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Havana Divas

Havana Divas

S. Louisa Wei • 2019

Duration: 01:36:00
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Caridad Amaran and Georgina Wong Gutierrez learned the art of Cantonese opera in the1930s in Havana. Caridad’s mentor was her Chinese foster father, Julian Fong, who immigrated to Cuba in the 1920s after his family forbade him to perform opera. Georgina’s father was a famous tailor in Havana Chinatown, who encouraged her to learn kung-fu and the lion dance. Though neither had any siblings, they formed a sisterhood on the stage. Through the 1940s, Caridad toured all over Cuba, performing in cities with Chinese communities as the leading actress of her opera troupe. Georgina quit opera to attend college, but her studies were interrupted by Castro’s 1959 revolution, and she required military service. Eventually, she went on to become a diplomat. Following their retirement, and well into their sixties, the two sisters began performing Cantonese opera again. In their eighties, they found a new audience in China.

Non-Fiction
Cuba Cantonese opera overseas Chinese

CAST & CREW

S. Louisa Wei

S. Louisa Wei

Director

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

S. Louisa Wei

S. Louisa Wei

Director

I have always been drawn to people who are able to cross borders of art, language, race, and culture. It is refreshing to see young people cross borders when they are emboldened by their lack of experience; just as it is touching to see older people cross borders in the name of love and nostalgia. The journey of Caridad and Georgina is what I call a journey of “love” and what my producer Law  Kar calls a journey of “nostalgia.” While I relate to these women through the love they have for their fathers, Law Kar sees how their youth, filled with the song and performance of Cantonese opera, became the impetus for them to “return” to Hong Kong and Canton. Last year, I lost my father in a traffic accident. At first, I only felt hurt by the painful knowledge that such a loss is permanent and irreversible. Now, I begin to see that the true color of a fatherly love does not fade. My father taught me music; he taught me to be passionate, to value optimism, and to keep an open and inquisitive mind. These lessons continue to enliven and brighten my life. When I follow Caridad and Georgina’s journey from Cuba to China, I can’t help but see it as an extension of their love for their late fathers and a testament to what their fathers had left them. Following their journey, I see their splendor on the opera stage slipping away over and over: first, with the end of  China’s Civil War in  1949 when many Chinese coolies moved back to China leaving a diminishing  Chinatown; again, when Communist leader  Fidel Castro assumed power, prompting remaining Chinese Cubans to move to other parts of America; and a third time, when they returned to Hong Kong and Canton just in time to witness the decline of Cantonese opera as an art form even in China. A deep sense of nostalgia and pathos permeates their movement through the fading vestiges of the charm of a golden age.  What I hope to bring to life in this documentary is not only the legend of these women but the poignant beauty of love and loss that surrounds our collective feelings for our fathers.

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