1960 Havana, Cuba

Rita Maria Novoa

1948

La Havana, Cuba

Interviewed on 2/03/2022

By Daniela Valdes 

(Translated from Spanish)

I remember vividly the first time I went to the movies because it happened to be the very day I became a “senorita” and got my first period! I will just never forget it because I was so embarrassed. I left the theater half-way through the movie because I was not feeling well and when I got home I had realized what had happened. In my head, the two memories are inseparable. 

That day, my older brother took me and my older sister to go to the movies. He was in the Navy so we went to this Navy-owned theater… it was a small one that was meant for just the sailors and their families. We took the bus out there to La Havana Vieja and the theater was right there near the water. I remember that he did get us concessions. It was this combo style that was quite common at the time that came with popcorn and some type of hotdog. I cannot remember the name of the film but I do remember the story of it quite well and that it was an Argentinian movie. It was about a girl who came from an extremely wealthy family–  millionaires– that became bankrupt. They become worried over their daughters’ marriage opportunities now that they do not have money or status. They basically wanted to regain their social status by having her marry a rich man. The family then pushes onto her this man that they find suitable for her. He is rich but, as opposed to the family, he is a self-made millionaire. The family sort of brings the two together and she is adamantly opposed to it, thinking that he is only pursuing her because of the pressure of the family. The two still get married and he ends up bringing her to live with him in the gorgeous house he had on the river. I was obsessed with the scenes they showed of this house, especially this one scene of them canoeing in the river. I was in love with how romantic it was. He did have some sort of farm on the land and one of the things that shocked her was how nice he was to the people who worked on his land. He was kind to them and had a great relationship with them, something she never saw with how her family treated their workers. Eventually, she fell in love with the guy because she realized just how good of a guy he was. He, in reality, was truly in love with her from the beginning– from first sight and so had good intentions. It just took her a while to realize that. I don’t remember exactly how the plot develops from there but I do remember it being extremely sad in the end because she ends up dying. I just don’t remember how or why. 

It’s funny because I did not finish the movie until years later, so I never knew how it ended until way later! I think I must have been twenty-three or twenty-four when I saw on TV that they were playing that exact same movie and that is when I got to see that ending. After I had watched that first movie, though, I loved going

to the theater and would do a lot in my adolescence. I remember it was when I was around fifteen when I was allowed to start going alone to the movies, without a “chaperone.” I was ecstatic. I felt so free and youthful. I would go with my best friends and we would have the most fun, just enjoying ourselves. Now there were two different movie theaters we would go to, both were pretty close so we would just walk to them. One was La Cine Mara and the other was Cine Monaco. Now I just loved going to Cine Monaco because it was two stories- the top floor was the movies and on the bottom was this amazing Pizzeria. We would always go watch a movie and then eat right after. I did not care much for the pizza at all but would go crazy over the lasagna and cannoli. It was beautiful, with white tablecloths and great big curtains. The movie theater was just as elegant too. There were ushers. Since the movie room would sometimes be dark when you got there, there would be an usher who would look at your ticket and take you to your assigned seat with a light. 

Oh my favorite movie of all time was La Violetera with Sara Montiel. I just loved her. She was absolutely beautiful with an amazing voice. *starts singing* “Cómpreme usted este ramito pa’ lucirlo en el ojal” (which translates to “buy this flower from me to put it on your lapel.”) I still remember all the words. She did a lot of movies but this one was one of her most famous. I just loved musicals– the music, the composition, everything–  I fell in love with those and romantic movies specifically.