“I Am Arbesu,” a film by Christiane Arbesu, chronicles the filmmaker’s journey to Cuba to discover family after being separated by politics and geography for 55 years.
The documentary, which is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, focuses on the love of a family that is stronger than generations of border restrictions. It’s a story about Arbesu discovering her land, her heritage, and reuniting with family.
“My father was the first ambassador of Cuba to Indonesia,” said Arbesu, who now resides in Hampton Bays where she has lived for 17 years. Her family left Cuba in 1962 to escape communism, seeking political asylum in Canada. “My dad and my mom realized the country wasn’t going in the direction that they had hoped.”
“He started finding out that most of the posts had gone to the communists and he wasn’t a communist — it’s not what he had fought for. My parents made the painful decision to leave the country with my three sisters,” Arbesu continued.
The former diplomat, his wife and three young daughters defected, heading to Montreal while leaving behind parents, siblings, and cousins. Arbesu was born six months later in Canada. Communication with family in Cuba was limited over the years.
“I just had my three sisters, my brother, and my parents,” she said. “I would hear about my family in Cuba and I always wanted to meet them. Because of my dad’s affiliation with the government it wasn’t the smartest idea for me to go to Cuba… I never even dared to go.”
When President Barack Obama opened up relations with Cuba in 2016, “I jumped at the opportunity,” she said. She knew that she wanted to visit once it was safe and legal to do so.
She planned the trip a month in advance and scheduled to meet her cousin Mimi, her paternal aunt’s oldest daughter.
“The second I landed it was just this incredible feeling of love,” she said of their meeting in the airport. “It was like we knew each other forever. We just loved each other instantly.”
She admitted having feelings of trepidation when she first set out on this journey, but was also simply excited to meet her family and discover the land her family was from. “I had no idea what I was going to walk into. I didn’t know how they would receive me.” She has since made the once-forbidden trip multiple times.
The film, shot in true cinéma-vérité style, portrays a genuine love of family. From Arbesu’s meeting in the airport to her travels to meet both sides of her family in Havana, where her father and sisters were born, and her mother’s birthplace of Camagüey.
“It’s like an explosion of feelings. And yes, it’s so profoundly sad because we lost so much time,” Arbesu said in the film.
Discovering Cuba was eye opening for Arbesu. “I had no idea that it was literally preserved back to the 1950s, that was quite surprising,” she said. “It was also very inspiring, because it made me believe that some things from the past can still retain their quality and be preserved. There is a respect in that country for old things. There is no disposable society. They can’t afford to be. Nothing gets thrown away, everything gets used.”
Since 1962 there has been a U.S. embargo on almost all exports. While restrictions have eased in recent years, visitors to Cuba have described it as going back in time, where many of the cars that drive the streets are from the 1950s, kept intact out of necessity.
A telling moment in the film is when family members huddle outside for a Wifi signal to contact family members in the United States. Technology is years behind, but, Arbesu says, while Internet and goods are hard to come by “there has been progress.”
The film itself has been screened in 19 film festivals including the Cuban American Film Festival, Philadelphia Latino Film Festival, Chicago Indie Film Awards, and Montreal Independent Film Festival. It has won many awards, such as Best Latino Short Film Award at Latino Film Market and third place documentary short at the United Latino Film Festival.
“I’ve always been interested in telling people’s stories,” said Arbesu. Recently she worked on producing videos for Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and the Ellen Hermanson Foundation’s virtual benefits as a way to give back to the community.
“Everyone has a story,” said Arbesu. “Every story is interesting. I’d like to inspire younger generations to share what you see and what you feel.”
