upon.
The filmmaker, Alejandro Ramirez, documents the painful process of the mill's disappearance and what it means for the workers and residents of the batey (sugar mill town). The sounds of metal fragments falling to the ground, the emotional voices of many of those interviewed, and the magnificent guitar theme that accompanies the footage, transform this act of demolition into a disturbing and vibrant vision of the national sugar industry's reality.
Length: 12 minutes
Year: 2004
Audio Language: Spanish
Subtitles: English
Themes: Cuba, Environment/Geography, History, Politics/Human Rights, Social Issues
Director(s): Alejandro Ramirez
