1951 Ciego de Ávila, Cuba

Pilarine Perez

Born in 1943

Ciego de Ávila, Cuba

Interviewed on January 28, 2019*

by Gia Castillo

When I was little, I would go to the movie theatres in town up to three times per week; I loved movies so much, they fascinated me. This was when I was about eight years old to when I was eleven, I started going to the movies when I was very little, so you do the math, it was in the 1950s that I’d go a lot. I would go with Ilu, my nana, and we would go during the week while my parents were at work. I’d go with my parents on the weekend. I remember we would watch many Mexican movies because those were the ones that Ilu liked the most. When I went with my parents on the weekend we would watch American feature films, they’d play in English with Spanish subtitles.

There were three theatres in Ciego, they were called the Cine Teatro Iriondo, the Teatro Principal, and the Cine Carmen. I would go to the Cine Carmen with Ilu because it was the closest to my house, but I’d go to the Iriondo with my parents on the weekend because that’s where they would play the American feature films. I remember they would play a lot of musicals and romances, like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers which was a musical, Giant which was a Western romance (Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean were in that one which was really exciting), and Rebel Without a Cause also with James Dean. Many girls my age had crushes on James Dean, but there was an actor I liked very much that wasn’t well known, his name was Jeff Hunter. He had black hair and beautiful green eyes, and he appeared in many romantic movies. I also remember watching Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with my parents, also with Elizabeth Taylor, but that was when I was a little bit older about fourteen or fifteen. That one had a lot of love and tragedy, like in everything.

In these theatres they never sold any food inside, there was an ice cream stand right outside in the front and they would sell you ice cream in cones, and there was also a cafeteria right next to the theatre where you could buy snacks like candies and cookies. The one with the cafeteria was the Cine Carmen, I’m sure the owners of the theatre and the cafeteria must have been the same since they were so close and people who went to the movies usually got snacks there too. When I went to the movies, I would wear long, wide skirts and button-down styled shirts that were very popular at the time, everybody wore them. Thinking more of the Carmen where I would watch the Mexican movies with Ilu, I’m remembering Full Speed Ahead with Pedro Infante and Luis Aguilar. It was about traffic police that went around on motorcycles, and they’d go to a school to learn how to drive the motorcycles and control the traffic flow. The main characters were two friends who lived and worked together. Unfortunately, Pedro Infante died very young in an aviation accident, but that movie was from the golden age of Mexican cinema, it was quite good.

During those times many famous artists, like Sarita Montiel and Pedrito Rico, would come to visit Cuba, they would start in La Habana and then go to the interior. One time when I went to the Carmen with Ilu, an actor was visiting. I can’t remember exactly who it was but I’m pretty sure it was Miguel Aceves Mejía; he was quite famous at the time. We got there very early and there was already so many people there, we almost got trampled trying to get in!

I remember watching the Zorro movie with Alain Delon, who was French, at least twenty times. That was a few years later though, when I was in my 20s, because I would take Evelyn and Pili (my daughters) to go watch it along with all of the girls from our block that were their age. They loved it so much and constantly reminded me of how much I loved going to the movies my whole life. It’s a nice thing to see the tradition passed down for so many generations, and I’m so happy to see that it’s still something that’s appreciated today.

*Interviewed originally in Spanish, text translated to English