Capitalism as a nightmare: a comparison between the novel La Casa de los Náufragos (Boarding Home) by Guillermo Rosales and the documentary Balseros by Carles Bosch and Josep Maria Domènech

• Autor(a) principal: Barros, Rodrigo Lopes de
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: spa
• Título da fonte: Caracol (São Paulo. Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/caracol/article/view/156594
• topic: Balseros; Boarding Home; Guillermo Rosales; Exile; Migration; Balseros; Boarding Home; Guillermo Rosales; Exilio; Migración

This essay is a comparatist effort between the Cuban-Miamian novel La casa de los náufragos (Boarding Home) and the Catalan documentary Balserosby Carles Bosch and Josep Maria Domènech, making use of critical texts about (or related to) both works. The intention is mainly to observe that, in spite of the distinct creative genres and historical periods, one can make a reading of Balserosand La casa de los náufragos (Boarding Home) as contiguous criticisms of the capitalist system and its promises from a perspective emanating from Cuban exiles. In large part, the documentary protagonists and fictional characters (who however reflect the life of the author) end up not entering the US middle class, but are marginalized in for-profit shelters, ultrareligious centers, precarious neighborhoods, or having to survive through small drug dealing. The three broadcasted reports by Televisió de Catalunya in 1994, 1995 and 1996, which gave rise to the 2002 documentary, are used here. Songs performed by Lucrecia to the soundtrack of Balserosare also considered through their lyrics, as it is the case of “Un carro, una casa, una buena mujer,” which is not entirely sung in the film but it is in published CDs.