Friday, July 27, 2007

Livin' large at the Havana Officers' Club, 1942

1 hour writing, 5 hours reading / researching

OK! I have a draft of my LASA paper to send to the professor who offered to take a look at it. I'm going to review it one more time over the weekend before sending it along. It raises a lot of questions, but at this stage, that's still a good thing. I'm looking forward to the feedback.

One of the comparative sources I was consulting today was fascinating and worth a study of its own. In 1941, Batista, the military ruler whom Castro would eventually overthrow, was the de facto head of the armed forces in Cuba, and the power behind the throne. He militarized the police (is what I'm gathering, not 100% clear yet). As part of this process, the police developed a magazine. Now, I'm used to this sort of thing being like an academic journal: dry, technical, and spartanly designed. This was like Life magazine! Lots of pictures, many in color, lifestyle features, detective fiction, social pages, poetry (well, martial poetry anyway), a kids' section (!). Just gorgeous to look at, too: large, almost tabloid format, nice paper, lots of photographs, and wonderfully sleek and modern graphic design and color palette. Plus lots of stories about the ongoing World War II, including a handy-dandy, illustrated guide on how to tell apart the Chinese and Japanese based on facial features. With Tojo as the Japanese exemplar. I'm not kidding! Best part: reprinted from Life magazine. I'm trying to picture the cosseted, romantic world of military police officers for whom this publication was ostensibly intended. Very evocative of an era. Meanwhile, in Colombia, the police, under the thumb of local politicians, were being prepped for service in death squads just a few years later. Quite a contrast....

Thanks to Geordan Drummond for serving as this week's monitor. Next up is Jason Seawright, in Chicago. Have a good weekend!

No comments: