114 DIANE ACCARIA ZAVALA

upon these similarities, the seams that sew the fabric of journalistic "fact" to
film "fiction" burst right open.

Evengelina and Juana: The Cuban Girl Martyrs Rock the World

As The Americano opens, we witness how the interests of "The American
Mining Company" of Paragonia (Cuba in Hollywood disguise), suffer while
the evil Minister of War-Colonel Espada, decides to oust the nation's beloved
President Valdez (Juana's father).8 President Valdez is imprisoned in what
looks like Cuba's Morro Castle, while Juana, "the Rose of Paragonia" is kept
locked up and under the despotic surveillance of soldiers. She is offered in
marriage to the lascivious Colonel Gargaras, the man who in lieu of his loyalty
to Espada becomes the nation's corrupt military leader. Enter Douglas
Fairbanks playing his usual "larger-than-life" character, one simply described
as a "regular American" and named only as "the Americano" throughout the
entire film. He is the engineer recruited to defend U.S. interests in general
and the mining company in specific. At first, he has no desire to venture off
to a place "too far from Brooklyn" but when he sees Juana, his sense of duty
is aroused as his heart pounds, and off he goes to save this enticing beauty,
and her father's "unhappy" republic.9


modest and a little embarrassed, but palpably glad to be home again in his own
country and among his own people" (100).
8 In effect, the art work for the film's captions juxtaposes two signifying images-
the Bald Eagle clutches a U.S. flag (when the plot centers on "the Americano")
while an inverted version of the official Cuban emblem, the royal palm over the
mountain, the "gateway" key over the sun and sea (when the plot centers on
"Paragonian" officials) associates the U.S. to Cuba subliminally.
9 Early on, representations of the Caribbean climate were usually extended to notions
of sexual heat. The sefioritas in Cuba and Puerto Rico, with their supposed lack of a
strong character-became enticing elements with which to lure young men needed
for the military and industrial occupations. An interesting example is found in a text
by Frederick Ober, a travel writer who visited the islands in the aftermath of the
Spanish American War to delineate their "resources" for the U.S. public. He writes:
"Making love, of course, goes on all the time, for the creole nature is soft and
languishing, complaisant, easily tickled by complement, and prone to hanker after
the "forbidden fruit." Scratch a Puerto Rican and you'll find a Spaniard underneath
the skin, so the language and home customs of Spain prevail here, as in Cuba. ... They
are insular, even provincial perhaps, but they possess charming traits of character,
gentle manners and speech, goodness of heart, and unaffected frankness with their
friends. ...They are petite of form and have small hands and feet ... and, in a word,
are thoroughly feminine. It is this charm of femininity that makes the creole, whether
French or Spanish, so potent with man. It was a creole, it will be remembered-
Josephine, a native of Martinique-who captivated and ruled Napoleon" (224-25).
(Puerto Rico and its Resources. New York: D. Appelton, 1899: 224-25).